Master in Finance and Fintech

Disrupting the Financial World

The Master in Finance and Fintech aims to enable young professionals to deal with the digital transformation that is disruptively changing the financial market, by combining traditional financial skills with a deep understanding of new digital technologies.

The new emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics are deeply modifying the landscape of the financial market, creating immense opportunities for incumbent players but also serious threats from innovative start-ups. The use of new technologies for financial applications has become vital for banking and insurance companies, which must acquire a thorough understanding of these tools to continue competing in the changing world. Peer-to-peer lending, mobile payments, and Insurtech are not futurist trends, but factual reality.

To seize the opportunities and face the challenges offered by the digital era, the Master in Finance and Fintech trains young professionals to act as a link between the management and the computer scientists, taking part in the development of new digital financial businesses. Thanks to Bologna Business School’s numerous collaborations with leading players in the digital sector, these new generations of managers, equally grounded on financial competencies and on new technologies, will be able to anticipate, intercept, and exploit the new trends in the financial industry.

The explosion of digital technologies in the financial markets has generated an enormous need for figures at ease both with traditional financial competencies, as well as in translating them in new digital solutions and applications. Students are offered an innovative cross-sector didactical approach, capable of granting them a strong competitive advantage while responding to a new need of the market.

The Master in Finance and Fintech is designed for graduate students with excellent knowledge of English, interested in the financial technology sector (“fintech”), as they will learn along with the traditional finance skills, new competencies in new technologies such as AI, big data analytics, blockchain, with the prospect of professional growth in managerial functions connecting technical specialists and finance departments. The program, which is entirely in English, includes two classroom-based terms and concludes with a final internship of 500 hours.

Traditional financial institutions and Fintech startups need new professionals in order to translate the digital transformation in competitive advantage: get in touch with the course program manager to become a key actor of this transformation.

Structure

The Master in Finance and Fintechis a 12-month full-time program including an internship or project work (total length: 1500 working hours).

The academic part is divided into two terms. You will cover 1000 hours of study: 400 hours of classroom activities and 600 hours of individual/group work. The Master offers a series of pre-courses at the start of the academic schedule: DBMS Systems and SQL language, Exploratory data analysis, Principles of programming (Python language)

• First term: November 2019 – March 2020
  • Kick-Off & Ice-Breaking activities
• Second term: March 2020 – June 2020
• Internship: June 2020 – November 2020
  • Practical Experience
  • Final Project

The two terms are followed by an internship period of 500 working hours. This internship can be carried out at various companies and agencies in Italy or abroad. You are expected to make the most of these opportunities by learning from the professionals you will be working with.

At the end of the internship, you will be required to hand in a ‘Final Report’, which you will present to the Director of Studies showcasing your activities and analyzing the theories and lessons learned during the academic part.

Students who are interested can also choose to take an extracurricular course of Italian.

Courses

• Banking And Regulation
• Behavioral Finance
• Big Data
• Blockchain Finance
• Business Ethics And Sustainability
• Business Intelligence & Data Warehouse
• Corporate Finance
• Data Mining
• Digital Culture
• Digital Economics
• Entrepreneurial Finance
• Financial Markets And Instruments
• Fundamentals Of Artificial Intelligence
• Fundamentals Of Cyber Security
• Machine Learning For Classification
• Text Mining
• Trends In The Fintech Industry

Learning Method

The main aim of our teaching staff is to first lay down a solid grounding of theory and then to build on this foundation by introducing more practical aspects. This method will result in you confidently entering the work environment of this industry, ready to deal with any scenario you will face.

The teaching staff will help you grasp these concepts and techniques through the use of lectures and seminars; group projects and company visits; guest speakers and case studies; videos and presentations; as well as individual assignments and assisted private studying.

The courses are structured to give the maximum freedom to learn to the students and allow the professors to teach and assess the students in the best way possible. Assessments can take the form of individual/group presentations, projects, oral and written exams as well as, of course, class participation.

Career Development

The integration with companies is a priority and an ever-present feature of all programs of the Bologna Business School, hence for the Master in Finance and Fintech too.

The School is fully committed to creating employability, by way of a systematic career service action, constantly focused on matching at best the students’ professional projects with the needs companies have.

The internship is an exceptional springboard, suffice it to say that six months after the end of the full-time masters at Bologna Business School on average 90% of students work in a company.

The BBS Career Service assists and supports students since the very beginning, along with a training and professional development path. This is accomplished by organizing a series of workshops, with the aim of providing the fundamental tools and resources to be appropriately prepared for the labor market.

To achieve this goal, students are involved in several workshops, among which we may list:

• Writing a CV and a Cover Letter
• How to create an effective Linkedin profile
• How to prepare for a job interview

In addition to this, thanks to the collaboration with professional career counselors, students receive customized service, in order to understand their strengths and to build a professional development plan, which will turn out to be helpful when looking for an internship. Here follow some of the activities:

• Initial guidance interviews
• Specific interviews focused on one’s own career plan
• Continuous support to students with one – to – one session

Companies

The goal of the Career Service is also to allow students to connect with national and international companies. Over the years, Bologna Business School has managed to establish a wide-ranging network and a sound partnership with leading companies in Italy, thanks to a personalized approach, based on each company’s needs. The collaboration features the following activities:

• Sending the CV book.
• Sharing internship and work opportunities.
• Presentations at the School premises.
• Career Day.
• Implementation of project works.
• Classroom activities with case studies presented by managers and/or HR professionals. Our partners are the foremost supporters of our students, with the provision of scholarships, internships and professional opportunities.

Fees

The tuition fees for the Master is 14,800 euro (VAT free) to be paid in three installments:

• First installment: 1,850 euros
• Second installment: 7,000 euros
• Third installment: 5,950 euros

The fee includes participation in the Master, all the study material available through the online platform, and access to the services and facilities of Bologna Business School such as: personal account for the Alma wi-fi, use of the PCs in the Computer Lab, access to the study areas, access to the internal gym, special rates for the School restaurant. Furthermore, the fee gives participants the right to take advantage of the supporting activities of the School, such as the language courses and the master lectures by invitation. Free parking is also available within BBS Campus.

Additionally, with the Student Card of the University of Bologna, students have access to all of the university facilities, including over 100 libraries, digital resources and study halls (including databases and online subscriptions); the three city center canteens and all university student related discount offers.

Scholarships

At Bologna Business School we understand the importance of financial aid in supporting our students to achieve their educational goals. We are aware that an advanced, high-quality training path can be a significant commitment, at the same time we also truly believe that investing in one’s future always pays back.

Bologna Business School is pleased to offer partial scholarships to the most meriting students. All of these scholarships are merit-based and will be awarded to the top-ranked candidates in the selection process. The students who come out on top in the selections will be students who not only come from strong academic or practical backgrounds but also those who display the strongest motivation to take part in this program.

There are scholarships of 4.000 euros and scholarships of 6.000 euros. All applicants will be considered for a scholarship – no specific application is required. They are awarded over the course of every round of selection and if you have performed well enough to merit one of them, you will be informed at the moment of admission.

The scholarships act as tuition waivers, so that they result in a deduction of the total amount of the tuition fees due.

Calendar

Application deadline:

• March 2019 (Round I)
• July 2019 (Round II)
• September 2019 (Round III)

Selection:

• March 2019 (Round I)
• July 2019 (Round II)
• September 2019 (Round III)

Enrollment deadline:

• June 2019 (Round I)
• September 2019 (Round II)
• October 2019 (Round III)

Start date:

• November 2019