ICEF Attended Virtual EMFSS Open House

© ICEF/ LSE

March 23-25, the members of ICEF Team took part in a series of webinars to discuss the progress, prospects and updates to the University of London EMFSS Programmes, academically directed by LSE. The event closed on March 26 with a presentation of awards to the highest achieving students.

Every year, the University of London and the London School of Economics team gather for an EMFSS Open House to present on developments of the EMFSS programmes. Due to COVID, this is their second year of delivering Open House in a virtual format. The LSE invited all Teaching Centres recognised to teach the EMFSS Portfolio to Open House 2021, including those who deliver it as a double degree programme jointly with the University of London. 

The event welcomed its participants in the person of Professor Mary Stiasny, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at UoL. A series of presentations were delivered by EMFSS Team at LSE, including Professor Paul Kelly, Dean of EMFSS Programmes; Elizabeth Aitken, Director of LSE Extended Education; Dr. Francesco Nava, Academic Director for the EMFSS Programmes and MSc Economics Programme Director at LSE; Professor Martin Anthony, Academic Coordinator for Mathematics. This was followed by an open discussion where the participating schools were able to ask their questions. Oleg Zamkov, BSc Programme Academic Supervisor, represented ICEF.

The conference included a series of webinars that discussed 2020 recruitment campaign results and prospects for 2021. Continued improvements are being made to the format of the upcoming summer examinations, including how the University supports students and utilizes their feedback. As part of introducing new learning and assessment formats, the Virtual Learning environment will also have additional video content and new courses, making the learning process even more student-friendly.

Open Forum enjoyed active participation

Generally, the issues raised at the webinars related to how the UoL programmes and assessment methods might evolve in the context of the ongoing technology developments. The participants were eager to learn about the future of a few specific courses and specializations (ICEF offers six specializations within Economics and Finance) as the programmes are becoming increasingly supplemented with subjects that relate to data analysis, programming and the use of IT in economics and finance.

In summing up the students’ academic progress, the team noted that the exam results generally indicated students having coped with the challenges of online teaching quite well – a criterion vital to future changes. Due to the pandemic-related disruptions, the 2021 examinations will also be held online. Based on the experience from 2020, there will be adjustments and updates to their procedure and assessment. This includes utilizing two time zones with different exam tasks as well as additional advice on how exams will be checked for originality by Turnitin, a service already in use at ICEF for graduation theses.

Closing the week of activities on Friday March 26, the EMFSS Academic Award Ceremony celebrated the outstanding performance in the University of London examinations in 2020. With sixty award and commendation recipients, ICEF has been commended as world class.