UCSI University, a leading university in Malaysia, announced the launch of an Institute of Actuarial Science and Data Analytics (IASDA) in its KL Campus to produce top talent in this field. The launch of IASDA is a reflection of the university’s continued academic investment and leadership in the education industry. The institute is set up to help meet the growing needs of actuaries and data analytics education and expertise in the country.
According to the Director of IASDA, the programmes offered under IASDA are recognised by international professional accrediting bodies such as the Society of Actuaries (SoA) which provides professional certifications to students, and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), where the students may get an exemption for CM1, CB1, and CB2 papers.
The IASDA’s programmes include Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematical Sciences; Master of Science (Actuarial Management) – (Mixed-mode or Coursework); Master of Science in Mathematical Sciences; Bachelor of Science (Honours) Actuarial Science; Bachelor of Science (Honours) Actuarial Science and Finance; and Foundation in Arts (Actuarial Science). These programmes are also accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).
January, May, and September intakes are available for all of the abovementioned programmes. Until now, the university has more than 1400 students enrolled in these undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. UCSI University’s Actuarial Science students have continued to shine over the years by passing the SoA preliminary papers in record time.
To fill the significant talent shortage gap, especially in Actuarial Science and Data Analytics, the institute will be a key enabler for talent development by exposing students to data-driven industry and economy. Currently, a total number of 668 undergraduates and postgraduates have graduated from this field of studies, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Internationalisation (Kuala Lumpur Campus) said.
UCSI University’s IASDA will enhance students’ expertise and experiences by effectively driving data-intensive research discoveries, enhancing industry partnerships, sharing best practices with international institutes, and preparing all of its graduates to lead in a data-driven economy.
The global big data and business analytics market size was valued at US$ 198.08 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 684.12 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2021 to 2030.
Big data analytics is the key aspect of the enterprise; it helps organisations manage, process, and streamline large datasets in real-time as well as improve their decision-making capability. In addition, a major objective of big data and business analytics is to help organisations to get a better understanding of their customers and help to narrow down their targeted audience, thus improving companies marketing campaigns.
Moreover, a variety of industries are adopting big data and business analytics to analyse the massive volume of data generated due to offline and online trading. Moreover, with the introduction of cloud-based big data and business analytics, users can access all the information online from anywhere across the globe. This helps various big data service providers to increase their investment in cloud technology and obtain a competitive edge over other service providers.
The growth in the adoption of big data analytics software by various organisations to deliver enhanced and faster decision-making and to provide competitive advantage by analysing and acting upon information promptly significantly contributes to the growth of the global big data and business analytics market. In addition, an increase in demand for cloud-based big data analytics software among SMEs positively impacts the growth of the market.
However, high implementation costs and a dearth of skilled workforce are expected to hamper the market growth. On the contrary, an increase in the need to gain better insights for business planning and emerging trends such as social media analytics are expected to offer remunerative opportunities for the expansion of the market during the forecast period. Each of these factors is projected to have a definite impact on the growth of the big data and business analytics market.
