FINANCE DEGREE is not a degree in software programming. Finance students are trained to become finance managers, not programmers. Software or programming language are administrative or analytical tools; they are not skill sets expected of finance managers. Management decisions are non-administrative and non-operational. People who work in computer lab for a finance firm, for instance, are support staff. One does not need a finance degree to be a support staff.

Paul Louangrath Thank you Prof. Paul for the clarification. Your answer has certainly cleared my doubt. However, putting aside the fact the Prof. Paul had mentioned that learning HOW these complex data analytical tools work requires a programming degree which does not come under the purview of having a Finance Degree. But does this also imply that we somehow need to learn at least by WHAT are these complex tools do that have evolved the way the financial industry works nowadays and essentially help the finance managers in their jobs? E.g. from the most versatile Microsoft Excel data analytic technical skills like VBA in pricing strategies, risk management etc., to Python in banking industries for investment trading purposes. Will knowing how to read the final results of these programming help the finance-majored students? Will this become the most sought-after skills required by the employers in the financial industry in the future?

Sorry, but i totaly disagree with Mr. Louangrath. From an academic perspecitve he will be right but my practical experience shows something different. Most people with a finance degree start their real world worklive with doing analytics. Beside this point, modern data driven enterprises require a manager to know and understand what data can be used for. That knowledge is nothing to be aquired in pure theory. It lives by practical experience. So to be honest i am really convinced most business related students will benefit by a little practical experience in data analytics. Especially understanding what machine learning can offer and what it cant offer will be essential for good strategy decisions in modern enterprises.

My personal selection is some SQL and Python with Pandas and Scikit-Learn.

In my point of view for finance degree holder students , they want to excel their skills in computer programming language they must learn python language . Python programming is specially desgined for data analysis , python Jupyter Notebook , Spyder, and Anaconda python complete package is good for learning and please keep python and focus on python language. It is a best tool for learning. thanks t.c.

A programming language that meets your finance project need is the best languageothers youyou should master, NO matter R , python, SQL and others

I agree with the responses indicating it helps to know some language to analyze data and display it. Which one I think highly depends on where you work, what they have, and what you do. So, re-evaluate after you start a job. I realize that doesn't help on the front end. To start, learn advanced Excel skills. Every finance person I've ever met benefits from advanced Excel. That will be directly transferrable. After that I highly recommend Microsoft Power BI, it's an up and comer. I also recommend R. I'd choose R over Python before I know where I'm going as R and Python are both widely adopted, but R has a considerably easier learning curve.

I think the perspective of Prof is not bad. However, as a Financial manager, at many point in your career, you will work with big data. The reason why Big data Analysts are scares is not only because the industry is new, but data are getting bigger all days including finance, health, administrative data. etc. So learning Big data analysis like R, Python, SQL is not a bad idea for a Financial manager. Beside of all this managements I highlighted, financial data is quit sensitive and has little experts in the big analysis.

I appreciate and I couldn't agree more with all the responses especially with Wolfgang Wiedermann that business/finance-related grads must have a little practical experience in data analysis skills. Also, Erik Brown 's statement is totally true that to start with at least by learning Advance Excel and cater it to the needs of the grads in their career as well as gradual re-evaluation of enhancing their programming skills according to their career needs.

And to Dr. Bisi Owolewa regarding the concern over the security of financial data, perhaps students should also need to learn and reflect the ethical issues based on real-world cases while gaining the knowledge of data programming. This is also where the laws and regulations relating to financial data analytics need to be addressed to the students.