FASI reaches middle age in style

The Britain of 1974 was blighted by rampant inflation, political strife, terrorist violence, the three day week and two general elections.

Into that turbulent landscape, a small group of newly-minted academics sought to introduce a little bit of cool, factual analysis based around demographic data and other statistics. They laid the first planks in what was to become Bayes’ ground-breaking and highly-respected Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance (FASI) – which means it reaches the venerable age of 50 this academic year.

Bernard Benjamin, a former President of the Institute of Actuaries, was appointed part-time Professor of Actuarial Science in City’s Department of Social Science and Humanities in 1973.

The following year, Professor Steven Haberman was appointed as the first lecturer in actuarial science, tutoring students embarking on  Britain’s first BSc in Actuarial Science. Both Steven and FASI are therefore marking their 50^th anniversary in this academic year. The Cambridge mathematics graduate joined City after two years at Prudential Assurance.

“My only teaching experience was in the Jewish equivalent of a Sunday School so I very much learnt that part of the role on the job.”

The Institute of Actuaries drove the creation of the new degree qualification, working with the Association of British Insurers and the Association of Consulting Actuaries to jointly fund the salaries of academic staff. Bernard and Steven welcomed nine students in the first year – despite not being listed in the handbook of the body that became UCAS.

Steven recalls: “The course for the first year was designed before I started but it did not actually include any specific actuarial material. It was based on economics, statistics and mathematics, with the actuarial science elements taught in the second and third years.”

He quickly set about developing distinct material “that would make the students feel different” – leading to an introductory course which, Steven says, “has survived in different forms for 50 years”.

Geek chic: Professor Haberman (left) and student Muhammad Iqbal (centre) are on trend outside the University Building - captured here in 1974 or 1975  with a more under-stated Dr Anthony Puzey, the second lecturer recruited for the fledgling specialty.

Steven suspects that the institute and sector body were following the lead of their counterparts in Europe and North America in pushing for university-level education and research in actuarial science.

Avoiding Ivory Tower Syndrome

However, some sector professionals were wary.

“There was a lot of scepticism: would university involvement mean everything was too theoretical, too mathematical, too far removed from the real world. That fear persisted in some people's minds for some time.

“Bernard’s attitude was that our research should explore real world problems. He’d had a long and varied career as an actuary in public health and local government and that had shaped his own research. We have tried to keep that ethos and it's actually the ethos of the university.”

Indeed, Steven benefitted from Bernard’s reputation for practical research as he ended up working with clinicians and big insurance companies who had approached his boss with study ideas. With organ transplant medicine still in its infancy, Steven worked with a nationally-renowned heart surgeon to assess the survival rates of transplanted heart valves, compared to the survival rates of the patients that had received them.

An insurance company’s quest for data around the life expectancy of people who had survived a stroke ultimately led to Steven undertaking research for seven years, a project that ended with his achievement of a PhD.

The second year’s BSc intake was an impressive 32 and the specialty was on its way.

The growing team was continuing to break new ground as they added new courses and qualifications – and staff.

Appointed Head of the Actuarial Science Unit in 1979, Steven oversaw the arrival of  a postgraduate qualification in actuarial science, which was launched in the mid-1980s. When it was redesigned and rebranded in 1992 it became the world’s first MSc in Actuarial Science.

Five years later the university again led the way by offering an MSc in Actuarial Management, with an initial intake of a select five trailblazers.

These advances into postgraduate education, Steven says, boosted the department’s research potential.

Class of '82: Third year students and academics captured in a group photo before a dinner to mark the end of the academic year

Putting down roots

For many years, the team moved between departments, schools and buildings, before pitching up at Cass (now Bayes) Business School as it entered its plush new building in Bunhill Row in 2002.

The change in address triggered a name change, to the Faculty of Actuarial Science and Statistics (“FASS)”. The final (so far!) re-branding to FASI came in 2006, reflecting the expanding range of insurance courses now under the faculty umbrella – including the MSc in Insurance and Risk Management.

By 2002, Steven had chalked up seven years as Dean of the School of Mathematics. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that he was appointed Deputy Dean and Director of the Business School from 2002 to 2012, before serving three years as Dean.

Professor Ben Rickayzen, a former Head of Faculty, feels that the Business School is the best fit for the twin specialties.

“It allows us to exploit better the practical implications of the work we do, particularly in the fields of finance and demography. We have greater crossover with our finance and management colleagues than we did with our maths colleagues.”

The specialties’ boundary-skirting character is illustrated by the MSc in Financial Mathematics, which the faculty designed soon after the millennium but which is now delivered by the School’s Faculty of Finance.

FASI was led first by Professor Linda Wolstenholme and then Professor Richard Verrall. Professor Rickayzen picked up the baton for 14 years from 2008 before handing it on to the incumbent, Dr Russell Gerrard.

Recent years have seen the launch of an MSc in Business Analytics, the MSc pathway in Actuarial Science with Business Analytics, an MSc in Insurance and Risk Management, and the BSc pathways in Finance with Actuarial Science and Data Analytics and Actuarial Science.

In 2006, FASI became the first institution to have all its BSc and MSc actuarial courses accredited by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Sixteen years later the Business School secured accreditation from the USA as a Society of Actuaries’ Center of Actuarial Excellence.

Conceived in a time of political, social and industrial strife, FASI has reached 50 in rude good health. The same can probably be said of the strife.