Academic wins award for finance course focusing on sustainability
A course developed and taught by Dr Ellen Quigley has been honoured in the .
The Purpose of Finance course, which won in the teaching category, seeks to challenge traditional ways of looking at finance and make the link between sustainability and the world at large.
The course was developed and is taught by Dr Quigley and Judge Fellow (Finance) David Pitt-Watson to Master of Finance (MFin) and MBA students at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Judges for the FT's Responsible Business Education Awards were impressed by the way the course "departs from the conventional neoclassical approach to finance, which often treats environmental and social sustainability issues as add-ons."
"Instead, the Cambridge programme starts by exploring the purpose of the finance industry and scrutinises how well it fulfils this purpose 颅鈥 especially in the context of sustainability challenges such as climate change.
鈥淭he course addresses real-world issues, such as biodiversity loss, to encourage students to think critically about the impact of financial decisions on the environment. An example of their practical approach is a simulation exercise that exposes students to the risks of asymmetric information. They assume roles of fund managers and clients, discovering first-hand how information disparities can affect financial decisions and market efficiency.鈥
The Purpose of Finance course had previously won the Page Prize, which recognises courses that 鈥渟ubstantially upgrade sustainability courses or associated coursework into national and international business school curricula鈥.
David Pitt-Watson, formerly Pembroke Visiting Professor at Cambridge Judge, has widely advised companies and governments on sustainability issues, and is Chair of the Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services.
Dr Quigley is Principal Research Associate, Co-Director of Finance for Systemic Change, and Special Adviser to the Chief Financial Officer at the University of Cambridge. Her work, alongside several top-50 asset owners, concerns the significant range in efficacy of the various tools available to investors to reduce companies鈥 externalities in the real world.
