ShanghaiJune 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On June 15, 2026, the Financial Times (FT) officially released its 2026 Global Masters in Finance (MiF) ranking.
The Master of Finance (MF) program at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, climbed to 6th place globally in the comprehensive ranking, not only setting a new historical best but also securing a spot in the global top 10 for the third consecutive year, further solidifying its benchmark position in the field of international financial higher education.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University SAIF Master of Finance (MF) Program Rises to 6th Globally
As one of the most authoritative and influential ranking systems in global financial education, the FT has published its specialized global Masters in Finance ranking since 2011. This year’s list includes 70 institutions, evaluating the comprehensive strength of finance master’s programs through 19 indicators across three dimensions: “Alumni Career Development,” “School Diversity,” and “International Experience, Research, ESG, and Carbon Footprint.”
Having cultivated high-end financial talent for many years, the SAIF MF program has previously topped the Asian rankings for three consecutive years and entered the global top 10 four times, earning widespread international recognition for its comprehensive educational standards. This year, the SAIF MF program improved on 9 indicators and continued to lead globally in several key metrics. Notably, it ranked first globally in “Average Salary of Alumni Three Years After Graduation,” second globally in “Value for Money,” and maintained a 100% rate in both “Employment Rate Within Three Months of Graduation” and “Proportion of Faculty with Doctoral Degrees.” These figures directly reflect the core competitiveness of SAIF students in the global job market and fully demonstrate the program’s world-class advantages in talent cultivation, faculty development, curriculum design, and career empowerment.
As a flagship program of SAIF, the MF program, since its inception in 2009, has been committed to cultivating outstanding talent to support China’s goal of becoming a financial powerhouse and the development of Shanghai as an international financial center. Adhering to the principles of specialization, internationalization, and market orientation, the program guides students to develop a sense of responsibility aligned with national strategies, serving the real economy and fulfilling the mission of finance. It aims to cultivate national pillars with both international vision and local insight. The program is a full-time, two-year, English-taught program offering two tracks: Finance (MF-General) and Financial Technology (MF-FinTech). It features a forward-looking, specialized curriculum closely aligned with global industry developments, world-class faculty, an internationally oriented teaching structure, and intensive industry practice.
Currently, the SAIF MF program has rapidly developed into a benchmark program in Asia and globally, becoming a top choice for elite students worldwide aspiring to pursue careers in finance. The program recruits students from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and internationally. Mainland Chinese students come from renowned domestic universities, with 85% from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Fudan University. Students from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and other countries come from top global universities, representing a highly diverse background.
The SAIF MF program continuously strives for progress, iteratively upgrading its curriculum. In 2019, the program added the FinTech Track alongside the existing General Track, with courses co-developed by seasoned industry experts and senior academic professors, making it one of the first finance master’s programs in China to offer this direction. To align with financial industry trends and student career development needs, the program further refined its curriculum by setting differentiated elective courses based on various financial industry job functions, implementing customized teaching to serve individual student development. Facing the new industry changes driven by artificial intelligence, the program fully integrates cutting-edge technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain into teaching to strengthen students’ professional foundations.
SAIF Xuhui Campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Simultaneously, the program balances the cultivation of professional skills and comprehensive qualities, leveraging its distinctive ELSA (Extension, Learning, Service, Action) curriculum system for diversified development. This system comprises three series: Professional Development, Coffee Hour Exchanges, and Social Responsibility. Through various practical activities and volunteer projects, it helps students transcend traditional classroom boundaries and continuously refine their soft skills. Additionally, the program offers practical courses through the Learning by Doing Center (LLC), introducing corporate resources and integrating real business cases. Academic professors and industry mentors jointly guide students to develop the ability to learn and solve real-world problems through action. The program has also established a high-level, mature student management and service system, providing professional, meticulous, and humanized full-process support, covering the entire cycle from admission and study to graduation and employment. The team focuses on long-term program planning and industry resource integration, with high-quality, caring management services consistently earning high student satisfaction, escorting the growth of outstanding financial talent throughout their journey.
The SAIF MF program continuously deepens international cooperation, offering diverse international modules and high-level exchange partnerships with dozens of overseas universities. It also conducts in-depth dual-degree collaborations with several renowned overseas institutions (such as Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, London School of Economics and Political Science, Imperial College London, Bocconi University, Singapore Management University, etc.), ensuring students are exposed to cutting-edge international financial knowledge, develop cross-cultural collaboration skills, and broaden their global perspectives.
Beyond the comprehensive talent cultivation system, full-cycle career development empowerment is another core competency of the SAIF MF program. The Career Development Center (CDC) has established a standardized career development process system. Vertically, it connects the entire chain from in-depth career consulting and high-fidelity practical training to frontline industry resources. Horizontally, it builds a symbiotic network of mutual assistance among industry professionals, alumni, and current students. Furthermore, it deeply integrates “AI + Finance,” creating an intelligent career knowledge base and supporting tools to accurately match student strengths with job positions. This not only guides students in mastering the application logic of AI tools to enhance efficiency but also focuses on cultivating their irreplaceable insight and decision-making abilities in the wave of intelligent transformation. The SAIF CDC provides one-on-one personalized career consulting for each student. Recently, it has also established specialized mutual aid communities in specific fields, connecting new students, upper and lower-grade students, and alumni to provide professional guidance tailored to the latest market demands. Through systematic support, the SAIF CDC helps students demonstrate solid professional competence and clear career positioning during their job search, enabling them to steadily receive career offers from leading global institutions.
Thanks to this ecosystem of full-cycle career development empowerment, the employment outcomes of the SAIF MF program remain at a globally leading level: besides maintaining a 100% employment rate within three months of graduation, the program ranks among the global top in core dimensions such as career guidance services and graduate salary competitiveness. The 2026 graduating class continues to show a strong performance in the job market, with the quality of talent cultivation receiving positive feedback and widespread recognition from employers. SAIF students are well-suited to the diversified development needs of the financial industry in the new era, capable of creating value by delving into specific financial sectors, empowering high-quality development of the real economy based on professional skills, and proactively aligning with the national strategic layout for building a financial powerhouse.
“This further improvement in the ranking reflects the collective efforts and unwavering dedication of the institute’s leadership, professors, program management team, and the SAIF CDC. Currently, with China’s sustained and stable economic development, the depth and breadth of its financial markets are continuously expanding, and society’s demand for high-quality, professional, and international financial talent is increasingly urgent. Our program consistently adheres to the core principles of specialization, internationalization, and market orientation. With strong support from the institute, we continuously optimize the curriculum and training model, keeping pace with market trends and responding to the needs of the times,” noted Professor Li Xianglin, Academic Director of the SAIF MF Program and Academic Director of the Career Development Center. “Looking ahead, we will vigorously promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and financial education—this initiative is not only for students in the FinTech track but also for all MF students. The program has been offering three machine learning courses for six consecutive years and has recently added cutting-edge courses like ‘Applications of Large Language Models in Finance,’ truly introducing AI tools into financial practice teaching.”
Professor Li stated: “The program is driving a systemic transformation of the teaching model: problem-oriented, practice-centered, allowing students to ‘learn by doing,’ mastering conceptual frameworks, enhancing analytical skills, and professional judgment in real-world scenarios. More practical courses will be introduced gradually. In faculty development, the program continuously recruits top-tier, experienced industry experts to participate in teaching, providing students with valuable guidance and hands-on experience. To all current and prospective students, regardless of your background in arts or sciences, if you are deeply committed to a career in the financial industry, identify with our educational philosophy, and aspire to grow in a professional, international, and market-oriented environment, we sincerely welcome you to join the SAIF Master of Finance family.”
SAIF Xuhui Campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
SAIF is an international finance institute established by the Shanghai Municipal Government, relying on Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and modeled after world-class business schools, to serve the national strategy of building Shanghai into an international financial center. Over the 17 years since its founding, with strong support from the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, and the university, SAIF has steadfastly pursued its development goal of becoming a “world-class top-tier finance institute rooted in Shanghai, serving China, and influencing the world.” Upholding its mission to “gather world-class faculty, cultivate high-end financial talent, build an open research platform, and form a top-tier policy think tank,” SAIF has constructed the most complete product line for high-end financial management education, including programs such as the Master of Finance (MF), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Executive MBA (EMBA), PhD, Global Executive Scholars Program (GES), and Executive Education (EE). It continuously updates its curriculum and teaching content in response to the needs of the times. SAIF is also one of the youngest business schools globally to receive accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
World-class faculty are the core force driving SAIF towards becoming a world-class finance institute. Thanks to its innovative concepts and mechanisms, SAIF has successfully assembled a faculty team that is “world-class, leading in Asia and domestically” in the field of finance. Over 80 professors covering disciplines such as finance, accounting, and management come from world-renowned institutions. More than 70% of them held tenured positions at top-tier European and American business schools before joining SAIF. Several professors hold important positions in international first-class academic institutions and authoritative academic journals, possessing rich international research, teaching, and practical experience.
Standing at the critical juncture of the start of the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, SAIF closely aligns with the national demand for building a financial powerhouse. Focusing on the “five major articles” of finance—technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance—SAIF concentrates on three strategic directions: technology finance, digital finance, and sustainable finance. It comprehensively promotes an AI-empowered curriculum upgrade, builds a cultivation ecosystem that integrates multiple disciplines and emphasizes both theory and practice, and continues to contribute new SAIF strength to serving the national strategy of building a “financial powerhouse,” Shanghai’s “five centers” development, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s goal of becoming a “world-class university.”