NUS offers masters in financial engineering

THE National University of Singapore (NUS) is offering a Master of Science in financial engineering from July this year in order to help meet Singapore's manpower needs in the finance industry.

The course, an interdisciplinary programme that combines the technical and conceptual advances from computer science and mathematics with finance, will be administered by the university's Centre for Financial Engineering (CFE).

The degree, which will take a student between 18 months and four years to obtain, will be awarded through the NUS Graduate School of Business.

CFE's director, Associate Professor Lim Kian Guan, said yesterday that public response to the programme has been overwhelming. More than 550 people attended a briefing the university gave last Sunday .

Prof Lim added that with rapid development in information technology (IT) and growth in the financial sector, skills in financial engineering could well become a job requirement for those who want to work in a bank in the next five to 10 years.

The NUS programme comes soon after the launch of a similar one to be offered at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), also from July.

Announcing its programme last month , NTU said it would be a tie-up with Carnegie Mellon University, a top American technology-oriented university.

Yesterday , NUS also signed memoranda of understanding with three finance industry-related companies to develop solutions and processes involving financial engineering techniques and knowledge.

They were: DBS Asset Management, a fund manager and a wholly-owned subsidiary of DBS Bank, Fish.Com Private Limited, a start-up company which is involved in the provision of IT services to the finance industry, and SC Edward Consulting, which is in the consultancy business for IT in financial systems.

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