The Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte will launch a new Ph.D. in Business Administration with a Major in Finance in the fall semester of 2006. The program was approved by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina in January, 2006, and will admit its first class in August, 2006. The Belk College will offer extremely competitive scholarships to students admitted to the program.

Program Description

The Belk College Ph.D. in Business Administration with a Major in Finance is a research-oriented program designed to prepare graduates for teaching and research careers in academia. The program includes core courses covering all business disciplines combined with in-depth study in both theoretical and empirical aspects of finance. Students admitted to the Finance program will minor in Economics and will complete a research methods sequence in Mathematics. Students also receive training in pedagogy. Students are expected to develop a mastery of the existing body of knowledge in finance and to develop new knowledge through original and independent research. With the educational background provided by the program, graduates will be qualified for tenure-track professor positions at both national and international teaching universities and other educational institutions.

Research Resources and Facilities

The Belk College and UNC Charlotte offer excellent research resources and facilities. The College either has or is acquiring the following financial systems and databases: the Wharton Research Data System (WRDS), CRSP, Compustat, Execucomp, Bloomberg, and DataStream. In addition, The Belk College has recently installed a state-of-the-art financial trading room. Two Sun servers provide support for both individual research and for the trading room. UNC Charlotte also maintains a grid supercomputing system which is available to students studying in the program.