Quinnipiac University opened a new financial technology center this school year to raise the prominence of its business school and finance graduates.
The center, which had operated out of a smaller space in the Tator Hall student center since 2004, received positive reviews from employers seeking graduates well prepared for careers in finance. September’s opening brings the center into a new, expanded space in the Lender School of Business with more updated technology.
Across the state, university finance classes and technology centers that give students real-world examples and uses of the trading markets are renowned for their ability to increase student involvement and prepare them for the realistic challenges in finance careers.
“Some of these folks coming in here may want to become an investment analyst or an investment broker at some point,” said James Fairfield-Sonn, dean of the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford, which provides endowment money for students to invest. “It is all about learning for these individuals.”
Quinnipiac’s new Terry W. Goodwin Financial Technology Center includes 50 workstations — up from 20 — LCD display boards, wallboard displays, two breakout rooms and a scrolling ticker display. Most importantly, the center features workstations that have all the databases entry-level Wall Street investors use, such as Bloomberg Pro and Capital IQ.
The 200 Quinnipiac finance majors use the center for multiple classes, including the applied portfolio management course. In that course, the students receive $500,000 from the university endowment to invest as they see fit. With such a large amount, students can make realistically sized trades, build a more diversified portfolio and invest in more stocks.
Since the course debuted in 2003, the students have outperformed the S&P 500 every year.
“It is a nice resume booster for students,” said Ryan Maloney, a senior majoring in economics and finance at Quinnipiac. “That sets students apart from other job applicants out there.”
The University of Connecticut also has a student investment class, called the student managed fund. Undergraduates receive $1 million from the UConn Foundation endowment, and graduate students receive another $1 million. The fund will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in December.
“All of the learning that is applied to the classroom is applied to real dollars,” said Chinmoy Ghosh, head of the UConn finance department. “There is a tremendous amount of real world experience going on.”
At the end of the course, the students make a presentation about their funds’ performance to the UConn Foundation, along with all the other UConn endowment investors. They also make a separate presentation to the university’s investment advisory board, made up of the region’s high-placed money managers.
Since the students managing the fund are the best finance and business majors in the school, their work with the fund routinely leads to sought-after money management jobs following graduation, Ghosh said. Currently, the undergraduates’ fund has a return of 7.95 percent while the graduates’ fund return is 2.35 percent.
At the University of Hartford, seniors and graduates receive $250,000 to spread into a global fund and a green fund. In 2008, its first year, the fund exceeded its 20 percent benchmark. Last year dipped slightly but still came out ahead.
This course has among the highest participation rates at the University of Hartford, and Fairfield-Sonn said the students are more engaged and work harder than most every other course.
“The students have been absolutely thrilled with this course because of how much they learn,” Fairfield-Sonn said.
At Quinnipiac, the newly reopened center will give students a more robust real-world experience and applications toward their future careers, said Sean Reid, the director of the finance technology center. Students will graduate certified in Bloomberg, something that potential employers find appealing.
The idea for the financial technology came after Quinnipiac decided to make its finance department one of the marquee programs at the university. All the quality programs have some kind of mock trading floor, Reid said, and September’s opening of a new center ups the ante for the student learning experience.
UConn offers a similar mock trading floor at its Financial Accelerator in Hartford, which opened eight years ago. There, the students do a variety of projects, including consulting for top local firms such as Pratt & Whitney, UnitedHealthcare and ING.
The Financial Accelerator is one of five UConn programs and facilities in the School of Business offering top students the chance to work on real-world issues in their career focus under the supervisor of academic advisors. The university is building a reputation for creating real-world applications for its students, Ghosh said.
Quinnipiac, in aspiring to be a top financial learning school, wants to same reputation. By bringing its flagship feature — the financial technology center — into the School of Business building, the program will attract more top-performing students, who in turn will realize high quality jobs upon graduation, Reid said.
“If you can apply what goes on in the classroom, you have real tangible learning,” Reid said.
