Actuarial Science - MSc drafted

Program Overview

The University of Kent's MSc in Actuarial Science prepares students for a variety of careers in insurance, investments, and more. The program offers exemptions from professional actuarial examinations, and students are taught by industry experts using innovative teaching methods. Graduates have gone on to successful careers in the actuarial, finance, insurance, and risk sectors. The program also emphasizes social policy implications and engages with industry professionals through the Invicta Actuarial Society.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Studying actuarial science on this conversion programme is a passport to a wide variety of careers in insurance companies, investments, pensions, health care and banking – not just in the UK, but throughout the world. Our MSc in Actuarial Science, MSc in Applied Actuarial Science and International Master’s are all fully accredited by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries; they also provide a fast-track route to qualifying as an actuary, because students who achieve a high enough overall mark in these programmes can obtain exemptions from the professional examinations included within their studies. As one of the few universities to offer actuarial science in the UK, Kent’s programme is recognised for its strong mix of theoretical and practical expertise. The teaching staff include many actuaries drawn from professional practice, along with specialised researchers. Depending on the modules chosen, MSc in Actuarial Science students may be eligible to gain exemptions from subjects CB1, CB2, CM1, CM2, CS1 and CS2 of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Students can opt-out of the two year course at the end of Stage 1 and receive the full MSc qualification under the Actuarial Science MSc course (subject to satisfactory assessment performance). Students who are considered to have performed sufficiently well in the programme (both in examinations and coursework), as determined by examiners appointed by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, will receive exemptions. If you fail to achieve a suitable overall standard, you might still be awarded individual subject exemptions.

Teaching:

Our expert teaching staff are leaders in their field who use innovative teaching methods to bring the subject to life. Programme aims and learning outcomes are set to ensure you get the most from your study. The University’s Templeman Library houses a comprehensive collection of books and research periodicals. The University of Kent has entered into an exclusive arrangement with SunGard, a global leader in integrated software and processing solutions primarily for financial services, who market the industry’s leading actuarial software package PROPHET.

Careers:

The UK Actuarial Profession is small, but influential and well rewarded. There are more than 6,500 actuaries currently employed in the UK, the majority of whom work in insurance companies and consultancy practices. Survey results published by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries suggest that the average basic salary for a student actuary is £36,842 with pay and bonuses increasingly sharply as you become more experienced. The average basic salary of a Chief Actuary is £209,292. As an actuary, your work is extremely varied and can include: advising companies on the amount of funds to set aside for employee pension payments; designing new insurance policies and setting premium rates; pricing financial derivatives and working in fund management and quantitative investment research; advising life insurance companies on he distribution of surplus funds; and estimating the effects of possible major disasters, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, and setting premium rates for insurance against such disasters. Helping our students to develop strong employability skills is a key objective within the School and the University. We provide a wide range of services and support to equip you with transferable vocational skills that enable you to secure appropriate professional positions within industry. Within the School we run specialist seminars and provide advice on creating a strong CV, making job applications and successfully attending interviews and assessment centres. Our graduates have gone on to successful careers in the actuarial, finance, insurance and risk sectors.

Other:

The Centre for Actuarial Science, Risk and Investment maintains close relationships with industry actuaries through the Invicta Actuarial Society, a regional actuarial society which holds its meetings at the Canterbury campus and is organised by University of Kent students and academic staff. The Society hosts an annual lecture in conjunction with the Worshipful Company of Actuaries, featuring prestigious speakers from industry and the profession. The Society also arranges talks from external speakers including practitioners, careers advisers and recruiters from the UK and overseas. Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to: British Actuarial Journal; Actuary Australia; Annals of Actuarial Science; Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. Details of recently published books can be found under staff research interests. All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability. Work in actuarial science at the University of Kent can be divided into three broad themes achieving a balance of theoretical and applied investigations, as well as addressing social policy implications. Economic capital and financial risk management In particular, financial services firms are now expected to self-assess and quantify the amount of capital they need to cover the risks they are running. This self-assessed quantum of capital is commonly termed risk, or economic, capital. At Kent we are actively involved in developing rigorous risk management techniques to explicitly measure how much risk a firm or pension scheme is taking, holistically, across the entire spectrum of risks it accepts. Longevity risk Longevity risk represents a substantial threat to the stability of support programmes for the elderly, most notably to the subset that provides income protection but also to non-traditional products such as home equity release schemes. One approach to dealing with longevity risk is to model key factors that influence mortality; this may be achieved using aggregate (causal) mortality rates or panel data with individual-specific covariates. Another approach to modelling longevity risk is via an investigation of positive quadrant dependence between lives, which requires a multivariate framework. Once this is in place, longevity risk may be investigated on various fronts ranging from entire populations to couples. Public policy aspects of risk classification Restrictions on risk classification can lead to adverse selection, and actuaries usually regard this as a bad thing. However, restrictions do exist in many countries, suggesting that policymakers often perceive some merit in such restrictions. Careful re-examination of the usual actuarial arguments can help to reconcile these observations. Models of insurance purchasing behaviour under different risk classification regimes can quantify the effects of particular bans, e.g. on insurers’ use of genetic test results, or gender classification in the European Union.

The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are: Full-time UK £14,700 EU £23,900 International £23,900