International Securities, Investment and Banking (ICMA)
Quality, Ratings and Research Traditions
The ICMA Centre, as part of Henley Business School, was awarded a rating of 5 in the most recent RAE, placing the group in 4th equal position out of 100 UK universities in this field of research (the same ranking as Cambridge, Imperial College, London School of Economics (LSE) and Oxford.
Research at the ICMA Centre focuses on quantitative finance, market microstructure, fund management, risk management and regulation. Academic staff also undertake professional research studies on topics of current interest to those operating in the industry.
Distinctive Features
The ICMA Centre, University of Reading has an international reputation for providing quality undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education tailored to the capital markets industry. The ICMA Centre’s success is based not only on the integration of applied finance theory and industry specific training but also its considerable professional and academic expertise, and strong links with companies and trade associations in the global finance industry.
Established in 1991 with funding provided by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) in Zurich, the Centre is housed in a purpose-built modernist building with state-of-the-art facilities including two dealing rooms using software similar to those found in major investment banks. Due to the fantastic success of the Centre and growing demand for their programmes from a worldwide audience ICMA are investing a further £5million expansion to the building which will include an additional 50 seat dealing room, 150 seat lecture theatre as well as new seminar rooms and dedicated research area. The new building is expected to be open for students at the start of the 2008 academic session.
Students not only benefit from the excellent facilities and links with industry but also from our specialist Career Development Unit which provides help to students in their job search. Students benefit from recruitment visits from many investment banks based in London and from City Headhunters. ABN AMRO Bank, DrKW, UBS Investment Bank and West LB are among the employers who recruit graduates from the ICMA Centre.
Facilities and Study Environment
The ICMA Centre has two dealing rooms with a further room planned. The ICMA Centre was the first business school in Europe to have a dealing room facilities of this kind and they are more extensive than any other university finance department in the country; with a 20 terminal dealing room which opened in 1994 then on completion of the new building in 1998 a further two dealing rooms opened with 30 Reuters equipped workstations and 30 workstations with software similar to that found in investment banks. This year the terminals in each room have been upgraded with Reuters’ latest products - one with Reuters 3000Xtra, the other with the new Reuters Trader product, which as a web-based product students will be able to access from any workstation in the Centre.
The ICMA Centre will soon be the largest non-investment bank Reuters populated facility in the world when a further 50 workstation flagship dealing room equipped with a combination of 3000 Xtra, Reuters Trader and Reuters Wealth Manager, is completed in October 2008, giving a total of 112 workstations, which is the size of a medium sized investment bank’s dealing floor.
Over 120 Halls of Residence places attached to Windsor Hall, which is very close to the Centre, are allocated in the first instance to those offered places on the full-time MSc programme.
Funding Opportunities
Awards are available for both the PhD and MSc degree programmes. Visit our website for details regarding awards for 2006 entry.
Research Degrees
PhD/MPhil by Research