Choose the B.Sc. in FME for the following reasons:

• Excellent employment opportunities: The demand from financial institutions for well-qualified students with knowledge of how markets operate and how to use quantitative techniques to make informed investment decisions is substantial. Financial decision-making has been transformed by recent changes in the application of mathematics to finance and investment and complex, computer-driven mathematical analysis is used to predict financial returns and to measure risk. Financial institutions seek out graduates with the quantitative and analytical skills now required for financial decision-making.
   
• Broad, multidisciplinary programme: With contributions from four different departments at NUI Galway, the multidisciplinary nature of this programme is explicitly designed to be broader than the specialised actuarial programmes being offered by a number of other Irish universities. Graduates who are highly numerate, have a qualification in Economics and have strong analytical and problem-solving skills have an ideal background to make a significant contribution to any organisation. Take a look at where graduates from the programme have found employment in recent years - the diverse nature of these positions confirms that this multidisciplinary programme opens doors for graduates in many different sectors.
   
• Keep your options open: If you have a strong aptitude for and like mathematics but do not want to specialise straightaway, for example, by pursuing a career in Actuarial Services, choosing the B.Sc. in FME keeps your career options open. After graduating, you can still pursue a career as an actuary but will also be well qualified to work in the financial services or public sectors. For example, you may work as a stockbroker, predicting the movements of stock prices, in investment banking or asset management. Or you may be involved in the national budget working in the Department of Finance. A number of postgraduate options will also be open to you.
   
• A first-class academic environment in a vibrant university city: This programme attracts students of the highest calibre. The small class size on this course, with 20-25 students each year, and the different perspectives that academics from the Mathematics and Economics departments bring to the programme, ensure that the B.Sc. in FME is an excellent educational experience.
   
  The research work of these academics, who have national and international reputations, influences their teaching, keeping pace with the rapidly-changing theories and practices in financial and economic decision-making. In addition, NUI Galway is well-served with new computer suites that are used for practical learning, providing hands-on experience for students using two leading financial databases, Thomson Datastream and Reuters Ecowin, with access to real-world data on stock and bond markets, GDP and inflation.

"The broad, multidisciplinary subject mix on the B.Sc. in Financial Mathematics and Economics is one of the great strengths of this programme. It gave me the ideal knowledge-base required for my current work as a sports odds compiler."

Paul Reynolds, Sports Odds Compiler, Paddy Power PLC
B.Sc. in Financial Mathematics and Economics, 2004

The employment prospects for B.Sc. in FME graduates are excellent, with challenging and financially rewarding opportunities in a many different areas, including:

• Financial services – opportunities for graduates exist right across the financial services sector - in investment, corporate and private banking, in currency trading, in credit risk and in management of hedge funds. Almost half of our recent graduates either secured employment directly in financial services organisations or first undertook postgraduate studies in Finance.
  
  Currently employing 60,000, the financial services sector is one of the great success stories of the Irish economy, with 20,000 people employed by 430 companies in the International Financial Services Centre, Dublin (IFSC) alone. The strength of this sector ensures that the ongoing demand for graduates with strong quantitative and analytical skills is high.
   
• Actuarial profession – graduates can embark on a career as an actuary, working primarily in pensions, life insurance and investments. Graduates are exempt from some actuarial examinations. Approximately one quarter of our graduates in recent years went on to complete postgraduate Actuarial studies and some graduates went directly to positions as trainee actuaries. There are currently more actuarial opportunities in Ireland than there are graduates each year.
   
  Read more about life as an actuary and details on how to qualify as an actuary, including exemptions for graduates of this programme.
   
• Public sector – opportunities for our graduates exist in government departments and other public sector bodies, where they play key roles affecting the national economy. In recent years, graduates have been hired by the Department of Finance, the Central Bank of Ireland and Bank of England, and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
   
• Others – graduates also secure employment in many different areas, for example, as economists, in accountancy, tax and law, in academia and as a sports odds compiler.

Our graduates have moved on to working in leading organisations worldwide: an investment banker at JP Morgan, New York; an economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers; a portfolio analyst at AIB Corporate Banking; an economist at Central Bank of Ireland; a private banking analyst at Credit Suisse, London; an economist at Department of Finance, a currency dealer at Scotiabank, Dublin and at BNP Paribas, London and a risk manager at Delta Index, Dublin. You can see that many doors are open to you with a B.Sc. in FME from NUI Galway! Take a detailed look at where our graduates over recent years have found employment.

When I graduated with a B.Sc. in FME, I started working as an economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers. My job has been very interesting and varied, for example, I was recently a co-author of report on the Irish Housing Sector. I hope to go on and complete a Masters in Finance on a part-time basis soon.

Deirdre Ryan, Goodbody Stockbrokers
B.Sc. in Financial Mathematics and Economics, 2006

"I liked Maths and business subjects in school so I thought about pursuing a career in Actuary. However, as I didn’t want to specialise in one area straight away, I chose to study Financial Maths and Economics at NUI, Galway. I really enjoyed the course as the lecturers were friendly and approachable and the small class size led to good camaraderie. After graduating, I decided on a career in the financial sector specialising in investment banking, equity research or asset management. I later completed an MBS in Financial Services at UCD."

Daire Wheeler, J P Morgan, New York
B.Sc. in Financial Mathematics and Economics, 2003

The B.Sc. in FME is an inter-college programme from the Science and Arts Colleges, hence the degree awarded is a B.Sc. Therefore, although it is not essential to have a Science subject in your leaving certificate, having a science subject in LC would certainly help with the problem-solving and scientific thinking involved.

The general entry requirements for NUI Galway also apply - check out the relevant section of the undergraduate prospectus. You will need to be generally smart, a good all-rounder and have the requisite points for entry to this programme, which varies from year to year.

Apply for the B.Sc. in Financial Mathematics and Economics through the CAO system, using the code GY309 - check out the Admissions section of the NUI Galway web site and the CAO web site for more information, where you will also find full details on entry requirements

The mathematical elements of the programme introduce you to the formal thinking of mathematics and equip you with the tools for understanding and applying the basic models of finance and insurance. In the first year you will study calculus and linear algebra – these introduce a range of mathematical skills and allow the solution of optimisation problems that are at the heart of much of economics and finance. Equally important are ideas of variability and unpredictability – you will meet these in probability and statistics, acquiring a basic language to describe uncertainty and learning how to use data to make decisions.

In later years you will build on this knowledge and see how the whole insurance and finance industry depends on mathematical and statistical ideas, often requiring the careful application of advanced mathematical methods, for example financial derivatives and actuarial risk models. Here you will go on to meet ideas from measure theory, differential equations, stochastic processes, non-linear systems, statistical modelling, and computational science.

The Economics components of this programme introduces you to a way of thinking about the economic world around us and the various complex issues that arise. You acquire the analytical tools to explore these issues.

In First Year, you study Economics by exploring:

• The decision-making behaviour of individual economic actors, for example, individual consumers, business entrepreneurs, bankers and government ministers - this is called microeconomics
• The collective behaviour of these actors, looking at how all these decisions interact - this is called macroeconomics

In subsequent years, you delve deeper into microeconomics and macroeconomics, and begin to apply the theories learned into other aspects of society. You consider GDP, employment, unemployment, inflation - you gain an understanding of many issues that are driving forces in the modern economy. You also take specialised courses in monetary and financial economics, where you learn about current developments in financial and monetary economics, including examining stock and bond markets, the role of the European Central Bank, exchange rates, futures and options and asset pricing models. For more detail, take a look at the courses in First Year, Second Year, Third Year and Fourth Year.