The Development of Actuarial Science in Tunisia
The project was financed by the SCOR Foundation
and led by Paris-Dauphine University and Institut Tunis Dauphine
Duration of the project: 2018-2022
The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science has provided financial support to a project to develop actuarial skills in Tunisia, and more widely in Africa, run by Université Paris Dauphine-PSL (UPD-PSL) through its Tunisian campus. The aim of this project is to strengthen the Tunisian and African actuarial community, through initial and ongoing training for future and current actuaries, with a view to making that community simultaneously autonomous and anchored in the international actuarial community. The Tunisian campus is the largest and oldest campus opened abroad by Université Paris Dauphine-PSL (UPD-PSL), as part of its internationalization strategy. The mission of the campus is to provide initial and ongoing training for senior executives so they can meet the demands of international competition in its field of expertise: organizational and decision sciences. It positions itself as a regional hub for higher education in the Mediterranean region and French-speaking Africa. As such, it welcomes students from Tunisia, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and France.
The first phase of the project involves strengthening the basic training programs on UPD-PSL’s Tunisian campus, which help to create risk expertise. This has involved consolidating the actuarial courses on the campus with teaching by international academics and industry professionals, who have recognized expertise in actuarial master’s programs. In addition to this, actions directed at students have raised the profile of risk-related courses on the campus (Actuarial Science and Artificial Intelligence, Systems and Data Science), encouraging the students to attend. These actions have included promotional and communication campaigns, as well as “SCOR Foundation” scholarship awards.
The second part of this project to develop actuarial science in Tunisia, supported by the SCOR Corporate Foundation for science, concerns continuing education aimed at Tunisian, and more broadly African, actuaries and risk professionals. In particular, it involves creating a training facility, l’Ecole Professionnelle des Actuaires (EPA), which complements existing training programs (Certificat en Assurance, Certificat Risk Management, Certificat IFRS-Assurance, and customized programs). EPA was set up in partnership with ATA (Association Tunisienne des Actuaires) to offer distance learning for actuaries and insurance industry professionals. Its courses are structured in cycles and deal with topics chosen according to need. The first training cycle focuses on three topics: Solvency II, Reserving in Non-Life Insurance, and IFRS. The training is delivered online, via a teaching platform where students can self-train and actuaries and insurance professionals from anywhere in Tunisia or Africa can participate. EPA consequently strengthens ties between actuaries working in French-speaking Africa and on both sides of the Mediterranean.
The support of the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science has helped to strengthen relations between the Tunisian campus of UPD-PSL and the business world, and to raise the profile of the actuarial profession in Tunisia and throughout French-speaking Africa.
