Monday May pm MAT D Professor Michael Sherris Honours in Actuarial Studies

Professor Sherris - honours entry requirements, application procedures, supervision, assessment Christian Sutherland-Wong - a current student perspective Questions Agenda

Competitive entry, limited places (2 to 4) Academic qualifications and research potential the key factors High achieving students (distinction average and higher) Keen interest in learning about and doing research Topic and availability of supervision Entry Requirements

Minimum academic requirements at least 71% average in Actuarial Courses (normally much higher) normally gained at least 7 (preferably 8) of the Part I exemptions, no failures, and an overall high credit/distinction average in your studies (normally distinction or high distinction) a proposed thesis topic that can be supervised by the Actuarial Studies staff Entry Requirements

Honours brochure plus application form Application due on last day of Session 2 Preliminary assessment based on grades and topic Interview for applicants may be required Notified of outcome after grades are finalised for Session 2 Application

To develop higher level research skills Complete a thesis on a current advanced topic To meet requirements to do a Masters by Research or a PhD now or in the future (perhaps overseas) Complete Part II courses (many actuarial honours applicants have completed these in a 4 year program) Why do Honours?

ACTL4000 Thesis (full year) 24 UOC ACTL4003 Research Topics in Actuarial Science (Session 1) 6 UOC ACTL4001 and ACTL4002 Actuarial Theory and Practice A and B (Part II courses - Session 1 and Session 2) 6 UOC each or 2 electives at Year 3 or honours level agreed with Head, Actuarial Studies 1 elective - may include a Year 3 ACTL course Courses

Final grade is based on the maximum of: Basis % Year % Coursework and 35% Thesis Basis % Year % Coursework and 50% Thesis and 30% Year 2 and 3 Courses - 2/3rds Actuarial and 1/3rd other The mark from this determines Honours grade as follows: >=90 University medal >=85 First class >=75 2nd class 1st Division >=65 2nd class 2nd Division >=55 3rd Class Honours Assessment

Components Weight % Topic - Relevance, Level of Difficulty 5% Structure of Thesis 10% Literature Review 25% Problem Formulation 10% Data Analysis and/or theoretical developments 15% Conclusions and Results 10% Grammar, Spelling, Length 10% Originality of Contribution 15% Total 100% Thesis Assessment

Professor Michael Sherris Associate Professor Emil Valdez Dr Tina Castillo Dr Jiwook Jang Sachi Purcal Bernard Wong Potential Supervisors

You can select but need to have a supervisor who has agreed to supervise the topic Most students complete a topic related to current research interests of staff Thesis outline and literature review finalised by end of Session 1 in Honours year (preferably before) Thesis due on last day of Session 2 Topics

Insurance pricing, solvency and capital requirements Risk measures and application to premium rating and investment strategy Risk management strategies, risk linked securities Application of financial theory and option pricing theory to insurance and superannuation Topics - Professor Sherris

Elliptical Distributions, Copula modeling and dependencies Managing Retirement Income Assets Risk Measures and Capital Requirements Survival analysis, mortality investigations, competing risk models Application of financial economics in actuarial science Topics - Professor Valdez

Asset and liability modelling Computable general equilibrium models in finance and insurance Insurance and retirement economics Application of financial economics to actuarial problems Topics - Sachi Purcal

Pricing insurance and reinsurance using advanced stochastic models Electricity pricing and shot-noise process Stochastic processes in actuarial science, insurance and finance Theory and application of piecewise deterministic Markov processes Topics - Dr JiWook Jang

Optimal Control in Insurance Risk Theory Spectral theory of Ordinary Differential Operators Topics - Dr Tina Castillo

Coherent Risk Measures and relationship to Financial Valuation Change of Measure and Stochastic Volatility Modeling Stochastic Analysis and Exponential Martingales Numerical Methods, Simulation Econometric Methods for Continuous Time Financial Modeling Topics - Bernard Wong

Student perspective Christian Sutherland-Wong

Decide if you want to do research training Discuss possible topics with actuarial staff and find out who might be available to supervise your topic If you are really interested, arrange an appointment with Professor Sherris and Valdez to discuss your proposed honours study during 2nd session Apply before end of Session 2 Procedure

Entry requirements Courses and assessment Topics Supervisors PhD or research degrees QUESTIONS