It's more difficult than ever to get a place on a financial services MSc course this year

A few weeks ago, Henrietta Royle, chief operating officer at Cass University, appeared in the Telegraph bemoaning undergraduates' lack of interest in financial services degree courses.

Royle said there had been a, "notable dip" in applications in the wake of the financial crisis.

Unfortunately, that dip does not appear to extend financial services MScs: all the schools we've spoken to say MSc applications have shot up this year.

Big increases all round

At Cass, applications for financial services MSc courses are up anything from 4% to 35% on 2009. In most cases, the increases are double digit and in excess of 20%. Applicant growth has been biggest for mathematical trading and finance (+35%) the MSc in quantitative finance (+28%) and the MSc in financial mathematics (+25%).

By comparison, in 2009, applications for most Cass MScs fell.

Applications this year are also up at Imperial College Business School, where 'recruitment development executive' Crystal Grant describes a, "staggering" 21% increase in applications for programmes in finance and risk management and financial engineering. Grant says the quality of prospective applicants has also risen.

The ICMA Centre has also seen a 19% increase in applications year on year.

Only the LSE doesn't seem to have benefitted from a big inflow of prospective students. Matthew Rowley, manager of finance programmes at the school, says applications are in a "steady state." Rowley points out that they're already very high however: last year, there were 2,200 applications for 60 places on the full time LSE Masters in Finance programme.

Course numbers roughly similar

Both the LSE and Imperial have increased the number of places they're offering this year, but not by much.

At the LSE, places on the full time Masters in Finance are being increased to 80. At Imperial, class sizes are being increased 6%. Cass is keeping numbers steady.