Academic institutionS

There are multiple courses available on investing from many excellent universities. Some of the more famous, like Columbia Business School, even offer programmes outside New York, although they can be expensive. It’s beyond the scope of this blog to offer anything beyond a very cursory examination but we have highlighted the following universities:

Oxford Said Business School

London Business School

LSE

Harvard University

Columbia

Saïd Business School at The University of Oxford

Saïd Business School runs several online programmes, usually part time over 6-8 weeks and across a range of sectors, finance and others.

Within finance, there are courses on AI in Fintech and Open Banking, Algorithmic Trading, Executive Finance, Fintech and Private Markets Investment, mainly of 6 weeks duration (part-time and costing c.£2200.

London Business School 

London Business School runs various courses which can be taken in-person or online. These typically last 5-7 days, taught by faculty members and in finance and many other areas. 

Finance courses include Accounting and Financial Analysis, Finance for Non-Finance Executives, Valuation,  Strategic Investment Management, and Financial Strategies for Value Creation. All of these are 5-5.5 days at £7,900. There is also a 5 day Mergers and Acquisitions course at £8,500.

We have no idea how good these courses are, but they’re certainly expensive.

Harvard Business School 

These are online courses run by Harvard Faculty Members. Interestingly, Harvard does not score highly among US universities for the quality of teaching but it has a big name. The institution flags that it has 3 distinguishing characteristics:

  1. Active – students engage in a new activity every 3-5 minutes and hence keep interested

  2. Social – students engage with a community of global peers (although unclear how that works online) 

  3. Case-based – the learnings are are brought to life through cases 

Again there are many topics offered beyond finance but the finance based courses include Leading with Finance, Financial Accounting, Sustainable Investing and Alternative Investments – these were all priced at $1750 and were 5-8 weeks, mainly 6 weeks with 6-8 hours per week.

The pricing seems more reasonable than some others and there is a certain cachet in a Harvard course.

Columbia

The Heilbrunn Center offers executive education seminars in value investing and family wealth management. Led by Heilbrunn Director Tano Santos, courses are offered in London as well as New York. London dates have yet to be confirmed for 2024 but there are two courses in New York, each at just under $8,000 for a 3 day programme. Attendees “need to have a basic understanding of finance and accounting terms and knowledge to benefit” as well as a full wallet.

Columbia had an amazing reputation - Ben Graham taught there. But the prices reflect this and as with Harvard, the university has been embroiled in controversy and accusations of racism and fears for student safety. Of course we have no comment to make on such matters, but the pricing seems extremely high - even individual tuition might be a cheaper alternative.