Commerce and law student takes out national university challenge

Sale university student, Patrick Rowe, has outclassed more than 360 students from across the country to win the AMP University Challenge.

A Deakin University commerce and law student, Patrick was thrilled to take out the major prize attributing his achievement to a number of factors, including previous participation in the event, developing his public speaking capacity and academic support from his lecturers.

“This is the second time I have taken part in the challenge, which certainly helped in my preparation for this year,” Patrick said.

“Winning the AMP University Challenge has given me confidence in myself and an understanding that should I pursue a financial planning career once my degree is complete, I have a strong foundation to grow upon to become a good financial advisor - especially if I keep putting in the necessary work.”

Patrick was rewarded with $4000 worth of prize money and registrations to attend the 2015 FPA Professionals Congress in Brisbane and the 2016 AMP Advice Summit in Adelaide.

Now in its fifth year, the challenge is an opportunity for university students to demonstrate their problem-solving and financial planning prowess, while being judged by a panel of industry experts.

Four of Patrick’s peers in the Master of Financial Planning took out second place in the challenge.

Deakin Business School’s Dr Adrian Raftery said that challenges like these instil a level of confidence in students and confirm that they can excel in their field in the real world.

“All finalists received tremendous feedback from a variety of industry representatives throughout the day, which adds so much to their whole learning experience at Deakin. We cannot underestimate the networking that they were exposed to and how that will help them in the future,” Dr Raftery said.

“Also, they may have had the technical skills down pat prior to the challenge, but it is definitely one thing knowing and another altogether doing and implementing.”