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No 13 - Autumn 2003
Greetings from everyone in Economics and International Studies at Buckingham. We hope that life has been treating you kindly since we were last in touch. For ourselves, we have been incredibly busy and that, as you know, makes the time fly. We will try to bring you up to date with everything as quickly as we can.
First of all, there is another first for the School. You've spent all this time explaining about the University of Buckingham and the 2-year undergraduate honours degree. Well, now you can tell everyone that International Studies and Economics are the first University of Buckingham programmes to launch a 3-year degree as well. Some Buckingham students are going to get summer holidays! From September 2004, Economics and International Studies students will be able to use the summer term to travel, to take up placements or work experience opportunities, or simply to relax. We anticipate that some students who begin the 3-year programme may want to accelerate and so the courses have been designed to allow students to switch onto the 2-year programme in July. Conversely, probably some students enrolling for 2-year degrees may decide that the beach is more attractive than the lecture room, and will want to enjoy some long summer holidays before settling down in full-time employment. Buckingham was founded to offer the maximum amount of choice; International Studies is attempting to exceed this maximum.
We are happy to be able to relate also that the School of International Studies is growing. We had a good intake of students in September 2003 and we are hoping for another sizeable entry in the new year. It is encouraging that there are now as many applications for the degree programme in International Studies, the "new kid on the block", as there are for the more established programmes in Politics, History and Economics.
As you may have seen on the website, Professor Shaw's retirement dinner, which was combined with a celebration of the conferring of his Emeritus Professorship, took place in the summer. Professor Shaw joins the ranks of Emeritus Professors of Economics at Buckingham: Professor Sir Alan Peacock and Professor Mark Blaug. Professor Blaug came to the dinner to mark the occasion with his wife, Ruth Towse, and to make the speech in Professor Shaw's honour; the party, hosted by Professor Ricketts, was joined by Professor and Mrs Greenaway, and Professor Tideman and his wife, Dr Putney, as well as by Emeritus Professor, Professor Alan Brook and his wife, Pat Howe. This was an occasion which brought back memories of the early days at Buckingham, but it was also, most of all, a gathering of old friends.
On a less formal note, International Studies held its annual Christmas party (in August, as tradition demands), when staff and students gathered on the lawns behind the Anthony de Rothschild Building to mark the passing of another year and the excellence of Mr Rees' barbecuing. This culinary tour de force followed hard upon the triumph of the design (and construction) of Mr Rees’ model of the new building which will abut onto, and be the transformation of, Prebend House, and for which a five million pound donation will secure the commemorative plaque in your (yes, your) name. Cheques should be made payable to me. The September vacation saw the visit of Mr and Mrs McCrostie to Malopolska School of Economics in Tarnow, Poland, where they met Renata Sliwa, a new friend and a Lecturer in Economics there, who had spent the summer at Buckingham as a Visiting Student of Economics, and also old friends, who are very familiar with Buckingham, Professor Lis and Agnieszka Huszno.
The summer also saw the University of Buckingham boat party on the Thames, where International Studies was represented by Dr Ridley, Dr Skinner, and Professor Clarke, the latter most beautifully attired in a blazer, which we all admired before his departure, thus giving him the opportunity to explain to the writer that it had to have just one row of buttons because the rule is 'single breasted for fresh water' (Henley, for instance) and 'double breasted for salt' (Cowes, for instance). It is good to be able to pass on such tips, for your greater social enlightenment. I need hardly mention that Professor Clarke was very much hoping, for navigational and digestive as well as for sartorial reasons, that The Viscountess would not take to the wider seas, and so, mercifully, it proved. In less nautical vein, Professor Clarke is spending his time, when not teaching history courses and proving the most able Secretary to the University, working on his history of Castle House in Buckingham, checking the proofs of his chapters on All Souls in the 18th Century, continuing as Honorary Editor of Records of Bucks and asks that the newsletter relate that he is also delighted to be supervising the research thesis of Alethea Conceicao.
Professor Clarke is also in touch with alumna Nana Kurata, who is pursuing her taught masters at the London School of Economics, as indeed are Resa Koleva, Severina Shopova and Jana Hlistova. No less prestigiously, Ken Eichmann and Bernt von Wahlert are reading for Master's degrees at the Cass Business School, while Silviya Ionkova pursues hers at the Bocconi University in Milan, Mariasol Pons in Madrid, Naparat Suksai in Manchester and Teeryut Piyapattanakul (Bank) in Thailand.
Thoroughly qualified, and keen to make their mark on the world, International Studies alumni go on to work in a variety of occupations; Damian Fehrenberg is working for Kodak in North London; John Dunlop is teaching English as a Foreign Language in Istanbul, where he has a flat overlooking the Bosphorus and where he recently had, in the Crimean Church, 'a nice little chat' (and his photograph taken) with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had just, in John's humble opinion, given a jolly good sermon. Marc Gené was wonderful in Monza, coming home in fifth position in the Grand Prix there in the summer. Everyone at Buckingham is so proud of him. We're proud too of Basem Khreis, who is Consul in the Jordanian Embassy in Beirut. Lushani Kodituwakku, née Mellawa, is working as a Consultant for the US branch of Frost & Sullivan; Surya Devaguptapu is with the Nationwide Building Society in Northampton; Jiraporn Suksai, newly qualified, is looking for a job in the University sector in Bangkok; Mona Odtallah, after a period of study in Paris, is working in Amman as a market researcher for a Jordanian Internet company; and Hisashi Okada continues his busy life in Hiroshima but also finds the time to stay in touch. Ronel Lehmann not only stays in touch but, as well as all his other commitments, even acts on the Council. We are grateful to him for giving up so much of his time for the University. Mary Richmond née Wong, who is based in Florida at the moment, but who travels as widely as ever, dropped us a line recently. Isabelle Dubois was travelling recently too, with the family, to meet Professor Ilde Rizzo and Dr Michele Trimarchi in Rome.
It's not just work and study that keep our alumni newsworthy;
there are many marriages to report since the last newsletter.
Célimène Lachenal and Patrice Dunant tied the knot on 22nd
November, in the Cathédrale de Saint Pierre in Geneva. Dela
Wosornu has married this summer. Sunjay Kapur has married Karisma Kapoor. It was Rajat
Tandon who alerted us to the iconic status of Sunjay’s bride.
Buckingham alumni look about yourselves! Perhaps other top
Bollywood stars will be scouring your ranks for the soulmate of
their dreams.
Carlos Pons writes that he is soon to become a father for the first
time; Anupama Bannerji has a second baby due in January, and Helen
Froggatt is the proud mother of a new daughter, who is not, despite
the claims of doting grandparents, particularly like her mother,
and not particularly like her father, but is 'simply Emma'. In the
cry of parents through the ages, Edward Wihardja tells us that
Oliver is 'out of control' and Kamer Nahar delighted us with tales
of his three year old daughter when he visited recently to see,
among other, less important, things, Mr Rees' architectural
model.
Many alumni drop in or call just to say 'hi!' Since the last newsletter we have had contact with Kuda Mtutu, Zelim Abdulkadyrov, William Mincione, Robert Tsui, Colin Davies, Chris Groombridge and Simon Jefferson. Sohail Quraeshi came to visit, bringing with him his son, who is planning to join us to read for a Business Economics degree in 2004. Arno Lekow, currently working in Hamburg, visited on 26th November, combining a social occasion with the chance to hear Lord Robert Skidelsky, who was giving an International Studies seminar on 'The Political Economy of Globalisation'. In October Alumnus Dr Pietro Navarra, from the University of Messina, came back to Buckingham, with Dr Sebastiano Bavetta from the London School of Economics, to give a joint seminar on the measurement of happiness.
Let's finish with a funny story; when Rasaki Adesanya and Azeez Anifowoshi met in the Principles of Microeconomics lecture on the first day of the summer term and recognised each other, it wasn't that remarkable. After all, they had been at primary school together. What was amazing was that they hadn't seen each other for more than nine years. So, come back to Buckingham, or send your family and friends to study here. It’s not too late to apply for January 2004, or July or September, and they don’t have to cram everything into eight consecutive terms any more. Besides, you never know who they might meet.
That’s the end of the second page, which is all the
photocopying budget will allow in the way of news. Everyone joins
me in wishing you all the very best for the festive season and a
happy, peaceful, prosperous new year. Stay in touch and take care
of yourselves.