| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2024-09-01 | 2024-01-01 |
Program Overview
Who is it for?
You are fascinated by the financial world and that complements your love and talent for mathematics, especially modelling and probability. You love solving problems and setting up, then challenging, hypotheses.
The Finance with Actuarial Science undergraduate course will equip you with financial risk management and analysis skills that will boost your career prospects in investment management, risk management or actuarial science. Financial engineering or financial analysis careers will also be open to you.
Bayes Business School is ranked 3rd best in London, 6th in the UK, 23rd in Europe (Financial Times European Business School ranking 2021).
Objectives
Discover the different aspects of the financial world and in particular how assessing and managing risk is vital for success. To develop the skills you need to understand these ideas, you’ll take a mixture of financial, mathematical, statistical and actuarial modules. You will apply your new technical and analytical skills to solve a wide range of business problems.
In the first year your focus is on building a firm foundation in mathematics, statistics and economics as you begin to develop your understanding of financial risk.
In the second and third years you will broaden your understanding of the financial markets. This will include analysing the various types of financial instruments that are available, how they are valued and how they can be used to provide suitable solutions to financial problems involving risk and return.
You also have a number of electives to choose from like our Mentoring & Coaching for Leadership module.
Program Outline
Structure
What will I learn?
- Develop a good knowledge and understanding of finance, statistics, mathematics, actuarial science and related disciplines.
- Develop the ability to communicate your knowledge and understanding accurately and effectively.
- Develop your understanding of the respective roles of mathematical and statistical calculation, analysis and judgement in actuarial science and finance.
- Develop your ability to make reasoned judgements, frame appropriate questions and draw independent conclusions.
- Equip you with the skills required to work as a finance professional or an actuary or in alternative fields related to statistics and in business more generally.
- Prepare you to enter postgraduate study in finance, actuarial science or related disciplines.
- Develop you as a responsible and socially aware professional, who knows that many of the decisions that you make in your career will affect numerous stakeholders, all of whose views and situations must be taken into account
Year 1
In year 1 Students are required to take a total of 7 core modules.
Core modules:
Introduction to Actuarial Methods and Career Planning
This module raises awareness of your career options within and outside of the actuarial profession. To achieve this aim, the module examines the use of actuarial methods to solve financial problems and provides an introduction to the industries that actuaries work in.
Mathematics for Actuarial Science
This module will initially consolidate your mathematical knowledge to ensure all students have the same basic understanding no matter what their educational background. In the second term we will cover more advanced mathematical topics. The mathematics course is designed to give you the tools needed to solve the problems in the other modules.
Probability and Statistics 1
The probability and statistics module will assume that students will arrive with no knowledge of probability or statistics. The module will start with basic concepts such as summary statistics and basic probability and will develop these concepts to more advanced topics such as confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, regression and probability distributions. This module forms part of the CS1 course of the IFoA.
Finance and Investment Mathematics
This module will focus on the concept of valuing future monetary payments in terms of present values to allow a comparison of different income streams which is critical in any financial decision making. In this module we will consider all payments to be guaranteed. We will also look at linking amounts to various inflation indices. This module covers part of the CM1 course of the IFoA.
Introduction to Economics
To be able to understand the possible changes in the financial world, students need to study economics. This module assumes no prior knowledge and will cover both micro and macro economics over the year. This module covers the CB2 course of the IFoA.
Introduction to Excel and Statistical Packages
This module introduces you to the statistical package Minitab and Excel workbooks, There will also be additional information on the statistical package R but this will not be examined. The lectures and practical sessions are scheduled in such a way that you are able to use the IT tools presented in this module to solve problems generated by concepts introduced in other modules on the programme.
Introduction to VBA for Excel
This module aims to Provide you with an introduction to programming in VBA for Excel, to the level where you can write macros and user-defined functions to assist in carrying out analytical tasks. It will also explain the reasons for technical standards of documentation and give instruction in how to apply them in practice.
Year 2
In year 2 Students are required to take 5 core modules and choose 3 elective modules.
Core modules:
Calculus and Linear Algebra (Mathematics 2)
This module will cover more advanced techniques in calculus and linear algebra that will be used in your other modules on the degree.
Fundamentals of Finance
This module will introduce you to the various financial instruments and markets that exist allowing you to be able to develop solutions to financial risk questions. This module covers the first part of the CB1 course of the IFoA (the second part is covered in financial reporting).
Stochastic Modelling
This module will allow you to study the modelling of uncertainty of certain probabilistic events. The techniques you learn here can be applied to a number of different situations and will be developed further in more advanced modules. This module covers part of the CS2 course of the IFoA.
Derivatives, Trading and Hedging
Your foundation module in the study of options, futures and other derivative securities. Learn how to select the appropriate derivative security for different risk management applications, and determine the payoffs to risk management strategies and arbitrage mispricings.
Financial Markets
This module applies mathematics to the pricing of assets in the financial markets. Its aim is to examine what we know about the determination of the prices of bonds and equities.
Elective Modules
Contingencies
Alternative Investment Management
Corporate Risk Management
Decision Analysis
Financial Economics
Risk Analysis and Modelling
Financial Reporting
Financial Econometrics
Asset Management
Corporate Finance & Valuation
Probability & Statistics 2
Year 3
In your third year of study students will take a total of 3 Core Modules and 4 Elective Modules.
Core modules:
Fixed Income Portfolio Management
Develop your understanding of fixed income securities and their use in portfolio management. Build the conceptual foundations, so that as an asset manager, treasurer, investment banker, financial analyst or trader, you can make intelligent assessments of the application of fixed income instruments.
Financial Engineering
This module provides the key tools and techniques for creating synthetic assets as well as methods for identifying fair market value. You will also analyse in-depth fixed income structuring, equity options and structured volatility dependent products.
Asset-Liability Management
This module is designed to expand on the prior knowledge of risk, investment and financial management and enable you to grasp the dynamic environment where banks and other institutions operate. The course brings the management of both sides of the balance sheet of financial institutions together in a unified framework.
Elective Modules
Final Year Finance Project
Operational Research
General Insurance
Asset-Liability Management
Statistical Reasoning, Communication & Ethics
Advanced Econometrics & Forecasting
Emerging Markets
Financial Services Regulation
International Financial Management
Statistical Modelling
Game Theory
Advanced Management Practice
