The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India was established in 1984 as a non-profit society, with the objective of providing training in finance and management. The ICFAI University refers to the Universities sponsored by the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India in Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Jharkhand under respective legislations. The Governments of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Punjab issued letters of intent to the Institute for the establishment of Universities. Each University is a separate and independent legal entity. Consequently, the University confers degrees at Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral levels on eligible students subject to the University Regulations.
The University Grants Commission has included all the Universities mentioned above in the list of Universities maintained under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956.However in the list of Universities/Institutions approved by Distance Education Council (As of 01/02/2010), only ICFAI University, Dehradun has been included. ICFAI is not affiliated with the CFA Institute and both the institutes have broken their partnership and are running their courses separately.
ICFAI, having been embroiled in a long legal battle with the CFA Institute, focused its energy on developing private universities, some of which have AICTE recognition along with UGC recognition. ICFAI has focused all its energies away from developing its CFA charter like giving it statutory recognition increasing its status as a high status profession like that of CA from ICAI, which was announced by the governing member NJ Yeshasway who vowed to take up the CFA Charter a notch above the legendary CA exam considered to be the toughest in the realm of finance, but instead has opened a host of non-CFA programs like MBA, ICFAI Business Schools (IBS), PG Programs which have scaled up into national top 10 place in India. It has also opened schools for under graduate programs and offering degrees. Indian CFAs pass with a stringent eligibility to qualify as CFAs but have only a niche finance sector as the job market unlike CA which has traditional roles of Auditing and taxation along with statutory roles. CFAs work in investment related and finance fields where MBAs (some from ICFAI itself), CAs, Master’s Degree holders of Statistics, Economics, Doctorates etc. hold top posts.
ICFAI though has safeguarded its CFA charter in India with valid state legislature under IUT Tripura Act, but CFA charter holders are not mandatorily employable and currently don’t perform any statutory duty unlike CAs, CSs, CWAs, though CCFA tried to accomplish this in investment related areas in India by submitting a draft bill to the ministry of finance for consideration which was rejected due to various legal disputes that ICFAI faces.
ICFAI is also creating a window for students of CFA program to undergo 2 months internship with its in-house concerns to impart rigorous analytical skills. Exemption for MBAs will be stopped from the current academic year. Also, ICFAI is drafting a continuing professional development module which will be compulsory for all the current CFAs. This program will enable the current CFAs to enhance their knowledge in their respective areas and will include relevant statutes changes, paradigm shift in capital markets and allied subject matter. ICFAI hopes to regain the old status of its CFA program through continuously evolving methods, the most recent is focusing on the core aspects of investment management and financial analysis in its MFA degree(current CFA syllabus) and increasing CFA charter membership by giving official charters to students who have cleared the core subjects of investment management and financial analysis of the previous(CFA curriculum) MS Finance program.
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