RICHARDSON, Texas (Jan. 20, 2005) – The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management has begun offering a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree designed to train students in both the theoretical and practical aspects of financial decision-making.
Authority to grant the degree was granted in December by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The new degree program is available beginning this semester.
UTD’s School of Management now
offers a Bachelor of Science in Finance.
Under the 120-semester-hour program, students are required to complete 24 credit hours of core business courses. They also must complete nine credit hours of coursework on money and capital markets, investment management and applied corporate finance, and they must select an additional 12 credit hours from courses in finance, economics and accounting, depending on their interests.
The plan contains an option for eligible students to fast-track into a master’s degree with a concentration in finance. The fast-track option is open to students who have a 3.0 grade point average and are within 30 semester hours of completing their bachelor’s degree. It allows these students to take nine credit hours of graduate-level coursework that count toward their bachelor’s degree. These credit hours also count toward completion of either a 36-credit-hour Master of Science degree or a 53-credit-hour Master of Business Administration degree.
UTD School of Management Dean Dr. Hasan Pirkul said the school decided to offer the new degree plan based on the high demand in industry for graduates with majors in finance.
“Our goal is to help our students develop the high level of quantitative skills needed to analyze financial information and the analytical foundation needed for making corporate decisions. We also train them in investment management problem-solving skills,” Pirkul said.
The school’s Finance Area coordinator, Dr. Ted Day, who was a leader in faculty efforts to develop the degree plan, said the B.S. in Finance degree would enhance the placement prospects for students interested in finance-related careers.
“The degree program gives the students a lot of flexibility to match their specialization in finance with the career interests that they develop in our program. These students are going to be getting a strong background in financial decision making, and they are going to be able to supplement their degree plans with courses that will help them prepare for professional certification programs that they may need once they’re on the job, programs like the Chartered Financial Analyst or Certified Financial Planner exams,” Day said.
Along with the new undergraduate degree in Finance, the school offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Business Administration and Accounting and Information Management. It also offers a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Biology in conjunction with the university’s Biology Department. On the graduate level, it offers six different master’s programs and two programs on the doctoral level.
In all, UTD offers 114 degree programs across its seven schools.
About The UTD School of Management
The School of Management is the largest of UTD’s seven schools, with an enrollment that has increased 92 per cent over the last eight years to more than 4,300 students. The school’s new, 204,000-square-foot building — featuring classrooms with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, wireless connectivity, video-conferencing facilities, a computer lab, faculty offices, meeting rooms and an executive education center — opened in August 2003.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu