SAIF Employment Report: Average starting salaries for MF and FMBA graduates set new records

The average starting salaries for full-timeMaster of Finance (MF) and Financial Master of Business Administration (FMBA)graduates from the Class of 2016 at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF)have hit a record high, according to the institute's latest employment report.

The report showed that the average annual salary for new MF graduates is 284,000yuan, an increase of 25.4 percent compared with their 2015 counterparts. The report also found that one graduateeven managed to secure a job which paid 680,000 yuan a year - the highest salary in the cohort.

Statistics show that 15.8 percent of the MF graduates who graduated in 2016 have managed to find jobs in financial institutions outside of Chinese mainland in places such as Germany, Canada and Hong Kong, while many others have also landed positions in financial institutions located in first-tier Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

In addition, more than 40 percentof these MF graduates work in investment banks and institutions related to venture capital and private equity. The top fourjob sectors that 2016 graduates are in are investment bank service, investment management,, research and consultancy.

Meanwhile, the employment trends of SAIF’s full-time MBA graduates have alsobeen cause for celebration. The report showed that the average annual salary for the 2016 MBA graduates stood at a record-high of 266,000 yuan, an increase of 26.6 percent compared with the previous cohort.

“There are many challenges facing the economy. Global economic recovery has been very slowwhile on the other hand, the Chinese economy is continuing to face pressure. As a result, people of all industries have been conservative when recruiting staff,” said Professor Chun Chang, executive dean of SAIF.

“Despite this backdrop, our graduates have still been able to make breakthroughs by securing high level jobs in the labor market. This indicates that SAIF’s teaching philosophy of being ‘international’ and ‘professional’, as well as its education methods have been recognized by the market,” he added.

SAIF was established in 2009 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University with support from the Shanghai Municipal Government as part of the national strategy to transform Shanghai into a global financial center. The institute aims to become a world-class institution for research and advanced learning in both finance and management.

In February, SAIF became one of the youngest AACSB-accredited business schools in the world.This year, the Financial Time’s annual rankings of the best Master in Finance programs in the world saw SAIF making a strong debut when it came in 2nd in Asia and 28th in the world.