Success of students of VŠE in the Deloitte Actuarial Challenge 1

On the weekend of 15 and 16 October, 2016, a competition Deloitte Actuarial Challenge 1 was held. At first, the company Deloitte Advisory, s.r.o., prepared the block of lectures for students. Then a 24-hour competition started. The competition consisted of assembling the model according to the specified criteria, i.e. to propose a tariff of a line of business for non-life insurance. Student teams worked separately, they should choose and apply the best calculation methodology. After submitting the results, the teams presented their work in which they should justify the chosen calculation method and procedure, and they should also assess the quality of their models. Based on projects and presentations, the teams were evaluated by a jury of insurance experts from the company Deloitte.

The competition was attended by teams of students from four universities (Charles University in Prague, Czech Technical University in Prague, Masaryk University and University of Economics, Prague). Students from the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, field of study Quantitative Economic Analysis, taught in English, placed 2nd in the competition. Congratulations to the students – Daria Pirozhkova and Andriy Zhubryd, and many thanks for representation of the University of Economics, Prague, and of the QEA programme.

RNDr. Karel Veselý, Ph.D., director of actuarial and insurance services Deloitte CE, said: “The atmosphere and the commitment of participants have exceeded our expectations. The students of the University of Economics, the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Daria and Andriy, have demonstrated the exemplary data analysis and created a sophisticated model. Thanks to it, they have come second, just after the mixed team consisting of the students from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and from the Masaryk University.”

To the question what graduates the company Deloitte is currently interested in, Mr. Veselý answered: “There is a great variety of job placements in the company Deloitte – from audit, tax and legal advisory services over management consulting to even the financial and insurance mathematics, which requires a broad spectrum of graduates. We always choose and we are interested in students of good professional training, analytical thinking and the ability of presenting the results of their work in a clear and comprehensive way.“ After that he added: “Daria and Andriy have just confirmed what we have already known, I mean that the students of the University of Economics, Prague, can be not only excellent economists but also statisticians.”