University Relations Committee

 

Universities create the pipeline of future investment management professionals and potential CFA candidates. The University Relations Committee’s mission is to foster relations with major universities and universities of applied sciences with a view to sustainably optimizing that pipeline, thereby supporting CFA Institute’s overall mission to serve clients and society. The committee aims to achieve this through franchise-building activities, support in educational activities and especially the provision of credentialing programs that require the application of technical knowledge and an appropriate ethical framework.

The committee establishes relationships between faculty and students and practitioners in the investment community and is tasked with these duties:

  • Organizing and promoting the CFA Institute Research Challenge.
  • Organizing and promoting the CFA Institute Affiliation Program.
  • Developing new formats.

The Chairs of the University Relations Committee are Olivier P. Müller, CFA and Mirjana Wojtal, PhD.

 

Open positions: 

 
Call for volunteers for the CFA Institute Research Challenge 2020/2021 in Switzerland and Liechtenstein

 

CFA Institute Research Challenge is an equity research competition among student teams from the world's top university business and finance programs. Students write an equity research report on a publicly traded Swiss subject company and present their findings to an expert panel. 


The Swiss Final will take place on 18 February 2021 in Zurich. The winning team will progress to the EMEA Sub-Regional Final and potentially to the EMEA Regional Final at the beginning of April 2021 and to the Global Final taking place at the end of April 2021. EMEA Sub- and Regional Final and Global Final are virtual events. 

We are seeking volunteers to support the students during the competition as industry mentors, graders, presentation skills coaches, and industry experts. It is our goal to teach the best practices in equity research and corporate analysis. We expect most of the large universities to participate and to field a team of their best final year master students. 

We are looking for active participation of our members to support the society's University Relations Committee in this exciting undertaking for the following roles:

Industry Mentor 

  • Mentoring student groups in establishing their research report and their presentation
  • 6 hours commitment, in-person preferred, Skype also possible; decentral; mostly Q4 2020 
  • CFA Charterholder
  • Experience in equity or corporate credit analysis or investment banking, sales experience is useful
  • 4 PL Credits (former CE Credits)

Grader 

  • Grading student research reports on an independent basis according to a set catalog of criteria
  • 6 hours commitment, work performed remotely and at own pace; between January and February 2021 
  • CFA Charterholder
  • Experience in equity or corporate credit analysis 
  • 4 PL Credits (former CE Credits)

Presentation skills coach 

  • Teaching presentation skills to students at the respective universities
  • 2 hours plus travel in Q4 2020
  • Experience in delivering presentations and especially storytelling
  • Preferably sales experience in financial services 

Industry expert 

  • Presenting industry expertise to students at the respective universities (or virtually)
  • Required skills: valuation, accounting, equity research, sales, portfolio management, sector expertise
  • 2 hours plus travel in Q4 2020
  • CFA Charterholder
  • Expertise in the required field and willingness to share it with students  

If you would like to participate please apply below before 14 August 2020.  A briefing call with all volunteers will be organized in September 2020. 

Apply to volunteer