Banking and Finance
Testimonials
Prizes and awards
Our Master's graduates regularly receive awards for special achievements in their studies and excellent theses. In addition, they frequently take part in external case study competitions such as the CFA Challenge, where they also regularly rank among the best groups in Austria.
Wolfgang Schadner, Class of 2017
At the first Asset Management Challenge 2018, which was organised jointly by Erste Bank and e-fundresearch.com, Wolfgang Schadner emerged as the "clear winner" with his master thesis "Beta Anomaly: an ex-ante Tail Risk Approach". In his thesis, Schadner shows that the risk and return profile of low-beta focused equity investment strategies can be optimized by pre-considering certain distribution parameters. A detailed report can be found on the homepage of the organiser .
Frederic Driever, Class of 2016
Frederic Driever was awarded the CFA Scholarship for his master thesis on "Black Litterman vs. Parametric Portfolio Policies: A Comparison of Quantitative Asset Allocation Methods" in the field of "Investments". The scholarship covers all costs for the Chartered Financial Analyst examinations (Level I, II and III). Click here for the complete report
Stefan Verginer, Class of 2015
With his master thesis "International Stock Return Predictability. A Nonlinear Approach" Stefan Verginer achieved first place in the CFA Society Austria Prize 2017. Evaluation criteria for the prize are practical relevance, processing and presentation, innovative approach and research methodology. Read the full report
Josef Zorn, Class of 2013
For his presentation "Risk Factors as Building Blocks of Asset Allocation", which is based on his master thesis, Josef Zorn was awarded the "Value Day Award 2015", which was held at the FH Voralberg.
CFA Research Challenge 2017
The team of the University of Innsbruck reached the second place in a close head-to-head race at the CFA Research Challenge in Vienna. Read the full report
CFA Research Challenge 2016
At the CFA Research Challenge 2016 the team of the University of Innsbruck only had to admit defeat to the team of WU Vienna.
Alumni
In spring 2018, we conducted a survey among our graduates about their satisfaction with our Master's program and their work experience after graduation.
Approximately half of the survey participants stated that they had obtained their Bachelor's degree at another university. The majority of these students obtained their Bachelor's degree in Austria or Germany.
Overall, the majority of participating graduates are still satisfied or even very satisfied with our Master's programme. They stated that they especially appreciated the close contact to the lecturers and tutors as well as the cohesion among the students. To our surprise they also said that they liked writing their master thesis ;-) The vast majority of the graduates indicated that they would recommend the Master's programme and the University of Innsbruck to others.
More than every third participant stated that she had taken a job in the banking sector after graduating with a Master's degree. Her current employers include major international banks such as Uni Credit and Deutsche Bank, but also local banks such as our partner bank BTV and specialist banks such as BMW Bank. Other employers frequently mentioned include asset management companies, IT companies and start-ups. Many alumni are also employed in corporate finance departments of large industrial companies such as Swarovski, Swarco and Liebherr. In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents said they were already in employment when they joined and more than 90% said they were within six months of graduation.