Quant has emerged as a lucrative option for finance as well as mathematics graduates, who are actively seeking jobs as a quant developer, analyst or researcher. While the job sure comes with a lucrative salary package, securing a job as well as getting the knowledge is where most aspirants face serious challenges.
Therefore to help students, as well as quant job aspirants, we have decided to compile a list of top 4 U.K. universities based on the placement stats and courses offered.
1. Imperial College, London
The Imperial College based out of London is one of the leading colleges where you can go and study to become a quant analyst. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Imperial is the ‘MIT’ of quantitative finance as some of the topmost quant professionals in the U.K. are the alumni of this college. The college specialises in the quantitative physics aspect and the rigorous nature of the course, makes it the perfect fit for anyone willing to understand the intricacies of a trade. Having a solid network with popular hedge funds the college is well known for its placement. Brevan Howard, one of Europe’s largest hedge fund comes to the campus for selection each year.
2. Cambridge University
One of the oldest as well as most reputed universities, Cambridge, is known for its courses in applied physics and mathematics. With the world’s top mathematicians and physicists including Isaac Newton being a part of its Alumni, we don’t need to emphasise the greatness of this U.K. university. The campus has its students placed in the leading positions across the hedge funds as well as asset management companies across the globe. Each year has companies coming straight from Wall Street with job offers one wishes to receive.
3. Oxford University
Founded in the year 1096, Oxford is one of the oldest U.K. universities similar to Cambridge where people from all corners come to study. The university has produced some of the pioneers in quantitative finance such as Mark Joshi and Paul Wilmott and is known to have one of the finest courses in Mathematical and Computational Finance. Getting Oxford on your resume sure has many advantages as you are directly considered for roles related to quant. However, you ought to consider that you cannot apply to both the Cambridge and Oxford and have to choose one between the two institutions.
4. Warwick University
Though this university isn’t as old as the others we have mentioned, Warwick stands at par with Oxford and Cambridge as far as their mathematical courses are concerned. The university has modules explicitly tailored for your needs, and you can get a deep level understanding of concepts like statistics, probability and mathematical modelling. The university after being ranked amongst the top 50 institutes across the globe for quantitative finance is attracting some of the biggest firms and funds which come here for placement.
So, here is the list of the top universities which you can apply for getting into quantitative finance domain. Do let us know any other top university you think is suitable for specialisation in this domain.
