Master of Finance and Control puts you in Control of Finance!
Some tread the beaten path while others march to a different tune and carve their own niche. The Department of Financial Studies (Delhi University) has done the latter by successfully running a non-MBA 
management programme, known as the Master of Finance and Control (MFC), for the past 23 years.
Students hail from diverse fields such as engineering, economics, commerce, history, business studies, political science and English. In the current batch, one student is a chartered accountant while another is a certified financial risk manager.
The programme's only drawback is its lack of visibility among academia and industry. When Piyush Pandey, a second year student and member of the placement team, goes to pitch the programme's output to companies, he at times faces disappointment till he mentions that the programme is run by a department of the Delhi University.
The department manages to attract companies like Nestle, MCX, Axis Bank and HSBC, among others. Every year, the entire batch is known to have been absorbed. What goes more to the department's credit is the average pay package, which was Rs 8.13 lakh per annum this year. A year before that, this figure stood at Rs 7.5 lakh. Taken from the point of view of ‘return on investment', this is fabulous given the fact that students pay just Rs 10,000 per annum as tuition fee.
Famous for: Focused attention on finance-centric management education. Very few universities offer such dedicated programmes.
Programmes: Two-year, full-time Master of Finance and Control (MFC). This year is the first time admission will happen through CAT (Common Admission Test). Earlier, the department used to hold its own examination, but considering the similarity between both entrances tests, the department's own exam has been scrapped.
Extra curricular: The department organizes a cultural festival every February with various programmes. The college gets UGC funding to organize this festival.
The department's annual convention is a mega affair and draws business leaders aplenty. This year's convention took place in September where Gunit Chadha, CEO, Deutsche Bank India was the keynote speaker.
Besides this, Arvneeti - an inter-college event - also takes place every year and sees participation from numerous B-schools in competitions such as business plan feasibility, treasure hunt, quiz and equity research.
Students also hold travel-and-learn programmes every semester which aim to expose students to the corporate world.
Infrastructure: The department runs out of a small building located in the south campus. The programme is non-residential. There are two hostels that house 26 boys and seven girls.
Found on campus:
"Our B-school is student-driven whether it's with regards to placements or organizing the annual convention," says Piyush Pandey.
Pandey was among four students who went to France last summer on a student exchange programme. He worked at the Chambers of Commerce of France and his project dealt with socio-economic dynamics of the horse racing industry there.
Author: Vimal Chander Joshi (HT Horizons)
Date: 23rd November, 2010
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