The ICMA Centre at the University of Reading has launched a full-time Masters degree in financial risk management. The course will make use of both the Professional Risk Manager (PRMTM) certification syllabus and the Professional Risk Manager (PRM) Handbook in its curriculum.
The PRMTM qualification is a professional qualification, with active candidates in more than 85 countries. The new Master of Science degree in Financial Risk Management had its first intake in October 2006.
The Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), who certify the holders of the PRMTM credential, have built strong links with a group of well-known business schools, including the ICMA Centre, through the PRMIA Institute, where best practice curricula for graduate programmes in risk management are being developed. Carol Alexander, the ICMA Centre’s research director is also chairman of the Academic Advisory Council (AAC) of the PRMIA Institute.
The AAC consists of academics from the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School, Groupe HEC Business School in Paris, National University of Singapore Centre for Financial Engineering, University of Toronto Risk Lab, Technical University of Munich HVB-Institute for Mathematical Finance, Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre and the University of Michigan College of Engineering, as well as ICMA.
“The MSc in Financial Risk Management is bound to appeal to current and future PRMIA members,” says Carol Alexander. “Membership is rapidly expanding so in future the ICMA Centre plans to offer both distance learning and flexible learning versions of the degree. Students now recognize the benefit of adding professional qualifications to their academic degrees and we have two other new Masters degrees with this facility: the MSc in Investment Management (linked to the CFA) and the MSc in Compliance and Regulation, linked to our NASD qualification.”
David R Koenig, Executive Director and Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) says his body values the contribution the ICMA Centre has made to raising the standards of the risk management practice through its degree programmes. “We believe that our academic partners contribute substantially to the betterment of risk management practices worldwide through such initiatives,” he says.
Professor John Board, Director of the ICMA Centre, says the success of the organization is based on its ability to integrate “applied finance theory and industry specific knowledge. PRMIA, with its forward looking approach to best practice in risk management, offers an ideal partner to complement and enhance the new masters programme.”
Established in 1991 with funding provided by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) in Zurich, the ICMA Centre is housed in a purpose-built modernist building with state-of-the-art facilities including two dealing rooms using software similar to those found in major investment banks. The success of the centre has encouraged ICMA to invest a further £5million in expanding the building to include an additional 50 seat dealing room, a 150 seat lecture theatre as well as new seminar rooms and a dedicated research area. The new building is expected to be open for students at the start of the 2008 academic session.