Abstract:

The final master project is a compulsory activity for students to get their master degree in Actuarial Science at the University of Málaga. The design of this two years master degree program includes a final master project of 9 ECTS credits to be completed once all the courses, and an internship, have been satisfactory passed.

While the final master project is usually considered as a rewarding experience, since students can choose the topic, according to their personal preferences and skills, get in contact with real challenges in the actuarial sector, and even in some cases count with a working actuary as a second supervisor, sometimes they find it difficult to finish the project within the scheduled calendar.

The main reason for this observed difficulty consists of trying to reconcile the final master project with the generally time-consuming activities of the internship, which in most of cases become a first contract with a firm in the actuarial sector.

In order to facilitate our students to accomplish their final projects in time, we are proposing a new model of integrated project that could facilitate the timing as well as improving the engagement. In this paper, we describe the main features of the proposed model of final master project. In addition, the results of a first exploratory study of the perceptions of our students about the proposal carried out by means of a survey is reported.

Regarding the design of the proposed model of final project, the key feature is dividing it into three independent parts that together constitute a full final master project. This model is adequate for most of the topics and problems analyzed in the actuarial field, which have a complex nature and generally require a combination of varied analytical and technical skills. Thus, each proposed problem or topic is carefully chosen by the group of academic supervisors to fit the model and is divided into three parts according to the nature of the subject, such as normative regulation, technical aspects and empirical analysis of the problem. For each part, a different academic tutor is assigned who will supervise it and work coordinately. Moreover, our proposal will suggest students to begin the final project before what is usually expected, possibly on the second semester of the first year and dedicating one semester to each part. This model allows students to work in three independent sub-projects which individually require a lower workload than a full project and are distributed in a longer period of time. It is also easier to combine them with the courses in each semester of the study program.

Finally, the first results of the survey indicates that our students’ priorities related to working in the final master project are mainly to not interfere with the courses, but also finishing in time and not affecting their internships or professional work. Moreover, their perceptions of the advantages of proposed model are, above all, that it could make them finish earlier than with the standard model, and, secondly, that it could result in a better grade and enhance their experience.

Keywords:

Actuarial, final master project, professional skills.