Exams. Lots of exams.

While poring over your mortality tables or frantically trying to memorise endless lists, have you ever wistfully thought of what would have happened if you had chosen the red pill? What would life have been like if you had gone to another recruitment fair and decided instead to become an accountant or lawyer? Under plans mooted by the profession, we may soon be plugged into their reality. Even students have not escaped unscathed by the Morris review. Morris criticised the inflexibility of the current education policy and recommended a more university-based tutoring system. It seems the floral structure of the syllabus did not impress and it should be no surprise that a one-off six-hour exam with course notes longer than an encyclopaedia would be considered as inflexible. The profession has therefore floated ideas around making an actuarial university qualification compulsory. For non-actuarial science students there would be a post-graduate diploma akin to the law conversion course. The aim is that students would have all the core technical subjects under their belt before entering employment. The profession feels this would attract higher-calibre students and shorten the time to qualification. But if the course is open to anyone, this may dilute the quality and result in a large number of unemployed part-qualified actuaries, as occurs with trainee lawyers who fund themselves through the conversion course in the delusion that they can stroll into any job on qualification. The current system requires employers to invest time and money in supporting students through exams rather than receiving them ready-made. This creates a supply and demand structure with employers taking on only the graduates they need and feel are of the best quality.It may well be that some graduates are put off an actuarial career by the thought of exams stretching in front of them for so many years. But the rewards at the end are worthwhile and the total time to qualification is comparable to those of doctors and lawyers. Some graduates may be lured by the early high salaries of management consultants and bankers, but these come with horrendous hours and little job security. University gave us skills in self-learning and to question what we were being taught. The profession should recognise that actuarial science is not the be-all and end-all and backgrounds in other disciplines can allow the profession to develop rather than stagnate. Many students have no fixed career path mapped out on entering university and it seems limiting to constrain people based on decisions made at 18.Employers have understandably voiced scepticism with regards to proposals for university-based education. Why would an employer pay a large salary to a well-qualified student who has yet to have any work experience? Or fund a conversion course for a year? Passing exams does not necessarily mean you can adapt to office life. After all, we are constantly told that in order to pass the exams you need a good working knowledge and that the development of a good actuary comes from the office and study combined. Are universities really the best factory for actuarial students? And would universities be willing to stretch their staff and budgets just to accommodate professional students? Running such courses may spawn some research output, but I suspect that fees would be the primary inducement, a situation unlikely to provide value for employers or students. Finally, why should university-backed tuition be preferred over self-study? Most undergraduates will recall very little is gained from dozing in a stuffy lecture hall.The low pass rates for actuarial exams shows that the profession is unwilling to let standards slip in order to accommodate fast qualification or flexibility. And diluting the gene pool in such a way will not help our small profession. So perhaps the profession should not be too hasty when it comes to following the white rabbit – as The Matrix shows, reality is not the wonderland people may envisage.Michael Davern works for Lane, Clark & Peacock and is chair of the London Markets Students’ Group60-second interviewFrancesca Mills has been with the Life Team at Barnett Waddingham since September.What one thing would you change about your job?Champagne breakfasts as company policy.If I wasn’t an actuary I’d be…As clueless as the next person as to what one actually does!Are you Team Aniston or Team Jolie?If I was male I’d probably bat for both teams, but I’m firmly with Jen on this one. That Jolie woman seems like a real schemer.What’s the best thing about being a student actuary?The godsend of a mid-week study day springs to mind. Close second are exam pass celebrations. You can’t buy that feeling, and you can enjoy it up to twice a year for, well, years and years!

What’s in your fridge at the moment?CT4, as it’s starting to get scary. Plus an alarming amount of mayonnaise which I keep getting given for some reason, but nothing I could actually create a meal with. I like to live on the edge.Favourite 80s cartoonThundercats. Sadly I think I’ll never now grow up to be Cheetara.