Quant Guide 2021: Paris-Diderot University

Paris, France

 

 

The University of Paris-Diderot’s M2 Random Modelling, Finance and Data Science programme has had a strong year, muscling into the Quant Guide’s top 20 programmes by dint of: increases to its employment rate, which has risen from 90% to 95%; its total number of applications, which has risen from 240 to 380; and its number of teaching staff, which has risen from 38 to 40.

The programme, led again by professor of mathematics Huyên Pham, has also become more selective. As is the case with many university courses facing a rise in applications, the institution took the opportunity to issue slightly fewer offers compared with last year. Among successful applicants, it proved popular; 70 of the 90 offer holders accepted their place. And all of them enrolled, furthermore, which is striking in a Quant Guide where a majority of courses reported high numbers of deferrals.

This is also the first year that the programme has reported salary details. On average, M2 graduates are currently earning base salaries of $67,000 six months after completion of the course.

Programme director Pham says the course has incorporated one new module in 2020: a class entitled Quant Analysis, which is taught by a newcomer: recent hire Stéphane Crépey, a professor of applied mathematics. Modules that have proven popular over the last year of partially remote teaching, Pham adds, include classes in stochastic control in finance; machine learning in finance; financial time series; and an introductory course on reinforcement learning.

Student internships – a key section of the programme, linked to the writing of a master’s thesis that, in turn, must be defended – took place in a mixed mode: 10% were fully remote; and 90% were partially remote, partially on site.

View this institution’s entry in the 2020 guide

View other universities and a guide to the metrics tables