Teaching Alternative Finance Curriculum to Undergraduates, Graduates, and Executives

The financial system is based on trust. Traditionally, trust has been created by using trusted third parties such as central banks, commercial banks, and stock exchanges. The need for third parties has been questioned by Alternative finance—alternative forms of finance outside the traditional banking and capital markets. Alternative finance has rapidly reshaped and redefined the financial sector, and the need for experts is growing. In addition to finance and information technology, Alternative finance is also linked to business, regulation, and various new technologies. It offers a wide range of perspectives and opportunities for experts. Alternative finance is based on practical innovations and applications. Its teaching should also be solution oriented. The starting point is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional financial system and the opportunities offered by new technologies. The teaching should focus on the latest phenomena rather than on specific technological solutions that are likely to become obsolete quickly. Looking far into the future and identifying new trends and technologies is essential. Start-ups, financial incumbents, and large technology companies are all experts in the digitalization of the financial sector and how customer needs are changing. Both collaboration with these experts and theoretical research on new technologies are needed. This paper presents a curriculum for Alternative finance, focusing on crowdfunding and decentralized finance, but also briefly outlining issues related to regulation, new technologies, and cybersecurity. The aim is to provide a basis on which it is easy to build deeper expertise according to one’s own interests, needs, and background.