UDD MSc (Online Distance Learning) Mathematical Finance 2018/2019 Programme Design Document

	A	C	F	I	J	N	R	T	AB	AH	AI	AK	AR	AT	AX
1	1. Admissions/ Management Information
2	Title of the programme – including any lower awards Please provide the titles used for all awards relating to this programme. Note: all programmes are required to have at least a Postgraduate Certificate exit award. See guidance on programme titles in:
3	https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
4	Masters			Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.
5	Postgraduate Diploma			Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.						Please indicate if the Postgraduate Diploma is available as an entry point, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.					Both
6	Postgraduate Certificate			Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.						Please indicate if the Postgraduate Certificate is available as an entry points, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.					Both
7	Level of qualification			Level 7
8	This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:							2018
9	Awarding institution								Teaching institution
10	University of York								University of York
11	Department(s): Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department								Board of Studies
12	Lead Department		Mathematics						Mathematics
13	Other contributing Departments:		N/A						Mathematics
14	Route code (existing programmes only)							PMMATSFIO1 (PCMATSFIO1 and PDMATSFIO1 for Certificate and Diploma respectively).
15	Admissions criteria
16	The entry requirements ar either an undergraduate degree equivalent to a class 2:1 or higher UK degree in a mathematically based discipline or an undergraduate degree equivalent to a class 2:2 or higher UK degree in a mathematically based discipline and completing the online pre-sessional course "Mathematics for Quantitative Finance" with a final grade of at least 60%. Professional experience in quantitative finance is considered a strong advantage, which can compensate to some extent for the lack of formal mathematical training.
17	Length and status of the programme(s) and mode(s) of study
18	Programme				Length (years/ months)	Status (full-time/ part-time) Please select	Start dates/months (if applicable – for programmes that have multiple intakes or start dates that differ from the usual academic year)		Mode
19
20									Face-to-face, campus-based			Distance learning		Other
21	MSc. in Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.				18 or 36 months	Part-time	September or February		Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes	N/A
22	Postgraduate Diploma in Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.				18 or 36 months	Part-time	September or February		Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes	N/A
23	Postgraduate Certificate in Mathematical Finance by online distance learning.				18 or 36 months	Part-time	September or February		Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes	N/A
24	Language(s) of study
25	English
26	Language(s) of assessment
27	English
28	2. Programme accreditation by Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies (PSRB)
29	2.a. Is the programme recognised or accredited by a PSRB
30	Please Select Y/N:		No	if No move to section 3 if Yes complete the following questions
31	3. Additional Professional or Vocational Standards
32	Are there any additional requirements of accrediting bodies or PSRB or pre-requisite professional experience needed to study this programme?
33	Please Select Y/N:		No	if Yes, provide details
34	4. Programme leadership and programme team
35	4.a. Please name the programme leader for the year to which the programme design applies and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
36	Prof. Tomasz Zastawniak
37	5. Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
38	5.a. Statement of purpose for applicants to the Masters programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective masters student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
39	Are you students who find it difficult to attend a campus-based programme because of a variety of reasons such as family care commitments or disability? Are you overseas students who seek a degree in Mathematical Finance from a leading British university but prefer to pursue your studies from your home country? Are you recent university graduates who need to support yourselves or your families while continuing your studies to a postgraduate level? Are you city and other professionals, who wish to pursue a postgraduate degree programme without disrupting your career commitments? This will be the perfect taught Masters for you, in which without being present on campus but through internet conferencing, application sharing software and a web-based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), you will be able to study various advanced mathematical and computational techniques (such as stochastic analysis, partial differential equations, numerical and statistical methods) at a level relevant to practitioners in modern finance industry. Through reading and absorbing current literature in Mathematical Finance, you will be able to develop competence in using the knowledge and technical skills acquired during the course of the programme in typical situations arising in practical contexts in finance, particularly in relation to trading in various kinds of derivative securities and financial risk management. You will be taught by world leading experts in the field of Mathematical Finance through one-to-one (“Oxbridge style”) online tutorials and supervisory sessions. You will be provided on CDs and for downloading via the VLE in lieu of lectures, supported by lecture notes, worked exercises, synchronous one-to-one online tutorials and an asynchronous discussion forum. You will be assessed by written coursework submitted electronically and a recorded online Viva Voce (an oral examination) held at the end of each of the three stages (Certificate, Diploma, Dissertation) of the programme. After completing the programme, you will have acquired the knowledge, advanced computational skills and experience necessary to work in a trading or research and development role in quantitative finance industry or to embark on a PhD programme in Mathematical Finance or related fields.
40	5.a.i Statement of purpose for applicants registering for the Postgraduate Diploma programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective diploma student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
41	Are you students who find it difficult to attend a campus-based programme because of a variety of reasons such as family care commitments or disability? Are you overseas students who seek a degree in Mathematical Finance from a leading British university but prefer to pursue your studies from your home country? Are you recent university graduates who need to support yourselves or your families while continuing your studies to a postgraduate level? Are you city and other professionals, who wish to pursue a postgraduate degree programme without disrupting your career commitments? This will be the perfect taught Masters for you, in which without being present on campus but through internet conferencing, application sharing software and a web-based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), you will be able to study various advanced mathematical and computational techniques (such as stochastic analysis, partial differential equations, numerical and statistical methods) at a level relevant to practitioners in modern finance industry. You will be taught by world leading experts in the field of Mathematical Finance through one-to-one (“Oxbridge style”) online tutorials and supervisory sessions. You will be provided on CDs and for downloading via the VLE in lieu of lectures, supported by lecture notes, worked exercises, synchronous one-to-one online tutorials and an asynchronous discussion forum. You will be assessed by written coursework submitted electronically and a recorded online Viva Voce (an oral examination) held at the end of each of the two stages (Certificate, Diploma) of the programme. After completing the programme, you will have acquired the knowledge, advanced computational skills and experience necessary to work in a trading or research and development role in quantitative finance industry.
42	5.a.ii Statement of purpose for applicants registering for the Postgraduate Certificate programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective certificate student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
43	Are you students who find it difficult to attend a campus-based programme because of a variety of reasons such as family care commitments or disability? Are you overseas students who seek a degree in Mathematical Finance from a leading British university but prefer to pursue your studies from your home country? Are you recent university graduates who need to support yourselves or your families while continuing your studies to a postgraduate level? Are you city and other professionals, who wish to pursue a postgraduate degree programme without disrupting your career commitments? This will be the perfect taught Masters for you, in which without being present on campus but through internet conferencing, application sharing software and a web-based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), you will be able to study various advanced mathematical and computational techniques (such as stochastic analysis, partial differential equations, numerical and statistical methods) at a level relevant to practitioners in modern finance industry. You will be taught by world leading experts in the field of Mathematical Finance through one-to-one (“Oxbridge style”) online tutorials and supervisory sessions. You will be provided on CDs and for downloading via the VLE in lieu of lectures, supported by lecture notes, worked exercises, synchronous one-to-one online tutorials and an asynchronous discussion forum. You will be assessed by written coursework submitted electronically and a recorded online Viva Voce (an oral examination) held at the end of the Certificate stage of the programme. After completing the programme, you will have acquired the knowledge and experience necessary to work in a junior trading or research and development role in quantitative finance industry.
44	5.b.i. Programme Learning Outcomes - Masters Please provide six to eight statements of what a graduate of the Masters programme will be able to do. If the document only covers a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma please specify four to six PLO statements in the sections 5.b.ii and 5.b.iii as appropriate. Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
45	PLO	On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
46	1	use, with a high degree of confidence and sophistication, a range of mathematical models to critically analyse a number of financial securities: stocks, bonds (including the term structure of interest rates), and their derivative securities.
47	2	develop mathematical and numerical techniques involved in pricing, hedging and analysing of derivative securities, in both discrete and continuous time models; and solve some concrete derivative pricing problems in financial industry.
48	3	use logical reasoning as a basis for the critical analysis of ideas or statements which have a mathematical finance context, and develop independently their own ideas using well founded reasoning.
49	4	communicate complex mathematical ideas clearly in both oral and writing, at a level appropriate for the intended audience.
50	5	design numerical algorithms and develop computing codes in spreadsheets, programming languages and/or symbolic computation software to implement solutions and prepare relevant documentation.
51	6	conduct research on a selected topic of current interest on recent literature in depth; set up the link of recent theoretical developments with modern market practice; write arguments in a clear and rigorous manner.
52	5.b.ii. Programme Learning Outcomes - Postgraduate Diploma Please provide four to six statements outlining what a graduate of the Postgraduate Diploma programme will be able to do. Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
53	PLO	On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
54	1	use, with a high degree of confidence and sophistication, a range of mathematical models to critically analyse a number of financial securities: stocks, bonds (including the term structure of interest rates), and their derivative securities.
55	2	develop mathematical and numerical techniques involved in pricing, hedging and analysing of derivative securities, in both discrete and continuous time models; and solve some concrete derivative pricing problems in financial industry.
56	3	use logical reasoning as a basis for the critical analysis of ideas or statements which have a mathematical finance context, and develop independently their own ideas using well founded reasoning.
57	4	communicate complex mathematical ideas clearly in both oral and writing, at a level appropriate for the intended audience.
58	5	design numerical algorithms and develop computing codes in spreadsheets, programming languages and/or symbolic computation software to implement solutions and prepare relevant documentation.
59	5.b.iii. Programme Learning Outcomes - Postgraduate Certificate Please provide four to six statements outlining what a graduate of the Postgraduate Certificate programme will be able to do. Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
60	PLO	On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
61	1	use, with a high degree of confidence and sophistication, a range of mathematical models to critically analyse a number of financial securities: stocks, bonds (including the term structure of interest rates), and their derivative securities.
62	2	develop mathematical and numerical techniques involved in pricing, hedging and analysing of derivative securities, in both discrete and continuous time models; and solve some concrete derivative pricing problems in financial industry.
63	3	use logical reasoning as a basis for the critical analysis of ideas or statements which have a mathematical finance context, and develop independently their own ideas using well founded reasoning.
64	4	communicate complex mathematical ideas clearly in both oral and writing, at a level appropriate for the intended audience.
65	5.c. Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
66	i) ... in what way will these PLOs result in an ambitious, challenging programme which stretches the students?
67	Most students who are going to enrol in this programme have worked in industry for a while and this course will enhance their understanding and skills in mathematical finance, from theory to computational practise. After taking this online course, students will have more advanced knowledge in mathematical finance, which enable them to either transfer to a new role or advance their current role in their institution.
68	ii) ... in what way will these PLOs produce a programme which is distinctive and advantageous to the student?
69	Students who are going to enrol in this programme have good industry experience already but they are, to some extent, lack of formal and advance training in mathematics and computing skills, which are indeed needed in their current working environment. Students' mathematics and computing skill will be enhanced after finishing the programme.
70	iii) ... how the design of the programme enables students from diverse entry routes to transition successfully into the programme? For example, how does the organisation of the programme ensure solid foundations in disciplinary knowledge and understanding of conventions, language skills, mathematics and statistics skills, writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity
71	The 3-stage design of the programme is naturally to help students from diverse entry routes to be able to build a solid foundation first before progressing to a more advance stage. For instance, the three modules in the certificate stage are designed to help the students review basic knowledge in probability, stochastic processes and discrete time mathematical finance. Students who pass those foundation courses will be able to progress to the Diploma stage, in which three more advanced modules are designed to teach the students more advanced continuous time models, numerical methods and pricing interest rate derivatives.
72	iv) ... how the programme is designed to enable students to progress successfully - in a limited time frame - through to the end of the award? For example, the development of higher level research skills; enabling students to complete an independent study module; developing competence and confidence in practical skills/ professional skills. See QAA masters characteristics doument http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
73	After successfully completing the diploma stage, the students will be given opportunities to progress to dissertation stage, during which the students are able to develop independent study. They will be given a topic to work on and with the help of the dissertation supervisor, they will write their dissertation in a specialized area in mathematical finance.
74	v) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will develop students’ digital literacy skills and how technology-enhanced learning will be used to support active student learning through peer/tutor interaction, collaboration and formative (self) assessment opportunities (reference could be made to such as blogging, flipped classroooms, response 'clickers' in lectures, simulations, etc).
75	In the numerical methods module, the students will be able to develop digital literacy skills by writing computer code in C++ to implement the algorithms learning on the module. In addition to this, during their dissertation stage, they are able to use lyx or latex to write their disseration and some numerical implementation will be carried out during the dissertation stage too.
76	vi) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)? The programme's employablity objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
77	http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/careers/staff/
78	As stated above, the design of those modules, syllabus and learning outcomes are intended to enhance studnets' further employability.
79	viii) ... how learning and teaching on the programme are informed and led by research in the department/ Centre/ University?
80	A team of experts who are actively researching in mathematical finance area in the department are currently teaching this programme. The cutting-edge research outcome in the area will certainly be fed back to teaching materials
81	5.d. Progression For masters programmes where students do not incrementally 'progress' on the completion of a discrete Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma, please summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of the PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of the set of modules or part thereof. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules and in circumstances where students registered on a higher award will exit early with a lower one. Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each masters PLO, but this can be done if preferred.
82	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate students will be able to: If the PG Cert is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the diploma/masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
83	We are using the University of York exit rules as described on page 119 of the Guide to Assessment at https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/assessment-and-examination/guide-to-assessment/. On attaining the Postgraduate Certificate students will have achieved PLOs 1-4. The module diet is provided in the programme map.
84	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma students will be able to: If the PG Diploma is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
85	We are using the University of York exit rules as described on page 118 of the Guide to Assessment at https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/assessment-and-examination/guide-to-assessment/. On attaining the Postgraduate Diploma students will have achieved PLOs 1-5. The module diet is provided in the programme map.
86	6. Reference points and programme regulations
87	6.a. Relevant Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement(s) and other relevant external reference points Please state relevant reference points consulted (e.g. Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, National Occupational Standards, Subject Benchmark Statements or the requirements of PSRBs): See also Taught Postgraduate Modular Scheme: Framework for Programme Design:
88	https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
89	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
90	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements
91	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication?PubID=2843#.VthM1fmLS70
92	6.b. University award regulations
93	The University’s award and assessment regulations apply to all programmes: any exceptions that relate to this programme are approved by University Teaching Committee and are recorded at the end of this document.