# Quant Guide 2022: Imperial College London

## London, UK

Imperial College London’s MSc in Mathematics and Finance continues its march up the rankings in this year’s guide, breaking into the top five of all global quant finance-focused master’s programmes for the first time.

Course director Antoine Jacquier reports that the department has seen multiple new appointments in the past year, including Alexei Kondratyev, Cristopher Salvi, Leandro Sánchez-Betancourt, Camilo Hernández, Alexandre Pannier, Aitor Muguruza and Daniel Schwarz.

The number of applications the programme received has gone down from 800 last year, to 600 this year – probably a function of students delaying or deferring studies abroad amid the pandemic. But that appears to have helped Imperial bolster its acceptance rate, which now stands at a very narrow 15%.

Students making the grade have also been “performing extremely well in terms of placements” this year, says Jacquier. The MSc reports graduate employment rate of 98%, up from 90% last year.

When asked about the impact of remote learning on academic performance, he says that “general grades have not suffered much from remote learning”. Jacquier adds that the grading system has been adjusted to reflect the “different structure” of online exams.

The UK programme sees its position as the top-ranked European university usurped, however, by the Sorbonne, which edges Imperial into fifth position overall.

Popular aspects of the course, Jacquier says, have recently included elements involving data, machine learning and algorithmic trading. With the addition of a new core 20-hour ‘Python for finance’ course, as well as ‘Quantum computing in finance’ and ‘Data science for fintech, regtech and suptech’ electives, remote teaching is down to 30%, versus 50% last year. However, overall teaching hours have fallen from 450 last year to 400 this year, despite the introduction of new course options.

Last year, 46% of students were female and 54% male. This year, 35% of students were female and 65% male. There was also a slight increase in programme fees, from £32,000 ($43,420) last year to £35,000 ($47,490) this year.

View this institution’s entry in the 2021 guide

View other universities and a guide to the metrics tables

Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.

To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe

#### More on Quantitative finance

##### Is it worth doing a quant master’s degree?

UBS’s Gordon Lee – veteran quant and grad student supervisor – asks the hard question

##### Starting salaries jump for top quant grads

Quant Guide 2022: Goldman’s move to pay postgrads more is pushing up incomes, says programme director

##### Quant Finance Master’s Guide 2022

Risk.net’s guide to the world’s leading quant master’s programmes, with the top 25 schools ranked

##### Princeton, Baruch and Berkeley top for quant master’s degrees

Eight of 10 leading schools for quantitative finance programmes are based in US, latest rankings show

##### Quant grad conveyor belt stalls as banks retrench

Jobs market is long quant graduates, short vacancies – but hiring freeze shows signs of thawing

##### Quant Finance Master’s Guide 2021

Risk.net’s guide to the world’s leading quant master’s programmes, with the top 25 schools ranked

##### Quant Guide 2021: Princeton still top, but runners-up close gap

Baruch takes second spot; Zurich, top-ranked European programme, rises to fourth

##### Solving the enigma of the volatility smiles

Has the problem of jointly calibrating the volatility smiles of the Vix and S&P 500 been solved?