The University of Cambridge Judge Business School Master of Finance (MFin) degree programme was today ranked second out of five in the Financial Times (FT) ranking of post-experience master of finance courses (Financial Times, 23 June 2014)
The MFin programme ranked first for international mobility and experience at 16 per cent and second for value for money. The percentage of the graduating class in employment three months after the programme ended was 89 per cent, the absolute salary of MFin graduates was $119,882, and the average increase in salary since starting the programme was measured at 73 per cent.
This was the first year that the Cambridge MFin met the conditions for inclusion, which are a minimum class size of 30 students and a programme that is at least three years old. For a post-experience master of finance programme to be eligible for the rankings at least 20 per cent of alumni must respond to the FT survey, with a minimum of 20 responses.
The Financial Times rankings calculations are based on the responses of the Cambridge MFin class of 2010-11 and include data on:
- The absolute salary of the MFin graduates who responded
- The average increase in salary since starting the course
- Value for money
- Three measures of careers progress comprised of student subjective scores and Financial Times estimates
- The objective measure of the percentage of the class in employment three months after the course ended
- A range of measures at the level of the whole School including percentage of female faculty, make up of advisory board, faculty with doctorates, and international student ratio.
- International mobility and experience of the class
Simon Taylor, Director, MFin, explains that there’s more to the Master of Finance programme than the rankings can assess:
“We have always described the MFin as academically rigorous and commercially relevant. That means we emphasise: the strictest academic selection of post-experience programmes; good teaching; and a significant role for practitioners in teaching. None of these is measured in the rankings. The MFin team has done an excellent job in establishing the programme in the last five years and we are confident of continued progress.”
Christoph Loch, Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School, said of the results:
“I’m delighted that the Cambridge MFin programme has been recognised as a world-class post-experience master of finance course. It’s a testament to the strength of the Cambridge MFin programme and to the diligence of its faculty and staff that this result comes in the programme’s first year of eligibility for the Financial Times’ rankings. Congratulations to the MFin team for this significant success.”
The Cambridge Master of Finance programme was established at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School in 2008 to provide an academically rigorous and commercially relevant master’s level degree in finance combined with resources to support career development.
The year-long programme was designed in consultation with the banking and finance industry and provides world-class training for ambitious and successful finance professionals to strengthen their existing knowledge of finance.
The programme commences annually in September and consists of core courses, a range of electives, projects that integrate theory and practice, a choice of summer activities, and a weekly city speaker seminar series.