In November of 2023, University of Bridgeport’s undergraduate Finance program earned its CFA affiliation through the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, becoming one of only 277 colleges and universities in the U.S. to hold this honor.
The CFA Institute is a global association that sets benchmarks for the standards and ethics of investment professionals. Affiliate universities must incorporate at least 70 percent of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge into their curriculum, with particular emphasis on the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
What does the CFA designation mean for Finance students?
“This puts UB on the same level as much larger universities in Connecticut and beyond,” says Professor Harold “Buddy” Hartmann, who managed the University’s application for affiliation. “We were much more than the required 70% compliance, closer to 90%. There wasn’t much CFA material at the undergraduate level that we were not already teaching.”
By adhering to these standards, UB is giving its students the highest levels of professional preparation, including training for the CFA level-one exam.
This exam is notoriously difficult and UB’s targeted Finance curriculum helps students prepare for the test. Students can expect to learn a thorough range of advanced investment analysis topics, including business analysis, statistics, probability theory, derivatives, economics, financial analysis, corporate finance, and portfolio management. Ethics is also a key component, including compliance and reporting rules for managing investors’ money.
“We’ve integrated the CFP ethics handbook into both the undergraduate and graduate programs already,” says Hartmann. “And we are slowly installing more ethics modules throughout the curriculum.”
By earning CFA certification, students can anticipate higher-paying jobs in finance, banking, investment management, and even hedge fund management. Top employers of CFA charter-holders include companies like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, UBS, and Bank of Canada.
“The CFA designation is the most prestigious designation in the finance industry,” says Hartmann. “CFAs assess risk, create and implement model portfolios, and some decide how banks and hedge funds invest.”
Hands-on learning — career-ready experience
Many students apply to UB’s Finance program to learn from entrepreneurs and practitioners working in the field. Hartmann has worked in accounting and wealth management for decades, and many other professors have similar experience. Professors Congsheng Wu and Gew Rae Kim also give their Finance students hands-on experience with their Commodity Challenge and Stock Market Challenge. “We’re able to give them actual insights into what they’re going to be doing in their careers,” says Hartmann. “And, of course, we have connections to certain firms and recruiters to get our students traction for jobs after graduation.”
“This preparation is another part of UB’s secret formula for career readiness that includes training, events, and entrepreneurial opportunities,” says Ernest C. Trefz School of Business Director Timothy Raynor. “Our Finance students leave here with three Bloomberg certificates, experience in commodity and stock market challenges, and the full CFA curriculum.”
Through this program, UB students can also receive up to three CFA program scholarships each year, as well as three Certificate in Investment Performance (CIPM) scholarships. The first three scholarships were awarded this past fall. “The CFA affiliation will give us a huge boost in our career,” said Kartikeya Narayan Asthana, a scholarship recipient. These scholarships help offset the cost of sitting for the CFA level-one exam. “People sometimes work in the finance industry for 10 years and still cannot proceed with these exams,” shared scholarship recipient Viktoriia Sheremet. “It will be a really great addition to my resume.”
The next step for UB will be to seek affiliation for graduate students completing their MS in Finance, anticipated for the fall of 2025. In addition to enabling Finance graduate students to apply for levels two and three of the CFA affiliation for the MS program will result in three more scholarships.
“When we make educational decisions, we look at the biggest schools, from University of Texas to University of Connecticut,” says Hartmann proudly. “We are a smaller school, but we are not smaller in terms of the quality of education.”
“This is a multiple-modality education,” agrees Raynor. “We are focused on career readiness no matter where or what the need is.”
Eric D. Lehman is the director of publications and associate professor of English at University of Bridgeport. He is the author or editor of 22 books, including “New England Nature, A History of Connecticut Food,” and “Bridgeport: Tales from the Park City.” His biography of Charles Stratton, “Becoming Tom Thumb,” won the Henry Russell Hitchcock Award from the Victorian Society of America and was chosen as one of the American Library Association’s outstanding university press books of the year. His novella “Shadows of Paris” and novel “9 Lupine Road” were finalists for the Connecticut Book Award. He has been consulted on diverse subjects and quoted by The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, the BBC, the History Channel, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, and The Wall Street Journal.