This Certificate of Graduate Study provides graduate students with a set of courses focused upon technology-enabled applications that disrupt financial sector operations. Such innovations can disrupt industry structures, revolutionize service portfolios and product delivery, create new opportunities for venture capital and growth, as well as introduce a new wave of privacy and regulation concerns. Examples that are central to FinTech include cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, digital advisory and trading systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding and mobile payment systems. Employers looking for students with skill sets in this area include banks, consulting firms, financial technology, and investment firms. The certificate is a non-degree program open to all students admitted to degree and non-degree study at Northern Illinois University. Students must earn an average GPA of 3.00 in the courses applied toward the certificate and complete all certificate course work within six years immediately preceding the awarding of the certificate. Some courses may have prerequisites that are not part of the certificate curriculum.
Applications are available in the Finance Department. Students must be in good academic standing to be eligible.
Selected from the following courses or from among relevant graduate offerings elsewhere in the university with approval of the academic program coordinator: