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Projects > Uganda_Jan-Mar10
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Mountains of the Moon University is located on the foot of the famous Rwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda.
The
new bachelor degree in Banking
and Development Finance is being designed to meet some of the challenges of this area and the country as a whole. To fulfill this objective the course curriculum needs to be set up such that it is of high practical relevance for the further development of the local financial institutions. Therefore support of a specialist with a profound working experience in the banking industry had been requested.
So far this support has been provided through the further development of the currently existing course outline, provision of syllabi for some specialized courses, some coaching of the lecturers and research for an electronic library. Moreover, linkages to the local finance community were established to provide internships and to increase the practical relevance of the program.
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Being situated at lake Saaka, a few kilometers away from Fort Portal
town, the main campus is ideal for letting someone’s mind sink deep into
studies.
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The pioneer students for this Banking and Development Finance degree which started in September 2009 are already joined by two international fellows from Sudan and Tanzania, respectively.
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Students gather around a news paper exploring the prices of
stocks traded at the local exchange (USE).
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A student presents his
research work on the topic of "Financial Intermediation".
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During this statistic lecture the concept of the variance of data had just been discussed in theory. In order to apply this technique to a topic that is of direct practical relevance, the idea came up that over the remainder of this term every student should store the time series of closing prices for one of the local stocks. From this the variance of relative price changes will be determined at the end of the term. Finally the students will compare which of the stocks exhibits the largest volatility and with this which one of these bears the greatest potential for risk and return.
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Various types of short term securities as well as other means typically used by banks to buy or sell funds in the money market are introduced by the lecturer. Thereby repurchase transactions (repos) are explained by drawing a cash flow diagram as usually done in trading & sales.
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The outline of the course framework worked out with the lecturers of
the business department is presented to the university's directorate. The
best strategy for the ultimate detailed proposal to be handed in to the
National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is discussed.
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The micro finance institution Hofokam as well as other financial institutions have already agreed to provide placements at their head and branch offices for the practical studies of the students being required after the first and second year of this degree.
Right: The management team of Hofokam with visitors of the cooperative development society Oikocredit.
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Syllabi concerning
the subject of capital markets are discussed in depth between Uganda’s Capital Markets Authority and the business department. Further mutual benefits between MMU and the local finance community are anticipated through talks provided by the respective practitioners.
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