BSc (Hons) Actuarial Studies
1.	Objectives

The programme is intended to provide students with the necessary skills to start a career in the insurance and risk assessment industries. Businesses as well as individuals confront hazards on a daily basis. Actuarial science provides the insurance business with the tools to develop products that afford protection from such hazards. It also provides Governments with insight into the impact of changing demography on the cost of social protection.  It draws upon a variety of disciplines such as statistics, economics, finance and information technology, all of which are covered in this lively and challenging programme.
2.	General Entry Requirements

In accordance with the University General Entry Requirements for admission to undergraduate
degree Programmes.
3.	Programme Requirements
Minimum of 3 ‘A’ levels with grade A in Mathematics and at least grade B in any 2 other subjects

4.	Programme Duration
Normal	Maximum
Degree					3 Years		  5 Years

5.	Minimum Credits Required for Degree Award: 103
Breakdown as follows:
Credits from	
Core Taught Modules	Project/ Dissertation	Electives	GEMs	
84	10	3	6	

Modules	Credits	
Core 		
Statistics	51	
Economics  	21	
Finance and Accounting	6	
Law	3	
CSE	3	
Dissertation	10	
Electives	3	
GEMs	6	
Total	103	
6.	Credits per Year

As per University Regulation.
7.	Assessment

Each module will be assessed over 100 marks with details as follows (unless otherwise specified):
Assessment will be based on a written examination of 2 to 3 hour duration (normally a paper of 2 hour duration for modules carrying less or equal to three credits and 3 hour paper for modules carrying six credits and on continuous assessment done during the semester or year. 
Written examinations for all modules, except for DE modules and some semester modules, whether taught in semester 1 or in semester 2 or both, will be carried out at the end of the academic year (unless stated otherwise). 
The continuous assessment will count for 20 – 30% of the overall percentage mark of the module (s). Continuous assessment may be based on seminars and/or assignments and should include at least two (2) assignments/tests per module. There will be a compulsory class test for all modules taught in semester 1 at the end of semester 1 of the given academic year unless stated otherwise in the Programme Structure. 
An overall total of 40% for combined continuous assessment and written examination components would be required to pass the module, without minimum thresholds within the individual continuous assessment and written examination. The same criterion will apply for modules being assessed jointly. Note that all overall mark for the two modules will be considered and not the individual marks for each of the two modules.
8.	Submission Deadline for Dissertation

Final copy: Last week day of March of the Academic Year by 4.00 p.m at latest.

9.	List of Modules – BSc (Hons) Actuarial Studies

Code
CORE	Module Name	Hrs/Wrk
L+P	Credits	
DFA 1020Y(1)	Accounting and Financial Analysis 	3 + 0	6	
ECON 1005Y(1) 	Introduction to Economic Analysis 	3 + 0	6	
CSE 1010e(1)	Introduction to Information Technology 	O.E.	3	
STAT 110Y(1)	Mathematics for Actuarial Science	3 + 0	6	
ECON 1212(1)	Principles of Financial Economics	3 + 0	3	
STAT 1011Y(1)	Statistical Methods	3 + 0	6	
ECON 2021Y(3)	Actuarial Economics	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2007Y(3)	Actuarial Mathematics and Contingencies	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2103(3)	Introduction to Time Series Analysis	3 + 0	3	
ECON 2101(3)	Investment Analysis 1	3 + 0	3	
STAT 2008Y(3)	Linear Models	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2009Y(3)	Probability and Statistical Inference	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2202(3)	Applied Stochastic Processes	3 + 0	3	
STAT 2203(3)	Survival Analysis	3 + 0	3	
STAT 3018Y(5)	Actuarial Models	3 + 0	6	
STAT 3019Y(5)	Bayesian Inference and Credibility Theory	3 + 0	6	
STAT 3000Y(5)	Dissertation		10	
LAWS 3299(5)	Legal aspects of Business and Finance	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3181 (5)	Risk Management	3 + 0	3	
				
ELECTIVES				
STAT 3101(5)	Applied Time Series Analysis	3 + 0	3	
STAT 3202(5)	Demographic Methods	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3281(5)	Financial Modelling and Forecasting	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3112	Mauritian Economy	3 + 0	3	
STAT 3102(5)	Sample Design and Survey methods	3 + 0	3	
				
	2 GEMS		6	

Note 1 : Offering of electives would be subject to availability of resources and critical mass. The Department reserves the right to offer additional electives.
Note 2: Students will have to complete a minimum of two (2) General Education Module (GEMs) over the three years of Programme of Studies. List of GEMs will be posted on Faculty Notice Boards at the start of every semester.

10.	   Programme Plan – Bsc (Hons) Actuarial Studies

YEAR 1

Code
CORE	Module Name	Hrs/Wrk
L+P	Credits	
DFA 1020Y(1)	Accounting and Financial Analysis 	3 + 0	6	
ECON 1005Y(1) 	Introduction to Economic Analysis 	3 + 0	6	
CSE 1010e(1)	Introduction to Information Technology 	O.E.	3	
STAT 1010Y(1)	Mathematics for Actuarial Science	3 + 0	6	
ECON 1212(1)	Principles of Financial Economics2	3 + 0	3	
STAT 1011Y(1)	Statistical Methods	3 + 0	6	
	2 GEMs		6	

YEAR 2

Code
CORE	Module Name	Hrs/Wrk
L+P	Credits	
ECON 2021Y(3)	Actuarial Economics	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2007Y(3)	Actuarial Mathematics and Contingencies	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2103(3)	Introduction to Time Series Analysis1	3 + 0	3	
ECON 2101(3)	Investment Analysis 11	3 + 0	3	
STAT 2008Y(3)	Linear Models	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2009Y(3)	Probability and Statistical Inference	3 + 0	6	
STAT 2202(3)	Applied Stochastic Processes 2	3 + 0	3	
STAT 2203(3)	Survival Analysis2	3 + 0	3	

YEAR 3

Code
CORE	Module Name	Hrs/Wrk
L+P	Credits	
STAT 3018Y(5)	Actuarial Models	3 + 0	6	
STAT 3019Y(5)	Bayesian Inference and Credibility Theory	3 + 0	6	
STAT 3000Y(5)	Dissertation		10	
LAWS 3299(5)	Legal aspects of Business and Finance1	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3181 (5)	Risk Management1	3 + 0	3	
ELECTIVES: Choose ONE from:			
STAT 3101(5)	Applied Time Series Analysis1	3 + 0	3	
STAT 3202(5)	Demographic Methods1	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3281(5)	Financial Modelling and Forecasting2	3 + 0	3	
ECON 3112	Mauritian Economy1	3 + 0	3	
STAT 3102(5)	Sample Design and Survey Methods2	3 + 0	3	

11.	Outline Syllabus

YEAR 1
DFA 1020Y(1) – ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
The Role of Accounting Information; Recording and Summarising Transactions; Accounting Concepts & Preparing Final Accounts; Adjustments to Final Accounts; Capital v/s Revenue Expenditure; Bank Reconciliation Statement; Accounting Ratios & Interpretation Techniques; Introduction to Group Accounting & related issues; Accounting for Internal Decision Making Techniques; Elements of Cost; Costing Methods & Techniques; Decision Making Techniques; Accounting for Manufacturers; Budgets.

ECON 1005Y(1) – INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Tools of Economic Analysis. Consumer Choice and Applications. Production and Costs: Technology, Cost Functions and Cost Curves. Factor Market Analysis. Competitive Markets, Monopoly and Monopoly Behaviour, Oligopoly, Introduction to Game Theory. Market Failures and Externalities. The Keynesian Model of National Income Determination. Theories of Consumption, Savings and Investment. Money and Banking. Monetary Policy. General Equilibrium and Comparative Statics in the IS-LM Model. Inflation and Unemployment. The AD-AS Model, Expectations and the Phillips Cuve. BoP, Exchange Rates and General Equilibrium in the Open Economy.

CSE 1010e(1) –INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
IT and computers, stepping in the computer, input and output devices, secondary storage, programming, systems software, applications software, systems development, computer networks, the internet, computer security, software utilities, issues and trends in IT

STAT 1010Y(1) – MATHEMATICS FOR ACTUARIAL SCIENCE
Differential and Integral Calculus, Limits, Sequences and Series, Ordinary Differential Equation, Complex Numbers, Polar Coordinates, Calculus of several variables, Systems of Linear Equations, Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, Vector Spaces, Double and Triple Integration, Numerical Analysis.

ECON 1212(1) - Principles of Financial Economics
An overview of Financial Markets; Capital Markets; Time value of money; Introduction to concepts of risk and return; understanding opportunity sets; efficient frontier; and minimum variance portfolio; CML; introduction to asset pricing models; SML; the Efficient Market Hypothesis; Introduction to Bonds valuation; introduction to financial derivatives.

STAT 1011Y(1) – STATISTICAL METHODS
Objectives of statistical analysis. Data Structures. Data Collection. Data Summaries: rates, ratios, percentages, averages and measures of variation and skewness. Organisation and Presentation of Data. Index numbers. Time Series Analysis. Correlation and Regression.
Probability. Probability Distributions. Statistical Inference. Estimation and Tests of Hypotheses: the case of Mean, Proportion, Difference between Means and Proportions, Variance. The Chi-squared Distribution and Goodness of Fit. Inference with respect to Correlation and Regression.

YEAR 2

ECON 2021Y(3) - Actuarial Economics
Market structures.  Pricing practices.  Product differentiation.  Industry Structure and Performance.  Risk Analysis.  Economics of information.  Adverse selection and moral hazards. Incomplete markets. Principal-agent problem. Financial and labour markets. Commodity markets. Game theory, collusion and contestable markets. Strategic Behaviour.  Globalisation of markets. Property rights.
Consumption and investment.  Government spending and borrowing.  Fiscal policy.  Money and financial markets.  Central banking and macroeconomic management.  Labour market. Theories of business cycle. Growth models.  Structural adjustment.  Harmonisation of fiscal, monetary, trade and exchange rate policies.

STAT 2007Y(3) - Actuarial Mathematics and Contingencies
Time Value of Money, Annuities, Loans and Amortizations, Bonds, General Cash Flows and Portfolios, Immunization, Introduction to Derivatives: Options, Forwards, Futures, Swaps, Hedging Strategies, Life Insurances and Contingent Annuities, Life Insurance Present-value Random Variables, Insurance Premiums and Reserves, Applications of Survival Models and Markov Chain Models.

STAT 2103(3) – Introduction to Time Series analysis
Examples of time series. Objectives of tsa. Time series plot. Additive and multiplicative models. Decomposition. Exponential smoothing. Forecasting using Holt-Winters method. Autocovariance function.  Random walk. White Noise. Stationarity.  MA processes. AR processes. Introduction to Box-Jenkins methods. Simple ARIMA processes. Model specification, estimation & diagnostics.

ECON 2101(3) - Investment Analysis 1
Portfolio Theory; Capital Asset Pricing Model; Fama and French Three Factor Model; Arbitrage Pricing Theory; Levels of Market Efficiency: Tests and Empirical Evidence; Technical and Fundamental Analysis; Portfolio Evaluation; Bonds Valuation: Convexity and Duration; the Stock Exchange of Mauritius.

STAT 2008Y(3) -  Linear Models
Simple Linear Model and Extensions. Assumptions. Estimation and Tests. Model diagnostics, evaluation and correction. Simultaneous Equation Models. Stationarity, Unit Root and Cointegration. Generalised Linear Models. Probit, Logit and Poisson Regression models. Multinomial logistic regression. Poisson Models for count data. Log linear Analysis of contingency tables. Fitting linear Models with R.

STAT 2009Y(3) – Probability and statistical  Inference
Probability Theory, Random Variables, Expectation. Discrete and Continuous Distributions, Joint and Conditional.
Distributions, Distributions of Functions of Random Variables. Distributions. Limit Theorems. Personal (or subjective) approach to probability. Probability measurements. Bayes' Theorem revisited. Prior and posterior probabilities. Sampling distributions. Introduction to estimation and inference: Estimators and their properties. Confidence interval. Hypothesis testing.

STAT 2202(3)- Applied Stochastic PROCESSES
Random variables and stochastic processes. Normal processes and stationarity. Branching Processes. Counting processes and Poisson processes. Markov Chains. Random walks. Birth and Death processes.

STAT 2203(3) - Survival Analysis
Time to event analysis.  Censoring. Life Tables. Kaplan-Meier estimation. Comparison of survival curves. Log rank. Counting processes.  Survival, Hazard and Cumulative Hazard functions. Accelerated Life Models. Proportional Hazard Models. Time varying covariates and time dependent effects.

YEAR 3

STAT 3018Y(5) - Actuarial Models
Term Structure of Interest Rates, Interest Rate Models: The Vasicek Model, The Cox-Ingersoll-Ross Model, The Black-Derman-Toy binomial model, Pricing of Derivatives, The Binomial Model, The Black-Scholes Model, Option Greeks, Introduction to Ito Calculus, Simulation

STAT 3019Y(5) - Bayesian Inference and Credibility Theory
Bayes theorem, Use of prior information, Model based Bayesian Inference, Posterior Distributions, Point Estimation, Highest  Posterior Density and Central Posterior Density, Decision theory and loss functions , Predicative Inference, Credibility theory and the use of collateral data in estimation, The empirical Bayes credibility approach, Run off Triangles, The Basic chain ladder method.

LAWS 3299(5) - Legal aspects of Business and Finance
Introduction to the Mauritian legal system; Company law: Incorporation procedure, Corporate finance, Duties and directors, Minority protection, Corporate insolvency; Insurance law: Formation of a contract of Insurance; Rights and duties of the insurer, the insured, the agent, the broker; Insurable interest; Duty of utmost good faith; Subrogation; Finance services law: Regulatory bodies, the Financial Services Commission, Bank of Mauritius; Role, powers and duties of the Financial Services Commission; Regulatory power of the Financial Services Commission over Insurance Companies.

ECON 3181 (5) –RISK MANAGEMENT
Sources and Types of Risk: Hedging Techniques. Foreign Exchange Markets. Foreign Exchange Exposure. International Techniques of Managing Forex Risk: Forward and Futures Markets. Swaps. Interest Rate Currency and Commodity Swaps. Commodity Futures. Options and Risk Management

STAT 3101(5) – Applied Time Series analysis
Introduction to R. Using R for time series analysis. Reading and plotting time series data. Decomposition. Exponential smoothing. ARIMA: simulation and modelling. Forecasting.Time series packages in R.

STAT 3202(5) – Demographic methods
Conventional and adjusted measures of mortality; measures of fertility; measures of morbidity; Population growth. Mauritian demographic characteristics and trends; Population pyramids. Evaluation of demographic data; projections for stable and stationary populations; actuarial applications of demographic characteristics and trends.

ECON 3281(5) - FINANCIAL MODELLING AND FORECASTING
Model Specification, Selection and Evaluation; ARMA models: Stationarity and Invertibility; Unit Root. Hypothesis and Stock Market Efficiency; Cointegration and Error-Correction models; Granger-causality; Impulse Response Function; Conditional Volatility models; Forecasting the stock market: Unbiased forecast, Univariate and multivariate forecasts, Forecast evaluation.

ECON 3112 (5) -  MAURITIAN ECONOMY
Contemporary Mauritian Economy: Macroeconomic Trends. Stabilisation and Structural Adjustment. Exchange Rate and Trade Policy. International Tourism and Development. Labour and Financial Markets and Institutions. Offshore Economic and Financial Activities. Regionalisation and Globalisation. Information Economy.

STAT 3102(5)  - SAMPLE DESIGN AND SURVEY METHODS
Sampling as a data collection strategy. Questionnaire Design. Methods of Administering questionnaires. Field Procedures. Simple Random Sampling. Stratified random. Systematic Sampling. Quota Sampling. Cluster Sampling. Multistage Sampling. Survey Data Analysis. Estimates and their Variances. Confidence intervals and Hypothesis Tests.

STAT 3000Y(5)  - Dissertation
At the end of the third year of the programme, students will be required to submit a project dissertation. The title of the dissertation has to be approved by the Department of Economics and Statistics and a Project Supervisor identified by the Programme Coordinator. The dissertation topic should be related to the field of study. The dissertation length should be in the range of 8,000-12,000 words.

June 2012