Course details

Summary

Financial engineering is a cross-disciplinary field combining financial and economic theory with the mathematical and computational tools needed to design and develop financial products, portfolios, markets, and regulations. Financial engineers manage financial risk, identify market opportunities, design and value financial or actuarial products, and optimize investment strategies.

For students with a good background in mathematics and statistics, this new Master of Financial Engineering (MFEng) will equip you with industry-level skills and knowledge, and provide opportunities to apply those skills. By directly linking real-world problems in financial engineering to an underlying theoretical framework, graduates will be capable of high-level performance in the financial industry.

The MFEng is part of a suite of qualifications for students who want to gain a breadth and depth of technical skills and knowledge across the key disciplines of finance and economics, mathematics and statistics, and computer science and software engineering.

Qualification structure and duration

Students are required to complete 180 points, made up of coursework and an applied research project. The programme is taught over two semesters plus a project. It can take between 12 and 24 months to complete.

Subjects and courses

Compulsory courses

STAT 456 Time Series and Stochastic Processes

MATH 412 Optimisation

FINC 612 Derivative Securities

FINC 623 Advanced Derivative Securities

COSC 480 Computer Programming

Further courses

30 points from MATH and STAT 400-level courses

15 points from FINC 624, FINC 628, FINC 629 or other FINC 600-level courses as approved by the Head of the Department of Economics and Finance

15 points from MATH/STAT or FINC 400 or 600-level courses.

Research project

FENG 601 Applications of Financial Engineering

Career opportunities

UC Master of Financial Engineering graduates will be ready for the international workplace in the finance industry and related fields. They will also be well prepared for further study in Financial Engineering in order to attain positions at higher technical levels.

Employers range from private industries, such as banking, investment, capital industries, security, data analysis, risk management and insurance, to the public sector (eg, Reserve Bank, The Treasury or regulatory bodies).

Entry criteria

Normally the minimum requirement is a three-year bachelor’s degree from a New Zealand university, or a qualification or combination of qualifications considered to be equivalent. If you gained your qualifications overseas, these will need to be assessed to make sure they are of an equivalent standard.

Every candidate for the degree of Master of Financial Engineering, before enrolling in the course of study for this degree, should have:

• qualified for a university degree with a B+ average in 300-level courses; and
• completed specified 200-level MATH and STAT courses, or equivalent courses; and
• been approved as a candidate for the degree by the Academic Dean of Science.

Other English language requirements: TOEFL PBT with a minimum score of 575 and TWE with a minimum score of 4.5; CCEL EAP Level 2 with a minimum B+ grade; CAE or CPE score of 176 with a minimum of 169 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE with an overall score of 64 and no PTE communicative skills score below 58.