1. Education

UCL attracts excellent students from all over the world and many of the graduates naturally seek well-paid and challenging careers in London's financial services industry. Traditionally banks have recruited economists for trading positions and computer scientists for technology roles. This is now changing with banks increasingly seeking to "broaden the talent pool" by recruiting very high calibre applicants with:

a) cutting-edge quantitative and computational finance skills;

b) languages and cultural awareness skills; and

c) specialist expertise in risk modelling, regulatory compliance and actuarial skills.

This encompasses recruiting BA Arts & Humanities students as IT project managers, BA Laws students for compliance and PhDs from Physics, Chemistry and Computational Biology for specialist QUANT positions.

However, these non-economics students face a formidable employment hurdle, since they lack even a basic knowledge of finance, such as the structure of the financial services industry, job functions, financial instruments, markets and economics' fundamentals. To address this problem we provide courses taught by our partner banks.

Undergraduates

At the undergraduate level, UCL CS introduced a 30-lecture foundation course called Financial Computing taught largely by staff from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Reuters and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). This course offered for the last seven year is taught at 8.00am, and attracts 90 students not only from UCL but also from LSE, Queen Mary and Kings College; all part of London University. A number of national newspapers (including the Financial Times) were so surprised that students would turn up for 8.00am lectures that they sent along reporters and photographers.

Examples of other initiatives to encourage more undergraduates from the Arts, Humanities and Laws to consider careers in Financial Services is the Credit Suisse-Reuters-UCL special 'fast-track internship' event(s) for first year students. This event attracted 250 applicants, from whom 30 UCL first-year students were selected for a special programme.

Masters Students

At the Masters level, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, together with Reuters sponsor a new conversion Masters programme in Financial Computing designed to 'broaden the talent pool' by attracting more women and Arts & Humanities students into financial technology. (This group donated the virtual trading floor and host the students' Masters Projects.) In another collaboration project, Citigroup host the Group project for the advanced Masters in Software Systems Engineering, and typically hire the 2-3 best students on the programme.

PhDs

Given the increasing importance of high-level cutting-edge quantitative and computational finance skills, investment banks and funds are hiring increasing numbers of science and engineering PhD students . Banks view PhD students, from disciplines such as Physics, Computational Biology and even Neuroscience in as an increasingly important and largely untapped talent pool; although one regrettably with little knowledge of finance. For this reason, UCL has launched its Banking Science initiative which was established at the request of a group of investment banks, to broker likes between the banks and PhD students across London universities.

2. Research

Given our close links with major financial institutions, UCL Computer Science also undertakes financial IT and Computational Finance research with leading banks and funds. This research goes back eighteen years, when UCL's research on artificial intelligence underpinned much of the early work on automated fraud detection in the financial services industry, such as the pioneering London Stock Exchange Insider Dealing Detection System. Today we undertake financial IT research and computational finance in areas such as algorithmic trading, portfolio optimisation and risk management.

3. UCL's Banking Science Initiative

As mentioned above, UCL's Banking Science initiative was established at the request of a group of investment banks, to broker likes between PhD students and the banks. This initiative spans project hosts and sponsorship for PhD and undergraduate students, Post Docs for specialist IT and QUANT positions, and consultancy for academic staff. In addition, a small number of staff from investment banks has been recruited as part-time PhDs. This is an excellent way to add value to the work of the staff member, and also to provide a link between the bank and university. In addition, Banking Science has links with international financial centres, notably Dubai (DIFC), Qatar (QFC) and Singapore offering the opportunity for students to spend a period abroad, and also help for banks interested in recruiting for overseas centres.

4. The main benefits of collaboration

This increasingly close relationship benefits UCL, the banks and most importantly the students:

a) Lecturers from financial institutions enrich UCL's courses, bringing both expertise and commercial experience.

b) UCL puts on special events for the students, in conjunction with individual banks.

c) Students meet senior staff from the banks, and obtain detailed knowledge of the financial services industry, the different types of financial instruments and job functions.

d) The banks can get the pick of UCL's 'talent pool'.

e) Students have an increased advantage in getting Internships.

f) UCL is able to use the links to establish research collaborations with the banks.

g) UCL can also help the banks and investment funds to identify and recruit individual PhD students with specialist skills for quantitative finance positions.

5. What the students have to say:

"Credit Suisse ran a very successful event in partnership with Banking Science in 2008. With Banking Science's help we attracted a large volume of high caliber first year students, from a wide range of degree disciplines, to participate in a unique one day Credit Suisse Insight. As a result of this event we were delighted that a number of students went on to successfully apply to our First Year Easter Programme."

EMEA Head of Firmwide Campus Recruitment, Credit Suisse

'Banking Science enabled me to utilize my analytical and quantitative skills by providing me with interesting contracting and scholarship opportunities within Investment Banking sector. I am highly recommending their services as they have been extremely helpful and efficient.'

Vera Cady, PhD student

"They managed to get me an interview at a Bermudan hedge fund" Christopher Senanayake PhD

"Whilst books can give an insight into investment banking and similar careers, nothing can compare to speaking directly to current employees, learning about their roles, or being introduced to the equipment they use each day. The Insight day organized by Banking Science allowed me to find out more about a potential career path, not by simply telling me about it, but by challenging me to see if I was up to the standard as well. This was done through presentations that we gave in predicting the market movements of certain companies in given scenarios, in using the I.T. software used on the front line of international banking, and the questions I was asked by current Credit Suisse employees at the networking event. It was fascinating and extremely useful. It showed me that you do not need to be studying business or economics to follow a career such as this. I was offered an internship interview with Credit Suisse after attendance at this day."

Mark Pickering, Undergraduate student

"If the current international financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that banking is a science and not merely a speculation game. Had the many actors involved in the sub-prime market, investment banking and hedge funds thoroughly analyzed available statistics instead of merely following the speculation frenzy, we would perhaps not find ourselves in this predicament. Globalization carries with it responsibilities that should especially be extended to the banking sector. A career in banking for me will mean an attempt on my part to seriously analyze all prospects on the table without recourse to unnecessary gambling in order to derive the maximum output without concomitant social costs."

Vanessa Bonsignore Undergraduate student