Ye Olde (Fintech) Alma Mater

While some fresh young minds head off to college to learn about Wordsworth, Lord Byron or Kierkegaard, a few others may be studying the words of Vlad Tenev or Kathryn Petralia instead. That’s because a small – yet growing – number of universities have begun to offer degrees in fintech, usually associated with an MBA program. Last month, Creighton University became the latest to offer such a degree, which will mostly focus on Python programming, machine learning, blockchain and the “foundations of fintech.” Are such degrees only passing fads, or the very beginnings of a whole new sector of study that will dominate academia in the coming decades?