OREANDA-NEWS. Swedbank will support the University of Tartu Faculty of Economics and Business Administration’s English-taught programme Quantitative Economics. A 1000-euro grant will be awarded each year to the author of the best master’s thesis. The aim is to motivate students to work in a field with good career potentials at institutions that conduct economic analysis and research, including banks.

Vice Dean for Academic Affairs of UT Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Krista Jaakson said that, on the one hand, the cooperation agreement between Swedbank and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration is the basis for supporting one author of a master’s thesis in the Quantitative Economics programme each year, but perhaps what matters more, is how Swedbank contributes to the quality of studies as a whole.

“The University of Tartu is interested in our students having the opportunity to choose optional subjects they like, to specialise, and that studies would be supported by the best lecturers, but this requires a sufficient number of master’s students. In order to have student candidates, we have created target grants so that students do not need to pay tuition fee. In addition to the Bank of Estonia, the Quantitative Economics programme is now also supported by Swedbank,” said Jaakson.

The University of Tartu and Swedbank cooperation agreement also includes practical training in the enterprise, researching practical topics of interest to Swedbank, representatives of the enterprise participating in the defence committee of master’s theses and other things that increase the practical value of studies.

The Quantitative Economics programme prepares lead analysts who will be employed in state institutions, banks, international organisations and consultancy companies, who have good command of modern economic theoretical models and econometric methods to analyse and make forecasts about national economy.