The BSc(QFin) programme equips you with the quant skills that are required in more advanced and sophisticated financial analyses, such as valuation models of structured products, risk management, data analysis, financial engineering, and quantitative trading.
The programme goes beyond merely equipping students with quant skills. More importantly, it stresses on combining these skills with an understanding of the financial markets, the macro environment, and the practical situations where financial managers work. To this end, the curriculum offers a balanced mix of quant and business courses.
What You’ll Study
In the first two years students take basic finance courses such as accounting, corporate finance, macroeconomics, derivatives, and portfolio management. At the same time, they are introduced to a strong foundation in probability, statistics, calculus, linear algebra, and computer programming.
Students will apply the aforementioned quant skills in specialised QFin courses the third and fourth years of study, such as risk management, financial engineering, spreadsheet financial modelling, and mathematical finance. They can also choose from a wide selection of major elective courses such as time series analysis, big data and quant trading.
Experiential Learning
To nurture students’ professional knowledge and market acumen, the programme provides a wide range of value-enhancing activities, such as Round Tables with Practitioners, Alumni Drinks, Executive Mentorship Scheme, Bloomberg workshops, simulation trading workshops, and an international field trip to other international financial centres such as New York, London and Zurich.
Professional Recognition
1. The BSc(QFin) programme is fully accredited by the Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA). PRMIA offers the Professional Risk Manager (PRM) designation which is regarded as one of the definitive designations in the risk management industry. Graduates from the BSc(QFin) are exempted from the PRM Paper 1.
2. The BSc(QFin) programme is a designated University Affiliation Programme (UAP) of the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Institute which manages the highly respected CFA designation. As a UAP, the BSc(QFin) programme embeds a significant portion of the CFA Candidate Body of Knowledge into its curriculum, which provides students with a solid grounding in practical, relevant, and up-to-date investment education. A CFA scholarship is available to BSc(QFin) students to take the CFA Level I Examination.
Career Prospects
Because of their quant skills, BSc(QFin) graduates have more career choices than regular finance or business graduates. Besides standard roles they could pursue, such as investment bankers, equity researchers, and wealth managers, BSc(QFin) graduates have an edge in jobs that require quantitative and numerical competency, such as quant traders, data analysts, financial engineers, and risk managers.
BSc(QFin) graduates have successfully landed jobs with reputable financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, UBS, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, J P Morgan, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Securities and Futures Commission, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
The degree also opens doors to postgraduate studies in finance and economics.
Expected August 2024
More details
Start date
Expected January, September 2024
The University of Hong Kong
MG 14, Ground Floor, Main Building,
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam,
Southern, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island
Competitive Admission Standards:
You must achieve at least one of the following English Language Requirements to be considered for admission to HKU.
International Baccalaureate Diploma
GCSE / GCEO
Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English / Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English
SAT Reasoning Test: Sub-scores of 550 in both Critical Reading and Writing in the same attempt of the SAT Reasoning Test (prior to March 2016); or Test scores of 31 in Writing and Language and 30 in Reading in the same attempt of the Redesigned SAT Reasoning Test;
IELTS: An overall band of 6.5 in IELTS Academic Module;
TOEFL: A score of 93 in the TOEFL internet-based test, or 583 in the paper-based test.
*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.