Top Business School Gets $60 Million for Master in Finance Program
Credit: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto / Getty Images- The University of Chicago received a $60 million donation for its new master in finance program.
- The donation from school alums Clifford Asness and John Liew will include “broad support for faculty, students, and other areas of the program,” Booth Dean Madhav Rajan said.
- The 15-month program is geared toward recent college graduates and features instruction in “advanced quantitative methods in finance,” according to a press release.
- The master in finance program is one of just two new degrees at the M7 school in more than 80 years: The school also debuted a new master in management program this fall.
A $60 million donation is set to boost a new master in finance program at one of the country’s top business schools.
The University of Chicago (UChicago) Booth School of Business debuted its master in finance program this fall. That program is one of just two new degrees at the magic or magnificent seven (M7) school in more than 80 years. The school also debuted a new master in management program this fall.
Now, the $60 million donation from school alums Clifford Asness and John Liew will further bolster the master in finance program.
“Thanks to Cliff’s and John’s extraordinary generosity and leadership, the Asness and Liew Master in Finance Program will ensure that talented college graduates quickly reach the frontiers of modern finance,” Booth Dean Madhav Rajan said in a press release.
“By providing broad support for faculty, students, and other areas of the program, this investment will enable the school to successfully carry out its mission to influence and educate this promising new group of leaders.”
The 15-month program is geared toward recent college graduates and features instruction in “advanced quantitative methods in finance,” according to the release. Students can take classes in fast-growing fields like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain.
Those high-demand topics are all key to the meteoric growth of the financial technology, or fintech, sector. That field is projected to balloon in global revenues over the next decade. The Boston Consulting Group projected in 2023 that fintech revenues could grow from $245 billion to roughly $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Ralph S.J. Koijen, Booth’s AQR Capital Management distinguished service professor in finance, previously highlighted the importance of incorporating those emerging technologies into the program’s curriculum.
“The option to take courses that delve deep into topics such as AI, machine learning, big data, blockchain technology, fintech, and current topics in investment banking — among many others — will give students an advantage in the market after they graduate,” Koijen said.
Asness and Liew co-founded AQR Capital Management, a global investment management firm, and credit their time at Booth for their success.
“It’s hard to overstate the impact that our time at Booth had on us professionally,” Liew, who is also a University of Chicago trustee, said in the release. “We literally built our careers and our business around what we learned. This really is the least we can do.”
The degree program includes both a 15-month standard track and an accelerated 10-month track. Alongside the master in management program, the new degree program marks a concerted effort from one of the country’s top business schools to reach more recent college graduates.
Specialized master’s programs, in particular the increasingly popular master’s in management degree, tend to enroll younger professionals compared with the popular master of business administration (MBA) degree.
Rajan said in 2023 that the new master in management degree would introduce “foundational business skills to a new generation of Booth students, enhancing their impact in that first job and beyond.”
The focus on younger professionals comes alongside a redoubled focus on high-demand skills at Booth’s MBA program. The school earlier this year announced a joint MBA and master’s in applied data science degree program as part of a partnership with the UChicago Physical Sciences Division.