The Official School of Economics and Finance Podcast

Continuing our Student Series, we bring you another podcast for you to enjoy. In this episode, we caught up with Victoria Adubia Twum, a current student studying for an MSc Mental Health Economics to hear about her experiences at Queen Mary University. As you will hear, it was a busy day at the Graduate Centre, which is home to the School of Economics and Finance!

As part of a special careers podcast series ‘Experience Matters', you can hear from a range of employers of Queen Mary students, and previous Queen Mary interns about what it takes to secure an internship in the competitive London Market and why an Internship is still vital on your CV when you graduate. In this episode, Priyanka Balakrishnan, a graduating student from the School of Economics and Finance, talks to Godman Usman, founder of GenMoney and his mission to deliver new approaches to talking and learning about money for young people. As a reminder to our listeners, this was recorded during lockdown of June 2021.

Welcome to another podcast from the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University. Our guest in this episode is Astitva Jindal, a recent graduate of the BSc Economics and Finance programme who has since gone on to set up a social enterprise project to break free from the stigma associated with mental health problems amongst economically and socially deprived children at government schools in New Delhi, India. The recording was made remotely, so some background interference may be heard.

Our guest in this episode is psychiatrist and author, Denise Razzouk, professor and researcher on Mental Health Economics at Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this episode we discuss her work on the economic impact of mental disorders, the challenges of how to measure this and ultimately implications for public health policy and resource allocation. Audio recorded via Zoom.

We are delighted to be back with our podcast for 2022, with a new series focusing on mental health and mental health economics, where we chat with several experts in the field. To kick off our first episode, we caught up with Dr Francesca Cornaglia, co-programme director for the school’s new MSc Mental Health Economics programme, starting in September. Recorded over Zoom, all the usual background technology beeps are apparent! We've made a note to switch off all gadgets next time! More information on the programme or to contact Francesca Cornaglia directly can be found at https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sef/postgrad-study/mhe-hub/

In this special episode, we talked with Mupiwenyasha Mbiba, coordinator of the student led initative qNomics to find out about the service and how students and businesses can get involved. qNomics is a free financial advice centre for tech start-ups and entrepreneurs provided by students from the School of Economics and  Finance, Queen Mary University of London. Advice is delivered under the supervision of qualified practitioners. Their aim is to provide free business and financial guidance to local start-ups and new entrepreneurs through the use of our student advisors.

In this very special short podcast, we chat with Azmain Iftekhar; the School of Economics & Finance Representative 2020/21. As an introduction to Azmain, we briefly explore his manefesto and how he will support students at the school. More information can be found on the Queen Mary Student Union website https://www.qmsu.org/part-time-reps/economics/ Look out for a full podcast with Azmain very soon!

Recently we caught up with the school’s career consultants, Serena Spoendlin, Aminul Hoque and Laura Skedgell for a chat via Zoom about what’s happening in Careers and Enterprise. The School of Economics and Finance students have access to the Careers & Enterprise Centre at Queen Mary for the duration of their studies and for two years after graduating. In addition to the central support available, the School of Economics and Finance has two dedicated Careers Consultants, who run weekly 1-to-1 sessions offering students a range of support https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sef/postgraduate/masters/careers/

The second episode in our series talking to the School of Economics and Finance academic community welcomes Professor George Skiadopoulos. In this podcast he discusses his journey into academia but also his current research and working with industry. George is currently part-time at Queen Mary and he is also a Professor  at the University of Piraeus in the Department of Banking and Financial  Management. He is the Director and co-Founder of the Institute of  Finance and Financial Regulation, and an Associate Research Fellow at  Cass Business School, City University, and at Warwick Business School,  University of Warwick. George holds a BSc. from the Department of  Economics of the Athens University of Economics and Business, an MSc. in  Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the London School of  Economics, and a PhD. from the University of Warwick. George's research interests lie in the areas of commodities,  empirical asset pricing, financial derivatives and portfolio management.  He has published in academic journals such as the Management  Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of  Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Banking and Finance,  Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Empirical Finance,  International Journal of Forecasting, and others. He serves in the  editorial boards of the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of  Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Commodity Markets, Journal  of Derivatives and Multinational Finance Journal.

In this latest episode of his new student rep podcast series, Azmain Iftekhar caught up with Dr Manolis Noikokyris and Philippa Costello (Student Support Officer) from the School of Economics and Finance. He explored what it was like for students to study online during the pandemic and how the school has worked hard on developing its student engagement activities.

In this special episode, we caught up with Laurence Gouldbourne, Interim Head of Diversity and Inclusion to discuss all things EDI at Queen Mary University, including the new Dignity Disclosure Officer initiative, what we can expect from the work currently being undertaken, but most importantly, how staff and students can proactively get involved, not just within the School of Economics and Finance but also the wider university. This has become a focused and important element in the University’s strategy as we work on creating “a truly inclusive environment, building on our cherished cultural diversity, where students and staff flourish, reach their full potential and are proud to be part of the University. Dedicated to the public good, we will generate new knowledge, challenge existing knowledge, and engage locally, nationally and internationally to create a better world.” Do consider bookmarking our web pages to keep up to date with information about the equality, diversity and inclusion work, news and events at Queen Mary https://bit.ly/31Ys91A

Recently we caught up with School of Economics and Finance alumnus and serial entrepreneur, Junior Ogunyemi. For over a decade, he has been making headlines for launching many successful companies. His business portfolio ranges from local sports academies, to global tech ventures. His achievements have seen him collect numerous national awards and become one of the most sought after business speakers. He has produced one of the highest ranked courses on Udemy and is the best-selling author of the highly influential book, “How to be a Student Entrepreneur”. Junior has appeared on Tedx and has worked on government initiatives both locally and internationally. His dynamic inspirational messages have helped thousands of business owners gain clarity, learn how to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and maximize their full potential.

Recently we caught up with School of Economics and Finance Alumna, Yasmin Desai. Joined by Alumni Engagement Coordinator, Hannah Dormor, we explored with Yasmin, what it was like being a student at Queen Mary University, what the overall experience was like and life since she graduated. To learn more about how to connect with Queen Mary’s global community through our new online professional networking platform for alumni and students, follow this link... https://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/

In this episode, we are delighted to be talking to 3rd Year BSc (Hons) Economics, Management & Finance student, Felicia Kaspar, who is also a Student Ambassador for the school. We are also joined by our wonderful Student Support Officer, Philippa Costello, providing insights as to how we look after students during their time at the University. If you are a prospective student looking to study at the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University, then this episode is for you!

In the first of our series talking to academics from the School of Economics and Finance, we welcome Dr Tim Lee. Recorded via Zoom, we explored what it was like to study at Queen Mary University and how students can get the most from the experience. Tim gained his Ph.D. and M.Sc. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison,  U.S.A., and B.A. from Seoul National University in Korea. Prior to  joining Queen Mary, Tim was an Assistant Professor at Toulouse School of  Economics, France from 2016 to 2018, and University of Mannheim,  Germany from 2011 to 2016. Although primarily a macroeconomist, he  combines data and methods from labour and public economics to study the  dynamics of inequality, and how it is related to the education,  occupations and industries. His work has been published in the Journal  of Political Economy, the Economic Journal, and the Journal of Monetary  Economics. To learn more about Dr Tim Lee's research that was discussed in this podcast, go to https://bit.ly/2XC4DE9

This episode we talk to alumnus Edoardo Palombo about why he chose to study at Queen Mary University and the School of Economics and Finance. We explore what his student life was like and his reasons for staying on to study a postgraduate degree that ultimately led to a PhD. We also discuss his future as he embarks on a career with Deloitte. Recorded via Zoom during the 2020 lockdown period.

Despite the global pandemic of 2020 forcing us all into lock down, it wasn't going to stop us talking to current student Jack Ivory of his experiences at Queen Mary University and the School of Economics. As a consequence this podcast episode has been recorded via Zoom. The first in a series of conversations with students from the School of Economics and Finance, we explore with Jack what it is like to study at Queen Mary and what advice he would give those thinking of doing their degree at the University, in particular the placement option that Jack is currently undertaking.

Another podcast from the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University as part of our series focusing on mental health and mental health economics, where we chat with academic experts in the field. In this episode, we are joined by Dr Christoph Kronenberg, deputy head of the junior research group EACH at the health economics research centre ‘Competent in competition and health’ (CINCH) and our conversation explored how he became involved in this field and his current research.

In this episode, we welcomed Dr Mark Freestone, Reader in Mental Health and Director of Education at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University and more recently Co-Programme Director of the MSc in Mental Health Economics that launches this September. Dr Freestone has also consulted on forensic mental health issues for NHS England and the London Violence Reduction Programme and films and television shows such as the BBC America drama series Killing Eve and Channel 4 prison drama Screw. Audio recorded on Zoom.

As part of our new series focusing on mental health and mental health economics, we chat with academic experts in the field. Our guest this episode is Scott Cunningham, professor of economics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Among his areas of interest are mental health, sex work, abortion, and drug policy. The audio was recorded using Zoom.