- Outline the process of formation and development
The Faculty of Finance and Banking, Foreign Trade University was established on April 1, 2006 under Decision No. 1798/QD-TCHC on the basis of the International Payment Department under the Faculty of Foreign Trade Economics (now the School of Economics and International Business) is a right step, demonstrating the strategic vision of Foreign Trade University to move from single-disciplinary training to multi-disciplinary training.
Since then, over 15 years of development, the Faculty has made great strides in both quantity and quality. From the initial team of only 12 lecturers in the International Payments department, now, the Faculty has 43 lecturers (including 5 Associate Professors, 11 PhDs, 27 Masters) under 4 departments – International Finance, Corporate Finance, Securities Investment and Money – Banking. A team of enthusiastic, highly qualified lecturers, educated in developed countries around the world with the majority of them graduated from countries with the most developed financial and banking systems in the US and Europe. Besides, the Faculty also has a team of experienced support staff in charge of administrative work and paperwork and procedures to support students in the learning process.
2. Develop training activities and support learners
At the time of its establishment, the Faculty had only one major. Today, at bachelor’s level, the Faculty offers 5 programs, including 3 standard programs, 1 high quality program taught in English and 1 international advanced program. At graduate level, the Faculty offers 2 master programs and is developing a doctoral training program in Finance – Banking. From only 280 students in the first course of K45, the Faculty’s full-time undergraduate and graduate students have now reached about 2,000 students.
For the past 15 years, the Faculty of Finance and Banking has constantly innovated and created by developing teaching content based on the programs of prestigious universities in the world. The Faculty’s programs and majors actively contribute to human resource training and knowledge dissemination in the field of Finance – Banking. The Faculty’s 3 standard programs equip fundamental knowledge of the operation of various types of financial markets and financial institutions as well as related components and factors. Majoring in International Finance supplies students with knowledge of the international financial system, international financial markets, multinational corporate finance; majoring in Banking provides students with a basic foundation in the system of commercial banks and credit institutions – a parallel and influential capital channel to the financial market; majoring in Financial Analysis and Investment gives learners diverse skills in business valuation, M&A consulting or securities and derivative investment. The Faculty’s advanced and High quality programs are highly international, integrating content that allows students to take global prestigious certificates in the field of Finance and Banking such as CFA, CIIA, CITF, CDCS , CPA… With postgraduate programs, the Master of Finance – Banking was included in the enrollment in 2011, and by 2019 it is designed into two parallel programs, namely the Research-oriented Master of Science and Technology and Master of Applied Science in order to better meet social needs. These are two programs that have a large percentage of students working in the field of finance – banking, contributing to improving the level of human resources for organizations and businesses in this field.
As a confirmation of quality, the Faculty’s training programs have been recognized by prestigious international and domestic organizations. In 2018, the Faculty’s High quality Program was one of the few programs in Vietnam recognized by the CFA Institute (USA), a very prestigious international professional organization in the field of financial and stock investment. This recognition creates a variety of scholarship opportunities and other advantages for students who apply for the annual CFA certification exam in investment analysis. The program has a minimum of 70% of teaching knowledge required by the CFA Institute. Continuously in the following years, the Faculty’s High quality Program continues to be recognized as meeting Southeast Asian quality standards AUN-QA (in 2019) and the bachelor program in Financial Analysis and Investment meets Vietnamese quality standards (in 2020). Previously, in 2018, the Faculty also received the Certificate of Merit from the Minister of Finance for its contributions in training human resources in the Finance – Banking sector.
The Faculty also has effective international cooperation activities, contributing to improving the integration of training in the field of Finance – Banking according to international standards. Since its establishment, the Faculty has actively cooperated with universities in Europe, allowing its students to study on exchange and transfer to many prestigious universities such as University of Southampton, University of Reading, London Metropolitan University, University of Huddersfield (UK), University of Mannheim, University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). In 2011, the Faculty of Finance and Banking together with the Center for International Development (CID) cooperated with the University of Rennes 1 (France) to launch the Master Program in Finance – Treasury (taught in English) at Foreign Trade University
In particular, in 2019, the Faculty cooperated with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), a country with a very developed banking-finance system, to deploy the Advanced Program in Finance – Banking. This is a program taught in English, imported 100% from FHNW. Students have the opportunity to study in Switzerland and receive dual degrees of FHNW and FTU. As a result, students can easily adapt to the international learning and working environment at a higher level of study. The program’s lecturers come from the Swiss partner school together with FTU lecturers who have many years of experience, are professionally educated at famous domestic and foreign universities, and the modules are taught in English. In particular, students can intern at banks, finance and securities companies right from year 2 to accumulate practical working experience.
The knowledge of Finance – Banking is always updated, improving the academic quality and practical approach in the new context. With the support from the University and Military Government Bank (MBBank) in putting into use the Digital Creative Hub (FTU Digital Hub), the Faculty has developed many new subjects with high technology application content such as Fintech, Personal Finance… and updated 4.0 contents into existing subjects of training majors, better meet practical needs in the current digital transformation context.
Every year, the Faculty’s partners offer internship opportunities for students of the Faculty right from the second year, as well as staff recruitment opportunities for final year students. A large percentage of students have had practical visits, internships as well as working after graduation at famous organizations and enterprises in the financial sector such as State Securities Commission, Hanoi Stock Exchange, banks such as Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV, MBBank, VPBank, SHB, TP Bank, MSB…, securities companies such as VCBS, SSI, PSI, VNDirect, VPS…, auditing organizations and companies such as EY, Deloitte, CPA, ICAEW…, financial data information companies such as FiinGroup…
Besides formal training, since the financial market started to have a strong development, since 2006, the Faculty has cooperated with the Center for Scientific Research and Training of Securities of the State Securities Commission in equipping knowledge about securities and securities investment to the public through short-term training courses. The Faculty also cooperated with the Center for Science and Investment Research in issuing securities certificates to a large number of teachers in the Faculty. In addition, the Faculty of Finance – Banking also actively contributes to the honing of knowledge and skills in the field of finance – banking for students through extracurricular activities. For many years now, the Faculty has always worked with organizations and enterprises such as the State Securities Commission, VCBS, SHB, and VP Bank who are professional sponsors for I-INVEST and The Banker competitions of 2 clubs- Securities Investment Club (SIC) and Future Bankers (FBN), of which I-INVEST is the largest contest in the North in the field of Finance – Securities. Faculty’s students have also won high prizes at the global CFA Research Challenge for many years.
3. Research activities
In addition to training activities, the Faculty of Finance – Banking has also become one of the leading units in scientific research. Faculty members undertake many scientific research projects at State level, Ministry level, State Securities Commission level, Provincial level or equivalent in the field of Finance – Banking. Today, the Faculty has had 141 scientific publications at the university level, 95 at the national level and 24 at the international level, with many articles published in prestigious journals with the Impact Factor index from 1 to 6. FBF regularly organizes national and international conferences as well as professional seminars on this field. In 2020, sharing the atmosphere of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnamese stock market, the Faculty successfully organized the Workshop “Vietnamese Financial Market: Two Decades of Development and Integration” with the participation of representatives leaders of the State Securities Commission of Hanoi Stock Exchange, securities companies, banks, enterprises providing financial data – securities as well as scientists from many universities in the economic and financial sector.
It can be said that, thanks to quality training and scientific research activities during the past 15 years since its establishment, the Faculty of Finance – Banking, Foreign Trade University has gradually affirmed its position in contributing to human resource training and knowledge transfer in the field of Finance – Banking in Vietnam.
4. Outstanding Features
– The lecturers of the Faculty are of high quality, all with a Master’s degree or higher, with a percentage of doctoral degrees among the top of the University (nearly 50%). The vast majority of faculty members are educated in developed countries.
– The curriculum is highly integrated and global- oriented, with updated content of knowledge of the 4.0 era, combined with traditional values to create the Foreign Trade brand.
– Strong student support system, two student clubs (SIC Securities Investment Club and FBN Future Bankers) sponsored by the Faculty have high quality professional activities, many popular activities such as contests I-Invest, CFA Research Challenge
– Have a study program recognized by reputable international quality assurance and professional organizations (CFA, AUN-QA).
5. Brief information about the Faculty’s training programs
- Undergraduate level: 05 programs
o Bachelor’s Program in Financial Analysis and Investment (according to Vietnamese quality standards)
o Bachelor’s Program in International Finance
o Bachelor’s Program in Banking
o High-quality bachelor’s program in International Banking and Finance, taught in English (accredited by CFA Institute, meeting Southeast Asian quality standards AUN-QA)
o Advanced bachelor’s program in Finance and Banking, taught in English (in partnership with the University of Applied Arts and Sciences Northwestern Switzerland – FHNW)
- Postgraduate level: 02 programs
o Research-oriented Master of Finance – Banking program
o Application-oriented Master of Finance – Banking program