Fresh off ranking 11th in the QS World University Rankings: Finance Masters Rankings 2018, Imperial College Business School has achieved a 50:50 split of men and women enrolled in its finance master’s program for the first time ever.
This landmark achievement follows an active drive by the business school to encourage greater diversity across its programs. Now, in the year the finance master’s degree celebrates its 20th anniversary, 46 women from 19 different countries are in the 2016/17 academic class.
As well as this attracting a diverse, gender-equal cohort of students, Imperial College Business School has also received an Athena SWAN bronze award for tackling gender inequality.
Dr Lara Cathcart, the school’s Associate Professor of Finance and Academic Director of Masters in Finance program, said: “This is a very encouraging sign that things are changing and that the finance industry is becoming more attractive to women. The emergence of new careers in areas such as fintech has probably contributed to this shift in attitude, as more women recognize the diverse number of careers that can be entered into with this degree.”
Imperial’s efforts to improve diversity are already being noticed on a wider level. Last month, Imperial’s finance program was ranked 11th in the world (third in the UK only). One of the five indicators used in this ranking (viewable here) is diversity. For this indicator alone, Imperial’s program is considered the second-best in the world, bettered only by Edinburgh’s MSc in Finance and Investment.
A recent female graduate of the finance program, Benedicte Aune, said: “I chose to enroll in the MSc Finance at Imperial because it is highly respected by financial services employers and is in the heart of London, providing access to the world’s top banks. Since graduating, I have secured job offers from two investment banks including Morgan Stanley where I currently work as an off-cycle analyst. The degree played a big part in my career success and it was absolutely worth it.”
Learn more about Imperial’s finance program by viewing their school profile page here.
