Qualifications

Undergraduate study

Baccalaureus Scientiae (3 years)

REGISTRATIONS:

 

Take a look at BMI's Marketing video to excite you of what to expect when studying any of the four programmes.

The NWU Virtual Tour will give you a warm introduction of our beautiful campuses and studies at the Centre for BMI.
 

 

Each of these programmes is structured with a specific outcome pertaining to the knowledge and skills required for the programme outcome.

To download the academic yearbook, click here.

Bursaries available, click here.


 

Postgraduate study

Honours (1 year)
The BSc (Hons) Actuarial Science programme of the Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics® (BMI) is accredited by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFA) to recommend exemption for CT1-CT8 (https://www.actuaries.org.uk/). The Centre for BMI is also accredited for the same courses (A101-A103 and A201-A205) at the Actuarial Society of South Africa (http://www.actuarialsociety.org.za/). Furhermore, PRMIA (Professional Risk Managers’ International Association) has accredited the Hons BSc Quantitative Risk Management training programme for Level I and II of their PRM (professional risk manager) designation (see http://www.prmia.org/).  Upon completion of the BSc (Hons), BMI students are well prepared for the FRM (Financial Risk Management) and CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exams. In addition, ERM-II accredited the BMI risk training and research programmes. 

To download the academic yearbook, click here

 

MSc (1 year)
In the second semester of the BMI master’s degree, students are placed at a specific company for 3-4 days per week to do an industry project as part of the academic requirements of the programme. They are then required to apply their knowledge and skills in solving a real problem for the company, under the joint supervision of both a BMI academic supervisor and an industry project officer, with the dual requirement that value is added to the company as well as demonstrating the ability to conduct academic research commensurate with a masters level. This process is well-structured and managed according to a meticulously-articulated methodology that has proven to be very popular in the industry. This process has several benefits, amongst others, that students find work easily, and with the inputs from industry, the projects result in highly relevant research outcomes. BMI students are highly regarded by industry as seen in the statements made by prominent executives (see the Quotes section at the end of the document). Since its inception, the Centre for BMI has produced 327 MSc students, each of whom has delivered an industry directed research report. Most of these reports were evaluated very positively by industry as adding direct business value (85% of these were rated as higher than 3 out of 5 on a 5-point scale).

The programme delivers about 35 MSc students to industry each year. Another statistic indicative of the popularity of the programme in industry is that the number of project requests received from industry each year, outnumbers the available students at a ratio of almost 2:1.

To download the academic yearbook, click here.
 

PhD

Herewith more information on the PhD-degree in Risk-Analysis at The Research unit for BMI.


Industry clients

The current agreements with industry partners Barclays Africa and SAS are not exclusive in nature. This enables similar agreements with their competitors, allowing BMI to broaden its customer base and service offering to the risk industry. 
Although the Centre is supported by Barclays Africa and SAS, the Centre for BMI has always prided itself on its independence. For example:

  • BMI graduates are available and have been provided to all companies that may need their skills;
  • Industry directed research projects have been conducted for a number of other clients;
  • BMI applied research projects have been carried out predominantly for Barclays Africa, but also for other banks;
  • Although the Centre is supported by Barclays Africa and SAS, the Centre for BMI has always taken pride in its independence;
  • BMI has a strong working relationship with BASA (the Banking Council of South Africa) in its research programme and also involves other universities in their directed research.

Below find a list of some of the clients that made use of the services provided by the Centre:

  • Alexander Forbes Insurance Co.
  • Andile (Pty) Ltd.
  • Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd.
  • Deutsche Bank AG.
  • Ernst & Young Global Ltd.
  • HSBC Bank PLC.
  • IQ Group.
  • JD Group Limited
  • KPMG Services (Proprietary) Ltd.
  • Liberty Group.
  • MMI Holdings Ltd.
  • Monocle Solutions (Pty) Ltd.
  • Mutual & Federal Insurance Co. Ltd.
  • Neo Laboratories Co. Ltd.
  • OUTsurance Insurance Co. Ltd.
  • Rand Merchant Bank.
  • Santam.
  • South African Reserve Bank.
  • Stanlib.
  • Telkom SA SOC Ltd.
  • TransUnion Credit Bureau (Pty) Ltd.
  • Truworths.
  • True North Partners South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
  • Algorithmics (SA) (Pty) Ltd.
  • Barclays Bank PLC.
  • Experian Information Solutions Inc.
  • Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.
  • First National Bank, a division of First Rand Bank.
  • Investec.
  • IQ Risk.
  • King Price Insurance Co. Ltd.
  • Lendex Group Ltd.
  • Lloyds Bank PLC.
  • Momentum, a division of MMI Group Ltd.
  • MTN (Pty) Ltd.
  • Nedbank Ltd.
  • Old Mutual Life Assurance Co.
  • PwC.
  • Real People (Pty) Ltd.
  • SAS Institute Inc.
  • Standard Bank.
  • SunGard.
  • The Foschini Group
  • XDS (Pty) Ltd.