HEC Paris in Qatar is offering a new master’s degree in financial regulation and leadership to Qatari employees at Qatar’s three financial regulators. Qatar National Bank also has some of its people registered as students for it.

The chairmen of the QFC Regulatory Authority and the Qatar Financial Markets Authority and the governor of the Qatar Central Bank have sponsored the new degree.

The "Master’s degree in Strategic Business Unit Management with specialisation in Financial Regulation" took shape in 2016. Its purpose is to turn callow Qatari youths into regulatory leaders. The "custom programme" for financial regulators is the first of its kind in the region and one of only a handful in the world. The three regulators planned it last year, appointing representatives to a technical advisory panel, which met twice to review proposals from regional "education providers." In December 2016, the panel awarded the contract to HEC Paris in Qatar.

There are 12 modules, 6 of which are dedicated to financial regulation, including an online module on Islamic Finance. Participants will learn the skills they need to manage teams and organisations, to develop and follow sound strategies and to regulate financial institutions. There are 17 students in the class of 2019. The course begins on Sunday 4 November and runs until April 2019.

HEC Paris is more than 130 years old. For the past eight years the London Financial Times has ranked it as one of the world’s leading providers of executive education, helping people obtain Master of Business Administration degrees and much more besides.