Duke Fuqua Is The Latest Business School To Join The Fintech Club
Fintech continues making some serious impact in the world of finance, with the global industry’s market share valued at $187 billion, or slightly over 1% of the global finance industry. But before we look at other statistics, let’s take get a brief understanding of what Fintech actually is. Fintech is an emerging industry that aims to compete with and improve traditional financial services through technology and innovation. Some of the most commonly used examples of Fintech in daily life include smartphones for mobile banking, cryptocurrency, digital wallets and much more.
As more and more MBA Grads climb aboard the Fintech bandwagon, Duke Fuqua, with its Duke MBA Fintech Club, is fostering a community that prepares and supports MBA students who want to pursue a career in this emerging industry.
Duke Fuqua’s Fintech Club
Co-founded by Shaan Mehta and Shrawan Saraogi in Spring ‘18, the sole aim of the Duke MBA Fintech Club was to bring a group of likeminded MBA students together, who were really interested in or passionate about Fintech. Since its founding, the FinTech club has made some serious progress in just over a year. The club has worked in collaboration with Duke Fuqua’s Career Center to increase the number of internships and full-time roles, increased their network with potential employers, alumni and industry experts that exposes the club members to the latest trends in the industry.
Beyond Duke Fuqua’s initiatives with FinTech through the student run club, the business school also offers electives in blockchain, taught by Professor Campbell R. Harvey, and “Raising Capital & Financial Technology” taught by Professor Manju Puri.
A major highlight for the Duke MBA Fintech Club was the trip to Washington D.C. where they attended the “Fintech and the Future of Banking” conference hosted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Besides being a key figure behind organizing the conference, Professor Manju Puri was also a speaker at the event, sharing a summary of her research paper, “On the Rise of Fintechs – Credit Scoring Using Digital Footprints”.
Duke Fuqua’s Fintech Club continues going from strength to strength and empowering students into pursuing a career in Fintech, as well as providing MBA students with the full package and an in-depth understanding of this fast-growing industry.
Fintech at other business schools
Several leading MBA programs are offering Fintech as a specialization in their MBA programs, or as part of an executive program. Business schools have been quick to adapt to this industry which has emerged rather quickly in the past few years. A few schools that have Fintech offerings are listed below.
MIT Sloan, along with NYU Stern, has been one of the early adopters of Fintech at business schools. MIT Sloan have a dedicated Fintech Club which focuses on education, job opportunities and entrepreneurship. NYU Stern was one of the first business schools to add Fintech into their curriculum, after adding the subject as part of the specializations in their full time MBA program.
Georgetown McDonough School of Business offers a Fintech and Blockchain focused elective for its full time MBA program. Introduced in spring 2018, the objectives of the elective focus on developing an understanding of the history and evolution of both fintech and blockchain, as well as their applications and processes.
Wharton is also home to a student run club, Wharton Fintech which was founded in 2015. The aim of the club pushes focus on “learning more about the intersection of technology and finance and get in front of the companies and investors driving innovation in the space.”
INSEAD introduced Fintech to its curriculum as an elective in 2017, while also establishing a student run club, INSEAD Blockchain & Fintech Club, in 2016. London Business School offers Fintech as an elective for its full time MBA students, along with a number of other finance related electives. Harvard Business School offers an executive program, Leveraging Fintech Innovation to Grow and Compete, which focuses on blockchain, machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence and much more.
Columbia Business School offers a number of Fintech related courses as part of their full time and Executive MBA programs, such as FinTech: Consumer Financial Services and Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Financial Services: FinTech, Private Equity, and Venture Capital Perspectives. CBS is also home to a student-run organization, Columbia Fintech and Blockchain, which focuses on developing education and innovation in the field of financial technology.
