Thursday’s Headlines: A New Jersey College Offers Bachelor's Degree in Quantitative Finance

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. offers a rare undergraduate program: a degree in quantitative finance, which are often only available at the graduate level, reports Businessweek.

Officials at Stevens thought offering the degree at the undergraduate level would benefit the students.

This thinking stems in part from a poll conducted by Stevens in 2008 of companies such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley. The poll asked if the companies would consider hiring bachelor’s degree holders for positions that require master’s degrees. The companies responded that they would be willing to consider it if the prospects had the right knowledge and skills.

The program was launched the following year with 10 students. Last year it grew to 31.

In the program, students take seven semesters of computer science courses and a variety of classes that combine economics and markets lessons computer engineering work. In their freshman and sophomore years, students are divided into groups where they managed simulated portfolio.

The students also learn two lessons critical to surviving on Wall Street: how to be competitive and what it’s like to lose.

 

Other News:

Garth R. Peterson, a former Morgan Stanley executive who ran the investment firm’s global real estate business in China, has pleaded guilty to violating the American government’s federal anti-corruption laws. [Dealbook]

Three men who carried out a decades-long insider-trading scheme have settled their charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $32 million. [Dealbook]

Nigel Doughty, a venture capitalist who made a fortune buying risky businesses, has died at 54. [Telegraph]

As part of its plan to reduce its global workforce by 30,000 by the end of next year, HSBC will cut 3,167 jobs across the UK. [Telegraph]

Raymond James posted a second-quarter profit of $68.9 million, or $0.52 a share, on sales of $872 million. [On Wall Street]

Barclays saw pre-tax, first quarter profits rise 22 percent to $3.9 billion. [Dealbook]

Deutsche Bank’s profits fell 34 percent in the first quarter, a decline the German banking giant attributed largely to the European debt crisis. [Dealbook]

Swiss Bank Credit Suisse Group’s profits fell 96 percent in the first quarter. [Businessweek]

Several high-ranking hedge fund veterans have teamed up to form Meehan Combs, a global credit hedge fund firm that is expected to launch with 10 to 15 employees sometime in the third quarter. [Hedgefund.net]

Hidetoshi Ohashi, Morgan Stanley’s Tokyo-based credit strategist and head of fixed-income research, will resign at the end of June to start a Singapore-based hedge fund that focuses on Japanese corporate bonds and credit default swaps. [Bloomberg]

H&R Block, the Kansas City-based tax preparer, said it plans to lay off 350 full-time employees and close about 200 underperforming company-owned offices. [Bizjournals.com]