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For undergraduate-only, AACSB-accredited business programs, establishing a student managed investment fund (SMIF) can be an enormous, but potentially worthwhile, undertaking. Resources are often very limited – especially for faculty where their time is already consumed by teaching, administrative and publishing requirements. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the five-year experience at Stonehill College and suggest considerations for undergraduate institutions seeking to establish such programs.

This is a retrospective on the experience of designing and implementing a SMIF-based academic program. Student education and professional skill development should be the primary outcomes evaluated with such programs. Included are brief perspectives on the program from its alumni with commentary on perceived value in one to four years following graduation.

The experience to date suggests that establishing a SMIF at a smaller, undergraduate-only institution is challenging. For a SMIF to generate educational returns commensurate with its cost, it needs to be part of a comprehensive, academic-driven program that garners broad support by the business faculty and administration of the college. Personal reflections by its program alumni suggest that it can be a very meaningful academic and experiential learning opportunity.

This paper is focused largely on the experience of one institution. Further insights may be attained by a broader, unbiased analysis of institutions where SMIF programs have succeeded or failed to meet similar objectives.

The authors suggests that the creation of a SMIF program at smaller, undergraduate-only institutions faces unique challenges relative to larger, more well-endowed universities. These challenges can be overcome but not without a broad internal commitment. These programs, if done in a comprehensive way, can significantly impact student outcomes.

The retrospective offers up-to-date insights on the value and challenges of starting a SMIF program at smaller-sized, undergraduate-only academic institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a student-managed investment fund (SMIF) moved from an idea to an operational program over the period of a year at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. The aim is to provide insight to other institutions on how to build capacity when developing their own SMIF.

I summarize the choices made with respect to funding source, governance structure, faculty involvement, recruitment, investment activities and integration into curriculum.

Underlying these choices were challenges pertaining to capacity, student competencies, the existing finance program and ties to industry. Through the development of the SMIF, efforts ensured that capacity was suitably developed in each of these areas.

This paper provides insight to other institutions on how to build capacity while developing their own SMIF.

This account provides the field with a unique perspective. It is written following a year spent developing a SMIF that is about to launch.

This account provides the field with a unique perspective. It is written by a new faculty member following a year spent developing a SMIF that is about to launch.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the embedded challenges of student-managed investment funds (SMIFs) and provide recommendations to work with these issues.

The paper analyzes and critiques the ways SMIFs are structured and operated and makes several suggestions.

The paper details seven unique challenges of SMIFs compared to professionally managed investment funds. The source of these challenges is that SMIFs are set up for educational purposes, which makes the operation and management different from performance-focused investment funds. The paper proposes several recommendations on how to align the educational focus with fund performance.

The paper is original and based on primary research.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the differences present in student-managed investment funds (SMIF).

The paper uses primary data collected by survey and interviews.

The findings of this paper suggest that research efforts need to be focused on the topical area and transparency in the field needs to be improved.

Past research is validated and future research is needed.

The need to develop and disseminate best practices in the management of SMIF’s.

Student-managed funds are widespread and growing but operate as independent entities.

The paper is original and based on primary research.

The student-managed investment fund (SMIF) program at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), was launched in 1995 with one portfolio worth $50,000. In the two decades since then, the program has grown to include three portfolios with a combined value of more than $700,000, managed on behalf of three different clients. The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation, evolution and growth of the program including the development of the new quantitative approach and its subsequent implementation. The paper also discusses the ongoing organizational, educational and investment-management challenges associated with the program.

The paper includes a description of the development and evolution of the program along with a discussion of the investment results for one of its three portfolios.

The paper finds: the new quantitative approach implemented in the program is effective as insurance against “black swan” events; and SMIF-type programs can provide learning experiences both for students and faculty members.

The paper explains the practical application of the new quantitative approach as well as the educational benefits of a SMIF-type program.

The paper provides insight into the structure of CSULB’s SMIF program and discusses a unique quantitative approach to asset allocation and security selection.

The purpose of this paper is to describe lessons learned from integrating student-managed investment funds (SMIFs) in finance education systems based on the case of the Raymond Rebsamen Investment Fund at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.

The paper has three main parts. First, it describes how the Rebsamen Fund operates as an integral part of undergraduate and graduate finance education at the Walton College. Second, it explains how the Fund spawned creation of sister funds, an institute, a 62-seat trading center, and coordinates with other agencies and stakeholders. Third, it lists strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing future SMIF integration into finance education.

The use of innovative experiential learning solutions like SMIFs bridging theory and practice can be enhanced by integrating them into effective systems of finance education.

Lessons learned include benefits of SMIF management by class, licensing and professional certification, trading centers, use of SMIF finances to support other components of education, proliferation of SMIFs, SMIF stimulation of academic units like centers/institutes, SMIF facilitation of collaboration, importance of tying SMIFs to student finance clubs, coordination of industry speaker visits between SMIF classes and clubs, and use of SMIFs in addressing cutting-edge challenges.

This paper discusses how SMIFs can be integrated in finance education.

This paper aims to explore how the student fund managers perceive the benefits of being part of the fund. Furthermore, this paper examines the country-specific challenges of setting up and managing a student-managed investment fund (SMIF) in India.

Qualitative content analysis technique is used to identify, compare and retrieve critical themes about the present state of SMIF clubs in India. The data collection method involved structured, in-depth online interviews with ten student fund managers from various higher educational institutions in India.

Some of the study’s key findings indicate that the existence of SMIFs as part of learning facilitates group decision-making and peer learning. Additionally, this study brings to light specific issues related to registration, incorporating real-world practices and integrating SMIF into the academic curriculum.

The outcomes of this study shall be of use to students and the teaching fraternity across Indian colleges and universities who aspire to set up SMIFs as part of experiential learning. This study will also help existing SMIF clubs in India understand how their counterparts work and can consequently improvise their organizational structure and functioning.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first interview-based evaluation of the present structure of SMIFs structured as clubs in India.

In recent years, student-managed investment funds (SMIFs), experiential learning programs at an increasing number of universities, have attracted significant scholarly interest. In this article, we review the academic literature on this pedagogy.

We use the systematic review method to assess a sample of 85 articles published in 30 journals during the period 1975 to 2020.

Our literature review reveals four streams of research: best practices and challenges, investment management, innovation and trends and SMIFs in a research setting. We also propose future research directions, including specific gaps in the literature, a focus on innovations to traditional programs, systematic investment performance and expansion into behavioral finance issues.

We contribute a comprehensive view of the body of scholarship on SMIFs, identifying existing streams of research and future research directions that will help guide the development of SMIF research into a cohesive and productive space.

The creation and formation of a student managed investment fund (SMIF) is a risky proposition for all stakeholders involved in the process. These risks include reputational risks for the individuals involved, fiduciary risks for the school’s Board of Trustees and monetary risks for the university itself. The purpose of this paper is to explain and detail how these risks can be mitigated through specific oversight committee (OC) construction, distributional/benchmarking requirements for the fund and detailed trading rules (exit points, short sale constraints, loss provisions, etc.) for fund managers, which can all be codified in the bylaws of the SMIF.

This investigation is done through a specific case study – the 2017/2018 formation of the George Mason University SMIF. As head of the OC for the fund and lead architect in the creation of the fund for the GMU faculty, the statements below come from firsthand accounts of dealing with all parties of interest and firsthand knowledge of the year-long process of managing all risks, which culminated in being granted endowment capital from the Board of Trustees to officially begin the SMIF on May 1, 2018.

First, this paper details how a complete investment policy statement can be used to mitigate the fears and concerns of all parties that have a fiduciary duty to the university’s endowment (which the students will now be partially managing). These bylaws include statements on the risk characteristics of the fund, distributions back to the endowment, oversight features and benchmarking. Next, written into the bylaws of the fund can be several benchmarking and distributional requirements to mitigate the risk exposure of the SMIF’s holdings. Finally, aside from benchmarking constraints, another successful risk management technique can be rules written directly into the investment policy statement that define exit points, tracking error, short sale constraints and other rules for trading.

This paper offers a roadmap by which these risks can be mitigated through the content of an investment policy statement/bylaws. The author details several techniques that eventually led to all stakeholders at GMU in signing off on the formation of an SMIF, and endowment capital being given to the fund as a seed investment. This is a firsthand account of this process and the author has not seen it documented in the literature anywhere else.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the domain of experiential learning by sharing the experiences of establishing and developing student managed investment fund (SMIF) at West Virginia University (WVU).

This paper discusses the structure and performance of the SMIF at WVU within the context of experiential learning literature in financial education.

The adopted structure and coordination of SMIF appears to be effective in bridging the gap between classroom and the professional world, while significantly enhancing student experiential learning opportunities, engagement and professional preparedness.

The paper presents experience of launching and operating a SMIF at WVU, which has recently joined the ranks of R1 research universities. While the importance of research productivity has been on the rise, the significance of strengthening student experiences has also been growing and maintaining the balanced approach can be challenging. Enrollment in WVUs undergraduate finance program grew 33 percent over the past three years. With growing enrollment and competitiveness of finance degree programs, experiential learning opportunities like WVU’s SMIF are an essential for an evolving curriculum.