6月18日，英国《金融时报》（Financial Times，以下简称FT）公布了2018年全球金融硕士项目排名。上海交通大学上海高级金融学院（高金/SAIF）金融硕士项目（简称MF）再创佳绩，综合排名较去年再次攀升4位，首次跻身全球十强，并成功蝉联亚洲第一。在投资回报率方面，高金继续保持亚洲第一、全球第七的领先优势。此外，在学员毕业后三年薪资涨幅指标上，高金跃升至亚洲第一，并稳居全球第五。6月27日，《China Daily》对此进行了报道。

SAIF looks to fintech to boost rankings

In a bid to maintain its leading position and to meet market  demand, the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance will adopt fintech as a new  direction of talent cultivation  starting in 2019. 

Around 25 of a total of 80 students enrolled at the institute’s Master of Finance program from next year will go  into  this  professional  field,  which will focus on cultivating students’ technical capability  in big data, machine and deep  learning and computer programming, the institute said during a  media briefing on June 19. 

Students with outstanding backgrounds in mathematical  statistics and computer programing will be preferred for the program, which was established after repeated discussions with academics and industry experts, said Jiang Zhan, faculty director of the Master of Finance program at SAIF.  

“The new direction of talent cultivation was a response to requirements of the times.  We’re confident that the graduates  will meet the fintech  industries’ particularly urgent needs after completing the course,” Jiang said. 

Chang Chun, executive dean of SAIF, which was established at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009, said the endeavor was also a response  to the city’s mission to serve as the country’s financial center,  as well as a national and international hub of innovation in science and technology.  Recruitment of faculty in this particular field is already underway, Chang added.  

SAIF also announced on June 19 that it was placed 10th in the global rankings for financial master’s degree projects for the first time and remains the No.1 institution for the such courses in Asia. 

Just six schools from the region were included among  the 65 schools from around  the world that were ranked.  The School of Economics and  Management at Tsinghua University and Guanghua School of Management at Peking University were ranked in 15th and 18th place, respectively.  

SAIF remained the first in Asia and ranked seventh globally in value for money and became the No.1 ranked institute in Asia and fifth globally  for graduates’ salary increase within three years of graduation, according to the school, citing a ranking done by the Financial Times and published on June 8.

The institute also came in first  in  other  indicators, including employment rates at three months after graduation and the percentage of faculty holding doctoral degree, as well as taking the third place in the rankings for the  ratio of female students, with 47 percent. 

“Our faculty are also outperforming in their levels of internationalization. Regardless of  nationality, almost every one  of  them  has  been  educated  overseas or has worked abroad and have abundant  industry connections, even among the top institutions on  Wall Street,” Jiang said. 

It was the third time that the school, which offers the twoyear master’s program for a tuition fee of 138,000 yuan  ($21,300), participated in the annual ranking.
The school believed it could make further progress in some other indicators, such as international mobility of students after graduation and the percentage of international students and female  faculty, which currently stand  at 11 percent and 25 percent, respectively. 

Chang said such achievements were based on the institution’s persistence in running the school in a way characterized by internationalization,  marketization and professionalism.  

“However, we are still very young,” he observed.

Jiang said: “We will endeavor to make breakthroughs and innovate  international  exchange  programs  and  course design in order to develop a stronger core strength and international vision for financial industries, both at home and abroad.”