Butler University’s Lacy School of Business will introduce an online Master of Science in Risk and Insurance (MSRI) program.

The Indiana-based university bills the offering as among the first of its kind in the nation, as something to help address the gap between the risk and insurance industry’s personnel needs and the limited talent pool that exists in today’s job market.

The degree program, slated to begin in January 2019, is intended to serve students who seek advanced or management roles in corporate risk management. It will also serve students with a few years of finance or legal experience seeking employment in the insurance field, as well as early phase professionals already working for insurance firms in both property/casualty and life/health. Students who have an undergraduate degree in risk and insurance and want to pursue advanced study in the industry are also a target audience.

Zach Finn, clinical professor and director of Butler’s Davey Risk Management and Insurance program, said Butler’s goal with the new MSRI program is to prepare students for an industry that anticipates needing 400,000 new employees by 2020.

The part-time MSRI program will be conducted exclusively online, except for two required in-residence experiences—one on the Butler campus at the start of the program and one at the end of the program in Bermuda, the “world’s risk capital.” Coursework will take approximately 24 months to complete.

The MSRI curriculum will include content dealing with property/casualty and life/health. It also will have unique and hard-to-find courses on insurance-linked securities and a hands-on opportunity to run a captive insurance entity.

More information about the program is available at www.butler.edu/msri. Applications will be open beginning Aug. 1.

Butler already boasts a robust undergraduate program for risk management and insurance, including the MJ Student-Run Insurance Company, known as a “captive.”

Source: Butler University