Business School brings the City to the campus

ONE OF the region’s leading business schools today opens a campus financial trading room to give students a flavour of real-life conditions on a City trading floor.

Aston Business School, in Birmingham, has equipped the 20-station with the help of financial data supplier Thomson Reuters, and the facilities include a 20-foot-long LCD ticker to provide live market data and news.

The university says the facilities are the first of their kind in the Midlands, and will help 120 postgraduate students on the finance and investments MSc get a taster of life as a financial trader.

The financial trading room is laid out classroom style with four rows of desks supporting 20 computer workstations.

In addition, there are two Thomson Reuters InfoPoints which provide a real-life experience of working in the finance industry.

There is also an instructor console at the front of the room linked to an overhead projector which allows classroom demonstration of all the software.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be conducted by Aston University’s vice-chancellor Professor Julia King and Professor Jim Steeley, head of finance and accounting at Aston Business School.

Professor Steeley said: “We believe this facility will add value to the already high-quality learning environment.

“Our students are the workforce of the future, globally, and we aim to equip them with skill and knowledge of the highest standards possible.”

Part of Aston University in Birmingham, Aston Business School is among one percent of business schools worldwide to have triple accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA), Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and EQUIS.