Fintech curricula: a survey of IS, accounting, and finance department chairs

Abstract

The demand for students educated in Financial Technology (FinTech) has increased as the industry has rapidly expanded since the “Fintech Revolution” in 2017. Universities are working to expand the number of courses and programs that will prepare students to handle the emergence of this new technology. Currently, there is little consensus about which subjects should be taught and which departments should be involved. A widely-accepted standardized curriculum for Fintech does not yet exist. This study sought to better understand the current state of Fintech curricula at universities. This study includes a review of the established literature in this area and a quantitative analysis of survey data. Department chairs in IS, Accounting and Finance departments at AACSB-accredited colleges were surveyed and results revealed that most universities did not offer undergraduate or graduate Fintech courses despite 95% of respondents reporting that they believed students had an interest in Fintech courses and 98.6% of respondents believing that employers had an interest in students educated in Fintech. Further results show that most Fintech classes are taught by the Finance departments at these colleges, followed by Information Systems departments. Despite high interest in Fintech courses, there is a lack of supply of these courses and suboptimal participation of the teaching of these courses by IS departments.