The financial services sector encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money and provide financial services to individuals, businesses, and governments.
Case studies
Flying Start, Queen Mary University of London
Based in Queen Mary’s School of Business and Management, the Flying Start Programme is a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and 'big four' accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The four-year programme consists of a series of paid work placements built into the course, offering students an exceptional blend of academic excellence, professional accreditation and hands-on accountancy experience. This equips students with a ‘flying start’ to apply the technical theory directly to the workplace.
Within the programme’s first cohort, now entering their final year, 87% of students identify as Black, Asian or an ethnic minority; 76% were eligible for free school meals; and 67% are the first in their family to attend university.
Roni Dragusha is one of the third-year students on Queen Mary’s programme, getting a head start on the journey to becoming a chartered accountant.
After a week at a different London university, I knew both the course and the university weren’t right for me, so I decided to change both. I took some time, looked around and applied to study accounting and finance at Queen Mary. I was delighted when I was offered a place on Flying Start, a new accounting degree programme run in partnership with PwC. Within a few days at Queen Mary, I knew I’d made the right decision and haven’t looked back since.
Roni Dragusha
Queen Mary’s School of Business and Management student
Kennedys, University of Manchester
The University of Manchester's two-year partnership with law firm Kennedys uses modern data science methodologies to support fraud prevention.
Fraud is an increasing problem for insurance companies, with significant costs to both the industry and consumers. In 2023 alone, 84,400 fraudulent claims worth £1.1 billion were detected by the Association of British Insurers.
As fraudulent activities are becoming more sophisticated and new techniques being developed, Kennedys needed to innovate to stay one step ahead. Working in partnership with the University’s Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), Kennedys looked to develop their capabilities further using modern data science techniques.
Working alongside AMBS’s Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre (DCSRC), Kennedys used their existing fraud expertise and international data sets to develop innovative machine learning solutions. They applied DCSRC’s evidential reasoning theory in the practical context of fraud detection. The resulting software uses data analytics techniques, semantic technologies, intelligent modelling methodologies and decision support systems to recognise strategies used by criminals that can be missed by humans.
Following the collaboration, Kennedys saw its revenue boost by more than £15 million the following year in the UK. Kennedys has also secured funding for another major KTP project to develop an emerging risk analytical tool for insurers.
The same principles around transparent machine learning, artificial intelligence and evidence-based decision support can be applied to many other sectors such as law, healthcare, financial technology (FinTech) and engineering systems.
Professor Jian-Bo Yang
Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre