Actuaries evaluate and manage financial risk. They make financial sense of the future for their clients by applying advanced mathematical and statistical techniques to solve complex financial problems. Qualifying as an actuary is a passport to a wide variety of careers in insurance companies, investments, pensions, health care and banking – not just in the UK, but throughout the world. Kent is one of a very few universities in the UK to teach the subject. Our Postgraduate Diploma (PDip) in Actuarial Science, MSc in Applied Actuarial Science and International Master’s are all fully accredited by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries; they also provide a fast-track route to qualifying as an actuary, because students who achieve a high enough overall mark in these programmes can obtain exemptions from the professional examinations included within their studies. This PDip in Actuarial Science programme gives you the opportunity to gain exemptions from eight of the Core Technical subjects (CT1 to CT8) of the professional examinations and provides you with a firm foundation for the later subjects. If you perform well enough on this course to obtain the full set of exemptions available, you could reduce your time to qualify as an actuary by three years or more.

The UK Actuarial Profession is small, but influential and well rewarded. There are more than 6,500 actuaries currently employed in the UK, the majority of whom work in insurance companies and consultancy practices. Survey results published by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries suggest that the average basic salary for a student actuary is £36,842 with pay and bonuses increasingly sharply as you become more experienced. The average basic salary of a Chief Actuary is £209,292. As an actuary, your work is extremely varied and can include: advising companies on the amount of funds to set aside for employee pension payments; designing new insurance policies and setting premium rates; pricing financial derivatives and working in fund management and quantitative investment research; advising life insurance companies on he distribution of surplus funds; and estimating the effects of possible major disasters, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, and setting premium rates for insurance against such disasters. For more information about the actuarial profession, see www.actuaries.org.uk