IBA Karachi launches Master of Science in Finance

The IBA Karachi has announced the launch of a Master of Science in Finance programme commencing in fall 2020, said a press release issued on Wednesday.

The MS leading to a PhD programme will be spread over three semesters with a total of 36 credit hours. The programme aims to facilitate students with business and non-business backgrounds.

The chairperson of the Department of Finance, Dr Ahmad Junaid, highlighted that the programme was structured to aid students who wished to excel in the corporate sector as well as help those who wished to pursue an academic career.

He explained that students who wished to take the corporate route would opt for a real-life project, while students with the academic route in mind would choose a thesis alongside their course work.

Commenting on the efficacy of the programme, Executive Director Dr S Akbar Zaidi said, “The financial sector of Pakistan has posted highest growth rates in recent past. However, the percentage of banked population and capitalisation of stock market is still very low in comparison to the regional markets. This high growth offers new innovations in terms of financial products, institutions, and system as a whole. Hence the job market for finance specialists is continuously growing.” The admission for the MS-Finance programme is open till August 13, 2020.

With the addition of the MS-Finance programme, the IBA Karachi is now offering 10 graduate programmes alongside six undergraduate and three postgraduate programmes. Recently, a two-year MS Data Science programme was successfully launched and it received an overwhelming response from the candidates.