Through The Business School, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is now offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in financial technology that leverage the university’s project-based learning approach and deep expertise in science and technology to satisfy increasing industry demand.
Encompassing everything from popular apps like Venmo to the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency, financial technology, or FinTech, is a fast-growing sector that uses technology to improve the delivery and use of financial services for companies, business owners, and consumers. The field offers roles ranging from blockchain or application developer and financial analyst to business development manager and cybersecurity analyst.
“The Business School is delighted to launch the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in FinTech,” said Debora Jackson, the Harry G. Stoddard Professor of Management and Dean of the Business School. “As a technology-focused business school, we are uniquely positioned to offer this distinctive program. Recognized for the relevance of our curriculum, we have proudly applied our know-how to create robust degree programs in FinTech, leveraging the WPI hallmarks of theory and practice and emerging as a vanguard. It is an exciting time, and we look forward to welcoming students.”
Diane Strong, department head and professor of information technology and data science, said the degree programs may be new, but the Business School experience has long been infused with FinTech; the Wall Street/FinTech Project Center in New York City, where students spend a seven-week term working on major qualifying projects with industry partners, has been operating for 20 years. These new programs also complement existing undergraduate minor and graduate certificate FinTech offerings at WPI.
The new degrees are being offered as Massachusetts seeks to establish FinTech as a core industry. “WPI’s program will appeal to anyone with interests across business, computing, data, and math,” said Kwamie Dunbar, associate professor of finance and director of the master’s FinTech program. “Demand for skilled FinTech graduates is high. Being able to offer an interdisciplinary mix of expertise in finance, data science, computer science, and math makes WPI uniquely suited to meet that challenge.
“We’ll be using all these pieces to train people to work in the industry,” Dunbar said. “It was the right time for us, given our DNA, to create the program.”
Applications are now open for both the BS and MS Fintech programs.
