Financial Mathematics with a Professional Placement Year BSc (Hons)

Cardiff University

Begin an exciting journey towards your future career with a degree in BSc Financial Mathematics. You’ll gain the core mathematical skills towards a career in finance, banking and insurance.

By studying this degree, you’ll receive a solid foundation in general mathematical theory and techniques, but also have the opportunity to take on a professional placement year!

You will develop an understanding of modern financial markets, institutions, investments and policies, with a focus on issues and topics relevant to the computational and market design side of contemporary finance, including:

• Complex systems
• Trading (in particular high-frequency trading)
• Fund management
• Analytics

The program is also flexible. After your first year, in most cases, you will have the option to switch courses, so you can keep your options open when you apply.

Your placement, as part of this degree, will take place during your third year as paid work as a mathematician and/or statistician at an organisation in the United Kingdom or Europe. It’s a great opportunity to gain valuable work experience and develop your professional skills.

You will be supported throughout the application process to secure your placement and they can be undertaken with a wide range of providers across industry and government including many in the professional and financial services, the pharmaceutical industry and organisations such as the Office for National Statistics.

If you complete the professional training period you can be considered for the City and Guilds Senior Licentiateship Award (LCGI).

Another highlight is that you will be taught in Abacws, the new home for the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University. This world-leading facility has been designed in collaboration with students and academic staff to create interdisciplinary, flexible and creative workspaces, with innovative teaching areas being a key feature, including a simulated Trading Room for financial mathematics.

This programme will meet the educational requirements of the Chartered Mathematician designation, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, when it is followed by subsequent training and experience in employment to obtain equivalent competences to those specified by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for taught masters degrees.