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Welcome to the 2021 edition!

In this course, we provide an Introduction to Actuarial Studies to a non specialist (but technically inclined) audience. In brief (and simply speaking), you will learn about the techniques of quantifying and insuring risks.

The overall aim of this subject is to provide an introduction to actuarial studies in the following ways:

Give a taste of actuarial techniques , which combine models for the time value of money, and models for describing uncertain events. One of the simplest cases is that of life insurance, where the event insured is death, and this component of the courses focuses on this simplest case. These are coloured in blue in the course main schedule below.

Discuss some of the main areas of practice , that is, where actuarial techniques are relevant. These are coloured in green in the course main schedule below. These will be discussed in synchronous lectures (on campus if possible, and broadcasted live on Zoom at the same time).

The course should be interactive, with participation encouraged and rewarded for assessment purposes (with 10% of the final mark) through the website “Yellowdig”. I am excited to be part of the Yellowdig pilot at the University of Melbourne. I hope you’ll like it. It should be easy to get the 10% if you participate.

There will marks for participation via Yellowdig (10%), an assignment (10%), a 45-in-55 minute mid-semester exam (10%), as well as a 2-in-3 hour final exam (70%).

Please refer to the subject guide for more information.

Note that you will not need a copy of the Atkinson and Dickson book. Thanks to funding awarded by the university, we are busy recreating online materials so you do not need to buy the book.

I look forward to guiding your learning in this course!

Professor Benjamin Avanzi