Interview with Prof. Shu Tao | The advantages of MSc in Finance Programme

Combination of Academia and Industry Experts

It seems to be a great advantage to have all overseas-educated faculty and instructions in English, but it is not fresh new in CUHK-Shenzhen. Prof. Shu Tao, who taught for 12 years in the University of Georgia in the U.S., expressed that combining internationalization and localization contents is the most outstanding feature of the programme, “the integration of theory and practice is achieved through this way”.

Prof. Shu further explained that introducing practitioners from the industry can help the students in various ways. First, it can help students understand the Chinese financial market. Second, “practitioners all have rich industry experience, and each of them will supervise four to five students on projects, which will help students acquire knowledge and skills.” In addition, it can also facilitate career development. Through the projects, students established relationships with industry experts. After graduation, some students received job opportunities in the practitioners’ companies, or got other great job opportunities through the practitioners’ recommendations.

Prof. Shu Tao revealed that, recently heis approaching the director of division of quantitative research in one of the largest investment banks globally, and plans to invite the director for quantitative finance sharing. “We host FINest salons regularly, and invite industry experts to share practical skills in the market.”

Flexible and Innovative Curriculum

Compared with traditional Master’s programmes, the Finance programme that Prof. Shu chairs hopes to maintain the stability of curriculum while facilitating flexibility and adjusting according to new market development and students’ feedbacks.

“We adjust the curriculum based on students’ needs. Finance is changing rapidly, and the Chinese financial market is developing very rapidly in particular. As financial innovation is a popular concept recently, the market need for talents in this field will be large. Therefore, we will offer corresponding courses according to the development of the financial services industry and the financial markets, as well as taking students’ needs into considerations. However, the adjustments are moderate; we change one step at a time.” Prof. Shu expresses that, every course is offered after serious considerations and adjusts constantly. Students indeed benefit a lot from the programme.

"The programme is having a greater impact in the society, this is reflected by our admissions and employment. From the 2019 enrollment data, the acceptance rate is 13:1 while the number of applicants for 2020 fall entry has risen by 60% compared with the previous year. This year, the competition gets more fierce. Although the number of applicants increases significantly, we maintain the program scale. This suggests that we aim to establish the program as a world-class elite program."