Topic outline

  • Announcements

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    • General Module Announcements Forum
      View all general news and announcements from the your module leaders.
    • Student forum

      Forum Description: This forum is available for everyone to post messages to. Students can raise questions or discuss issues related to the module. Students are encouraged to post to this forum and it will be checked daily by the module leaders. Students should feel free to reply to other students if they are able to.

  • Week 1: Introduction to APD1

  • Week 2 : Introduction to the IFoA

    In session 2 we will cover who the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries are and what they do, and introduce the core areas actuaries work

  • Week 4: Guest Lecture - Josephine Robertson

  • Week 5: Actuaries in Climate Change

  • Week 8: Optional Video Resources

  • Module Description

    This is a compulsory module on the Actuarial Science programme that is designed to help you identify and develop the professional and business skills expected of an actuary. 

    The module is taught by practicing actuaries with a wide range of experience, who will bring in additional guest lecturers to talk about their career paths and work. This is a great opportunity for students to speak to actuaries from a range of professional backgrounds in their first year of studies and to understand the shape their career might take.

    Performance in this module contributes towards attaining exemptions from the IFoA's exams. 

    The module is assessed via coursework with 3 assignments worth 25%, 25% and 50% of the total grade.

    Module Description

     In this module we will be covering:

    • what is an actuary, what skills do they need and what are some of the roles they fill?
    • employability skills which you will find useful in the coming years
    • an introduction to environmental, social and governance factors which are becoming increasingly important in business


    Learning Aims and Outcomes

    The learning objectives for this module are divided between:

    Academic Content – new technical material that will complement the teaching in other modules;

    Disciplinary Skills – skills that relate to the development of higher level skills and skills specific to actuarial and financial disciplines; and

    Attributes – that describe a mixture of knowledge, skills, values and behaviours that apply to your future academic and vocational development. The attributes are aligned to the Queen Mary Statement of Graduate Attributes (http://www.distinction.qmul.ac.uk/).

    Academic Content

    Skills, knowledge and work of an actuary.

    Overview of the insurance, investment and pensions industries.

    Legal & regulatory background to insurance.

    Disciplinary Skills

    Analyse multiple sources of information and produce an effective summary of the key points.

    Communicate, in writing and orally, complex subjects to a non-technical audience.

    Explain the work of an actuary to a non-technical audience.

    Describe the legal & regulatory background to insurance.

    Attributes

    Acquire and apply knowledge in a rigorous way.

    Engage with the professional world.

    Respond appropriately to criticism.

    Developing transferable key skills, including teamwork.

    Develop effective spoken and written English, with strength in communicating technical information to a non-technical audience.

    Produce analyses which are grounded in evidence.


  • Lecture Schedule

    • The following lectures are scheduled to take place:

      Lecture 1, 3 October: Meeting Lloyd Richards and Masimba Zata, introduction to the actuarial profession and to APD1

      Lecture 2, 10 October: Introduction to the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries and overviews of the core areas actuaries work

      Lecture 3, 17 October: TBD

      Lecture 4, 24 October: GUEST LECTURE: Josephine Robertson, AVP Pricing Actuary at SCOR

      Lecture 5, 31 October: GUEST LECTURE: Stelio Passaris, Longevity Systems Manager at SCOR

      READING WEEK 7 November

      Lecture 6, 14 November: GUEST LECTURE: John Harney, Senior Consultant at Aon

      Lecture 7: 21 November: GUEST LECTURE: Karim Tawfik, CFO at SEI Investments

      Lecture 8, 28 November: GUEST LECTURE: Ashley Mould, Senior Consultant at LCP 

      Lecture 9, 5 December: GUEST LECTURE: Andrew Dore, Manager at EY

      Lecture 10, 12 December: Wrap-up of Semester A

  • Late Submission Policy

    • Late Submission Policy:

      Late submissions will be docked 5% for every 24 hours the submission is late (the first 5% deduction applies from the moment the deadline has passed). Submissions that are more than 7 days late will receive 0 marks.

      Students can apply for Extenuating Circumstances.


  • Semester B, Week 1: Introduction

  • Semester B, Week 2: 'The Actuary' Magazine

  • Semester B, Week 3: Actuaries as Entrepreneurs

  • Semester B, Week 4: Actuaries as Business Leaders

  • Semester B, Week 5: Actuaries and Corporate Governance

  • Semester B, Week 6: No lecture (Reading Week)

  • Semester B, Week 9: Insurance Accounting & Reporting

  • Semester B, Week 10: Risk-Based Capital

  • Semester B, Week 11: Self-Awareness & Soft Skills

  • Q-Review

  • Online reading list

  • Assessment information