Actuarial Studies

You will learn about actuarial techniques and life insurance modelling, through to the mathematics of finance and insurance risk models. This major will provide you with a firm grounding in the traditional actuarial skill set of mathematics, statistics, demography, finance and economics.

Major Structure

In your first year, you will complete a compulsory core alongside 4 to 6 foundation subjects to build your fundamentals. You will also commence a sequence of breadth subjects to fulfill the quantitative requirement. Your second and third year are comprised of almost entirely major subjects, in addition to the rest of your mathematics breadth sequence and the option to fill the remaining credits with commerce electives and/or another breadth subject.

Professional Accreditation

You will need to start taking actuarial subjects in your first year to fulfil professional accreditation requirements.

Breadth studies

The Melbourne curriculum allows you to incorporate breadth subjects into your degree. This gives you the chance to explore subjects or disciplines outside of commerce and actuarial studies.

Use breadth to explore creative interests or topics you have always been curious about; or complement your accounting major and career development with a language, communication skills or technological expertise.

If you have a professional graduate program in mind, such as the Juris Doctor (Law) or Master of Engineering, you can use your breadth subjects to develop your knowledge and meet prerequisites from day one. Breadth subjects can give you the flexibility to qualify for graduate studies or explore interests in a field that’s very different from your major.

Specialisations

From 2026, you can deepen your knowledge by focusing 25 credit points of your level 3 elective study toward a specialisation within your major. The two specialisations currently available to the Actuarial Studies major are:

• Actuarial Risk Management
• Ethics and Sustainability