Financial Technology (FinTech) is an emerging engineering discipline that focuses on employing technological innovations in financial practices. Leveraging on the cutting-edge developments of engineering, particularly information technology and data sciences, it demonstrates an unprecedented potential to revolutionize the nature of the traditional financial service industry in a fundamental way. The advents of digital currencies, crowdfunding platforms, robot investment advisors, big data analytics, and algorithm-driven trading strategies profoundly impact the ways people make payments online and offline, store and manage their wealth, and finance their businesses. On one hand, FinTech significantly improves end-users service experience, making the financial industry more inclusive and productive. On the other hand, it imposes a crucial challenge of understanding and analyzing its social benefits and risks economically, technologically, and legally, so as to foster its healthy developments. Nowadays FinTech has gained tremendous momentum and applicability in the finance industry, creating a great amount of employment opportunities to accommodate innovative young talents.
To meet foreseeable strong demands for FinTech professionals in the coming decades, the Faculty of Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) launched a new four-year undergraduate programme in FinTech in the 2017/18 academic year, the first of its kind in Hong Kong. It aims to nurture leadership and entrepreneurship among the next generation of local talent in support of Hong Kong’s endeavor to grow into an international FinTech hub.
This programme features a strong collaboration between Faculty of Engineering and the Faculties of Business Administration, Law, and Social Science. This multi-disciplinary training will equip students with both in-depth mastery of cutting-edge technical skills and a broad perspective on their applications and potential legal, economic, and societal impacts. The programme will closely collaborate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) to organise internships and overseas exchanges for students, encouraging them to apply theory to practice. Moreover, this programme will seek accreditation with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE), as well as recognition from other relevant professional bodies and financial institutions.