IFoA is UK's only chartered professional body, representing 28,000 members worldwide.

KUALA LUMPUR: UCSI University has become the first and only private university in Malaysia to be recognised by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), joining the ranks of an elite group of universities like Oxford, Imperial College London, LSE and Warwick.

Students who are pursuing UCSI's Actuarial Science programmes will now be granted module exemption for IFoA's Fellowship and Certified Actuarial Analyst exams.

"This is indeed a notable achievement and I wish to thank our actuarial science department for facilitating this achievement," said Professor Dr Ooi Keng Boon, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Information Science. "This would not have been possible without their efforts."

IFoA is UK's only chartered professional body dedicated to educating, developing and regulating actuaries based both in the UK and internationally. They represent over 28,000 members worldwide in driving innovation and research in the field.

With this recognition, students who have completed their Mathematics in Interest Rates course – taken in year one of their BSc (Hons) Actuarial Science or BSc (Hons) Actuarial Science and Finance programme at UCSI – with a B minimum will be exempted from IFoA’s first Core Technical module on Financial Mathematics, also known as CT1.

In total, there are nine Core Technical modules. Aspiring students seeking the Associate status from IFoA will need to complete them all with an additional three Core Application modules to qualify.

"Moving forward, we are looking to obtain more exemptions, especially for the CT3 and CT8 modules," shared Associate Professor Dr Ngerng Miang Hong, senior academic at the faculty's Actuarial Science and Applied Statistics department, who worked closely with his fellow lecturer Mr Lai Wan Fei on this endeavour. "We hope to eventually gain a block exemption, covering CT1 to CT8."

IFoA's CT1 also leads to an exemption for the Society of Actuaries (SoA)’s Exam FM in Financial Mathematics due to an agreement between the two professional bodies.

UCSI was also the first private university in Malaysia to be approved by SoA, a leading global professional organisation for actuaries. Students have been known to pass all five professional papers even before their third year of undergraduate study – remarkable achievements that have cemented a sterling track record for the faculty.

This recognition will be made official with a signing ceremony between UCSI and IFoA, to be held next month on October 10.