University Spotlight: University of Waterloo

By Rachel Min and Shirley Song

The University of Waterloo was founded in 1957 in what was then a small Mennonite farming community of Waterloo, Ontario. It has been over 50 years since the founder Gerald Hagey and his colleagues set out to create a program which combines the "co-operative program" with classroom instructions to provide students with first-hand industry experience. Since then the university has grown to be an internationally recognized institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty and staff, with over 135,000 alumni in 140 countries. In the true spirit of 'why not,' the University of Waterloo has become the first accredited university in North America to create a Faculty of Mathematics and its co-operative education program, which has grown to be the largest in the world.

Overview of Actuarial Science Program

The actuarial science program in Waterloo is the largest English-speaking actuarial science program in North America and one of the largest university-based actuarial science programs in the world. Many of the actuarial science faculty members maintain strong ties with the professional actuarial organizations, and conduct leading-edge research that is well-known internationally. Consequently, the students in the actuarial science program at the University of Waterloo benefit from the program's excellent reputation and its rigorous academic courses. The comprehensive and rigorous design of the courses provides students with solid actuarial knowledge and aids them to achieve speedy success in the Society of Actuary's qualification exams.

The University of Waterloo is famous for having the largest co-operative education program in the world and consequently the actuarial science students at Waterloo can also gain industry exposure while in school. A typical Honors Actuarial Science program with co-operative education composes of eight academic terms and six co-op terms, which amount to five years of non-stop alternation of study and work terms.

Actuarial Science Club and Involvement in Actuarial Students' National Association (ASNA)

The Actuarial Science Club is the University's official student organization serving actuarial science students by providing information about the profession, supplying study resources, and organizing employer information sessions and social events. It boasts one of the largest memberships among the clubs at the Faculty of Mathematics. The University of Waterloo students are also actively involved with the Actuarial Students' National Association (ASNA). In 2007, the University of Waterloo ASNA Convention Committee successfully hosted the annual convention at the Marriott Hotel in Toronto with the theme of "Defying Actuarial Assumptions." More than simply an opportunity for all actuarial students to meet one another, the convention also provided its participants with insightful information about various topics in actuarial science. With over 300 attendees and 23 sponsors, the University of Waterloo received very positive feedback from both students and professionals in the actuarial field, and the ASNA 2007 was deemed a success.

Looking to the Future–Interview with Professor Ken Seng Tan

Ken Seng Tan, ASA, CERA, is Associate Scientific Director, Institute for Quantitative Finance and Insurance (IQFI) and Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Risk Management. He is also Graduate Officer, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo.

Q: In your perspective, how is the program at Waterloo perceived by the employers, industry leaders, and academics from other universities?

A: University of Waterloo's actuarial science program is truly unique in that it provides the students with the opportunity to gain two years of working experience while in school. There is no question that the co-op program is a very smart thing that the university has done. It is an excellent introduction to actuarial work in the real world, and our students can gain a competitive edge and a lot of valuable knowledge about the industry.

Also, apart from our co-op program, the actuarial science courses at Waterloo are very rigorous. As one of the largest actuarial science programs in the world, we try to provide the best education that we can by going above and beyond the syllabus of the actuarial examinations.

Q: What are the top skills that Waterloo graduates obtain from their co-operative education experience?

A: For one, students gain a lot of practical experience by being able to see and learn from the actuaries at work. In order to help enhance the co-op experience for the students, we try to provide the students with more technical skills at school. So, we provide them with the mathematics behind the theories while they are at school, and then they get to see the actual application of the theories when they go to work for their co-op term. This interplay between co-op terms and school terms really enhances the whole learning experience for our students.

Also, the co-op experience gives students a lot of practice with interviews. Being able to work at a number of different companies during their university career gives students lots of opportunities for networking as well. So, all this really helps our students with job search later on.

Q: Can you tell us about the growth prospects of our program? Is the actuarial science program at Waterloo expanding?

A: It seems to us that the demand for our program is still increasing. As of now even fourth year courses have a large number of students and it doesn't seem like the enrollment in our program will see a decrease any time soon. The demand for actuaries in the job market is also still very good, relative to other professions, so we expect to see continuing growth of our program. To accommodate such demand, we are constantly looking for new faculty members. We hired two new faculty members recently and are looking to hire two more in the coming year. On that note, we are also creating a new professional actuarial masters program geared towards students with no background in actuarial science. We are expecting to launch the program next fall, and it will be a more customized masters program for a small number of students.

Q: Why do you think students come to Waterloo for graduate programs?

A: There are many reasons, but one of the more obvious reasons would be that we do have a lot of faculty members. We have more than a dozen faculty members and many of us are actively doing research. For graduate students, opportunity to work on leading edge research projects is very appealing. Due to our excellent reputation, we get graduate students from all over Canada and also from other international countries.

Not only that, our graduate program courses go beyond the curriculum of most graduate programs in other universities because we assume that our graduate students already have a degree in actuarial science and have obtained at least three professional actuarial exams.

Q: Are you working on any exciting research that you would like to share with us?

A: Recently I've been working on a research about optimal reinsurance structure. Reinsurance is one of the most popular risk management techniques available to insurance companies. The research focuses on finding the optimal frame work for insurance companies to transfer the risks that they have insured so that their risk exposure is minimized.

Q: What do you foresee for the future of the Waterloo actuarial science program?

A: Here, at Waterloo, we always try to provide the best education possible. Having such large group of faculty members certainly helps bring more dynamics to the courses that we offer. We are always on the lookout for any new developments in the market and we try to introduce new courses that would reflect the needs of the market. So, for example, we are now considering developing a new course that will introduce students to the enterprise risk management (ERM) ideas. Our aim is to provide students with more choices and options in their careers when they graduate, and we achieve our goal by offering up-to-date courses that will equip them with necessary skills to be able to solve real world problems in the ever changing market.

The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and interviewees alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of the Society of Actuaries or its staff, nor do they represent the views and opinions of any entity of, or affiliated with, the Society of Actuaries.

Would you like to see your college or university's actuarial science program featured in The Future Actuary? Contact Kathryn Wiener, Senior Communications Associate at the SOA at kwiener@soa.org.