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The ICMA Centre at the University of Reading has been designated a Securities & Investment Institute (SII) Centre of Excellence.
SII Centres of Excellence are an elite group of universities, including Cass Business School and Edinburgh University as well as the ICMA Centre, selected by the SII as offering leadership in academic education, focused on financial markets. The Centre of Excellence designation means that graduates from the ICMA Centre’s Masters programmes in International Securities, Investment and Banking (ISIB) and Investment Management will also be eligible for the Award of the SII Diploma and will therefore receive both a full Masters degree and the type of professionally significant certification that is usually only obtained when working after graduation.
The ICMA Centre will also be accredited to directly prepare students on its other degrees, including the BSc Finance and Investment Banking, for the relevant SII examinations and the SII will also proactively consider exemption on a module by module basis on the Centre’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The aim is to help as many of the Centre’s students as possible to achieve SII recognition in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
The SII and the ICMA Centre will share good practice in assessment and quality assurance and will establish a joint Annual Lecture to encourage students to combine academic and professionally related learning.
The ICMA Centre’s undergraduate students already compete for the SII’s Stephen Cooke Scholarship Award and this designation further enhances the Centre’s relationship with SII.
Simon Culhane FSI, Chief Executive of SII, who ratified the SII/ICMA agreement this week, said: “We are delighted to have appointed the ICMA Centre a Centre of Excellence. The designation will offer ICMA Centre graduates a significant headstart when progressing their financial services careers, with SII membership supporting their continuing professional development throughout their careers in the industry to ensure their skills are kept up to date and relevant.”
Professor John Board, Director of the ICMA Centre, said “I am delighted that the ICMA Centre, with its long record of academic and professional excellence, will be able to collaborate further with the SII and its widely known and accepted market-based qualifications. I am sure that this association will have long lasting benefits for our students and future alumni”.
