Ivy-League schools start offering students courses in blockchain

America's most sought-after tertiary education institutions are readily offering their students courses in blockchain technology.
Business schools all over the world have been experiencing an increase in demand for courses on all facets of blockchain technology. Students are eager to get a foot in the door of the rapidly growing industry, and international firms and businesses are looking to hire young and knowledgeable graduates with expertise in the field.

According to a lecturer from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Greg LeBlanc, the school firmly believes that introducing courses that focus on blockchain technology could have a significant impact on financial and public sectors across the board, including healthcare, public administration, contracting, and assets clearing. LeBlanc concluded that every conceivable branch of business is likely to be affected by blockchain technology.

Luc Olinga from the AFP has confirmed that the Haas School of Business will introduce its very first course on blockchain software this coming semester. According to Olinga, Haas will select 60 students from several different departments, including the business, engineering, and law department. Upon selection, the group will be split up into six different groups to explore different uses of the blockchain. According to the US News & World report, Haas is currently ranked seventh among all US business schools.

Up until now, blockchain technologies remained in the shadows of obscurity. It has been associated with hackers holed up in dark rooms and the seedy underbelly of the dark web. However, blockchain has many uses beyond cryptocurrency and is steadily infiltrating the mainstream, much to the enthusiasm of most key players in the finance sector.

Earlier this month, the CME Group announced that they will implement Bitcoin futures into their platform. This sent the price of Bitcoin soaring as this move was indicative of acceptance of Bitcoin to the financial world. Likewise, the decision of an Ivy-League university to include courses on blockchain could perhaps also be perceived as the financial community's long-delayed embrace of the technology.

The entire tertiary education system is likely to change significantly in the foreseeable future. Business undergraduates are likely to be required to have coding knowledge, while banking majors would perhaps need to take courses on algorithms and data processing, in order to be ready for the job market of the future.

The AFP’s latest statistics revealed that over 20% of Yale’s 2016 graduates currently work in the finance sector. Yale is also looking towards implementing Blockchain courses in the future. Barbara Hewitt from Wharton also confirmed that her department is experiencing a rising trend of business graduates who are enrolling in tech-related minors, in order to meet the demands of the future.According to Stephen Daffron, from Yale’s School of Management, it will become crucial for future Yale graduates to understand the possibilities and mechanisms of blockchain technology.