Varsity Life: Issue 5 by LSBF Varsity Life

VARSITY LIFE LSBF Student association Newsletter

issue

cONTENTS 03

Welcome

Islamic Finance Conference at Sceptre Court LSBF partnered with the Ramphal Institute to hold our first Islamic Finance conference. The conference explored how Islamic finance can help developing countries and fund infrastructure projects...

The Collapse of Cryptocurrencies After mainstream websites began accepting bitcoin in 2013, cryptocurrencies were billed as the next big thing.

04 Awards for LSBF LSBF won two PQ Magazine Awards at this year’s ceremony, which was held in London. LSBF faculty and students won the Lecturer of the Year (Private Sector) and Newly Qualified (NQ) Accountant of the Year categories.

06 LSBF SUCCESSES Dr Steve Priddy was pleased to attend the University of Lincoln’s graduation ceremony on behalf of LSBF on Wednesday, 21 January.

08 LSBF plays matchmaker Two LSBF students, one from Panama and one from Russia, became husband and wife. The Rise of the Robotic Workforce Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, have just unveiled robot employees.

10 Start-up spotlight Launched in 2011, Transferwise is a UK-based peer-to-peer money transfer service, helping customers avoid bank fees and exposing the lack of transparency in the foreign exchange market.

11 New Student Engagement Team We would like to welcome LSBF’s revamped student engagement team! STUDENT THANKS LSBF Jigba Yilla, a student from Sierra Leone, recently wrote to LSBF’s Director of Research Steve Priddy to thank him for all the help he received.

Postgraduate Open Day In November, we held our first Postgraduate Open Day at Sceptre Court.

13 app of the month This issue’s recommended app for students interested in business and finance is...

14 60 seconds With .... Grigor Davtyan is studying for LSBF’s CIMA qualification. Revision Tips Leaving your revision until the week before might seem like the easiest option, but if you take some time out each day to read through your material, you’ll be ready when exam time comes around.

15 Great Minds Live Video Series

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A welcome from the President of the Student Association, Asmat Ullah My fellow students, I would like to welcome back everyone returning for the sumer term, and greet those who have only recently joined us. The Student Association general elections will soon be taking place. I look forward to finding out who our next President and Student Committee members will be, and I hope you do too! I am also happy to say that we now have a fantastic new Student Engagement team who are working on lots of exciting events for you all. In the coming weeks, we will be working closely with the Career Services team to bring you more speaker events and workshops. I urge you to participate, as they will be useful for your career prospects and keeping you informed in your subject areas. I have also recently launched some networking groups that you might be interested in: the London Professionals Network and the Finance Professionals Network. These groups bring people together for informal networking events on Friday evenings around central London. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to find out more, email me at president@sa.lsbf.org.uk. I would like to thank you all for your continued interest and involvement in Varsity Life. We are currently looking for an editorial team: anyone who is keen to be part of it should get in touch at varsitylife@lsbf.org.uk I wish you all the very best!

Asmat ULLAH President of the Student Association , president@sa.lsbf.org.uk

LSBF news

LSBF

WINS BIG AT

PQ 2 0 1 5 AWARDS

LSBF won two PQ Magazine Awards at this year’s ceremony, which was held in London. LSBF faculty and students won the Lecturer of the Year (Private Sector) and Newly Qualified (NQ) Accountant of the Year categories. The Lecturer of the Year (Private Sector) award went to tutor David Laws, who has been an ACCA lecturer for LSBF since 2007. He has nearly two decades of experience in teaching, and has written articles for CIMA’s student magazine. NQ of the Year went to former LSBF student Kyle Tyrrell, who passed all of his exams first time and became fully qualified in 2013. Since then, he has been promoted to Project Manager - Global SME Projects at AXA Insurance. He said: “I genuinely didn’t expect to win,

and so when they called my name I must say I was in a little bit of shock. I owe an awful lot to LSBF and my amazing lecturers, who ensured I got through all of my exams as quickly and efficiently as possible. All the hard work and the sleepless nights spent revising for the ACCA exams have really paid off.” Rob Sowerby, Director of Professional Training Programmes, said: “I am delighted that we have won at the PQ awards yet again. For David to receive tutor of the year is no surprise; he is one of

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three tutors at LSBF who have been rewarded. To receive the NQ of the Year award was fantastic and displays our ongoing commitment to teaching excellence.” This is the sixth consecutive year that LSBF has won prizes at the PQ Awards, with previous awards including Accountancy College of the Year and Accountancy Personality of Year. We look forward to winning big next year as well!

LSBF news

ACCA LECTURER

HAFEEZ QAZI wins

ACCOUNTANT OF THE YEAR

Mr Qazi has worked for LSBF for almost nine years, teaching ACCA, CIMA, and Postgraduate Certificates in Accounting & Finance. With several professional qualifications, he has specialist knowledge of management accounting and financial accounting across several major industries, including textiles and health-care. He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to have won this award. I was delighted just to be shortlisted, so actually winning it is an even greater

honour, especially in an organisation like the AIA where every member is extremely talented. The awards were set up to recognise the best in the accountancy profession, so I’m very proud to be recognised as a part of that.” “Winning the AIA Awards is an endorsement of our dedication and hard work to deliver the best tuition and support to our students, and we are proud to add this one to our list of accolades,” he added.

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On a night when the greatest names in the accountancy industry assembled in London, the excellence of LSBF’s tuition came out on top. Hafeez Qazi, ACCA and CIMA tutor at LSBF, was named as the Accountant of the Year at the Association of International Accountants (AIA) Founder’s Awards.

LSBF news

LSBF graduation at the University of Lincoln

LSBF news

Dr Steve Priddy was pleased to attend the University of Lincoln’s graduation ceremony on behalf of LSBF on Wednesday, 21 January. The ceremony was held in the stunning setting of Lincoln cathedral, one of the finest buildings in Europe.

The ceremony included several students on the MBA, Marketing, and International Business programmes.

waste the skills and experience gathered.”

A reception was held at the Lincoln Hotel, where the Head of Lincoln Business School welcomed LSBF students and noted that they represented an extremely gifted cohort who had produced several pieces of excellent, original, internationally focused research.

“For me it was a moving and uplifting experience to be with students who I have had the privilege to teach and to supervise over 2013 and 2014. The setting was incredible, and I will never forget this cohort.”

New graduate Maria Sigacheva said: “I really feel it was one of the best years of my life and I shall not

Dr Priddy commented:

“We will stay in touch and I wish them well in their careers as leaders in business and finance, around the world.”

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LSBF news

lsbf

graduate acquires job at global

company

MBA student Jhoan Cordoba is now a senior price analyst at Platts, a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information. In his role, he will be helping businesses to make wellinformed decisions on trading and business decisions. We wish Jhoan well in his career, and are happy to hear that he is doing so well.

LSBF PLAYS

MATCHMAKER

The Rise of the Robotic

Workforce

Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, have just unveiled robot employees to greet customers and guide them around the bank.

Two LSBF students, one from Panama and one from Russia, became husband and wife in December. Tatiana and Engilberto held their wedding at the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, where the weather seemed to catch on to the romantic mood as it began to snow. LSBF are very proud to have been the matchmaker for the happy couple! 08 / 16

Trialling in a select few branches in Tokyo from April, the 1ft 11’’ tall humanoids called ‘Nao’ have built-in cameras, helping them to be emotionally responsive and aware of customers. Depending on their performance, more robots could appear at other branches in the future. Developed in 2006 by the French company Aldebaran Robotics – a subsidiary of the Japanese telecoms and internet group SoftBank – Nao are programmed to speak 19 languages, and can analyse customers’ emotions from their facial expressions and tone of voice. This makes Nao able to provide appropriate greetings and advice, with developers boasting that they will be able to deal with even the trickiest of customers.

After ironing out any minor glitches, Mitsubishi UFJ believes Nao will be well equipped to deal with the influx of overseas visitors during the 2020 Olympics. The robots were shown-off at a presentation in Tokyo last year, where audiences witnessed a faultless interaction with an English-speaking customer. Nao aren’t the first robots to be employed in Japan: it currently employs over a quarter of a million industrial robot workers, more than anywhere else in the world. The country hopes for the robot worker population to rise to one million by 2024. Nestle Japan has also announced its plans to employ another Aldebaran robot, ‘Pepper’, to sell its coffee machines at 1000 outlets by the end of 2015. Pepper already works as a shop assistant at SoftBank mobile phone outlets. This recent rise in robotics comes after the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, called for the country to embark on a ‘robot revolution’ to counter the country’s shrinking workforce, reduce labour costs, and boost growth. There’s even a hotel staffed entirely by robots in the works: when the Hen-na Hotel opens this summer, guests will deal with all robotic porters, receptionists, waiting staff and cleaners. Whilst robot staff are laden with advantages for employers, including the reduction of labour costs, more efficient time management and removal of human error, it could also mark a trend that could make the human workforce obsolete.

ISLAMIC Finance Conference

at sceptre court

LSBF partnered with the Ramphal Institute to hold their first Islamic Finance conference. The conference explored how Islamic finance can help developing countries and fund infrastructure projects, and featured two keynotes from Lord Marland, the chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, and Sir Iqbal Sacranie OBE, founding secretary general at the Muslim Council of Britain. Lord Marland said: “Ethical investment is an attractive proposition, and I congratulate this conference for prioritising it because it is the future.”

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Sir Sacranie spoke about the history of Islamic finance in Britain and how it has grown in the last few decades. “Islamic finance is a huge subject. Hardly a week goes by where there’s no international conference about it, because it’s a growing industry,” he said. Throughout the day, discussions ranged from the use of sukuk to how Islamic finance can benefit developing African countries and the possibility of creating an advisory board for countries who wish to use Islamic finance. A diverse audience attended, including representatives from all over the world and many LSBF students.

start-up

Launched in 2011, Transferwise is a UKbased peer-to-peer money transfer service, helping customers avoid bank fees and exposing the lack of transparency in the foreign exchange market. Sending money across borders is deceptively expensive due to hidden fees. By charging users only 0.5% compared to the usual 5%, Transferwise makes it 90% cheaper for their customers to transfer money abroad.

spotlight

Transferwise is a UK-based peer-topeer money transfer service, helping customers avoid bank fees and exposing the lack of transparency in the foreign exchange market.

The service pairs people who want to get rid of a currency with those who want to get hold of it in the same country. Virgin Group founder, Sir Richard Branson, has contributed a significant but undisclosed amount of money, joining existing shareholders including Peter Thiel co-founder of PayPal, and Kima Ventures, the investment group co-founded by the owner of Le Monde newspaper.

Transferwise • Founded by Skype’s first employee Taavet Hinrikus, and financial consultant Kristo Käärmann; the idea was born from their personal experiences as Estonians working between their native country and the UK, stating that they felt the “pain of international money transfer”.

• It was named one of “East London’s 20 hottest tech startups” by The Guardian and chosen as Wired UK’s Start Up of the Week. • The service is currently offering a £100 referral bonus to customers who can recruit 3 friends to use Transferwise.

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• Transferwise has now secured over 25 million dollars to expand its marketing efforts. • With its success only continuing to grow as more and more people are becoming wary of bank systems and processes, Transferwise looks set to have a prosperous 2015.

new Student engagement

TEAM

Suzanne Molloy, Loyalty Programme Manager. Recently returned from maternity leave, Suzanne will manage the Loyalty Programme which gives students exclusive discounts. We look forward to seeing the improvements that the new team will bring!

STUDENT

THANKS LSBF Jigba Yilla, a student from Sierra Leone, recently wrote to LSBF’s Director of Research Steve Priddy to thank him for all the help he received.

We would like to welcome LSBF’s revamped student engagement team, who will soon be revolutionising our approach to students. The members of the team are: Feyi Ashamu, Student Engagement Executive. She will oversee the student association and class representative activities throughout the school, and provide reports and statistics on student activities. Karen Lee, Student Relations Officer. She will be responsible for liaising with students and key stakeholders in each

department in order to resolve complaints, and working on the development of the complaints procedure and process to reduce the number of complaints received. Oliur Talukder, Student Events Coordinator. He will manage all events hosted by the student engagement team throughout the school, as well as taking responsibility for the team’s budget.

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“I am very grateful for your support and encouragement to undertake research within this area,” he said. “I enjoyed the research project, learnt a lot from it, and now I have the opportunity to practise what I have learnt. My post grad education and experience at LSBF was very exciting and memorable, and now very rewarding too.” Jigba has acquired a position in the energy sector as a finance and administration manager for TRANSCO CLSG, which is part of the West Africa Power Pool Project. Feedback like this and making sure our students progress is right at the heart of what we do, and we hope that all of our students feel the same way as Jigba!

The Collapse of Cryptocurrencies After mainstream websites began accepting bitcoin in 2013, cryptocurrencies were billed as the next big thing: by November 2013, the price of one bitcoin had reached almost £800. Enthusiasts claimed this new form of payment would eventually become the norm, enabling users to bypass the fees and restrictions of traditional banks.

Bitcoin certainly seemed to solve many of the problems of traditional banking, but the enthusiasm that once surrounded digital currencies has lessened as things started going downhill.

around 100,000 transactions a day, with only 1 per cent of the total representing actual buying and selling of goods and services: the rest is linked to spam, double counting, and money laundering.

Online communities have begun to complain about ongoing longevity and security issues that have been plaguing the already unstable market, and as bitcoin prices collapse many people are incurring heavy losses.

In the past year, there have been a number of security breaches, including the theft of over £3m coins from Bitstamp, one of the key UKbased exchanges of bitcoin. As a result, more mainstream adoption of bitcoin and other forms of digital currency is looking increasingly unlikely.

In addition, cryptocurrencies have become the payment method of choice for money launderers and drug dealers because of the guarantee of anonymity. Recent figures show that the bitcoin system processes

The financial market may not be ready for such a new form of currency after all, and time will tell if bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be able to overcome their own problems.

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Postgraduate

OPEN

DAY

In November, we held our first Postgraduate Open Day at Sceptre Court, welcoming dozens of prospective students to campus. After one-to-one sessions with student advisors, Director of Research Dr Steve Priddy gave a presentation on what masters students could expect at LSBF, including the role of their tutor and an overview of how to write their dissertation. “When you come to do the dissertation, you will enjoy it,” he said. “I won’t let students start until they’re passionate about the topic, because if you’re passionate you’re going to do a good job.” Nadim Choudhury, Head of Career Services and Employability, then gave an introduction to the LSBF careers service and how the team can help students achieve their career goals. He encouraged them to take advantage of the various workshops on self-assessment, developing a personal brand, and interview preparation.

Spending Tracker is an app that helps you keep on top of your finances by tracking your salary and expenditure on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Just log your income and weekly expenses, and this app will make budgeting and saving easier than ever. Turn your phone on its side and the app will turn your list of transactions into a handy pie chart or graph, making it easy to see exactly where your money is going.

App of the month

By showing you what you spend the most on, Spending Tracker helps you identify where you can cut down your expenses. There’s even a feature to navigate backwards and forwards, so you can compare your spending habits month-to-month as you go along.

This issue’s recommended app for students interested in business and finance is

You can also organise your expenses and incomes with your own customisable labels and icons to keep things clear and concise.

Spending tracker THE NORMAL VERSION IS FREE, BUT FOR £1.99 YOU CAN UPGRADE TO PRO, WHICH LETS YOU REPEAT TRANSACTIONS AND EXPORT THE DATA TO PDF. Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and as a Windows 8 app, this is the perfect app for anyone who wants to keep an eye on their finances.

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seconds with

Revision

TIPS

Grigor Davtyan LSBF student studying for CIMA qualification.

Where were you born? I was born in Yerevan, Armenia. Where are you now? I’m now living in Highgate in north London. What is your dream? To have my own company, and do the things that I love. Why did you choose this course? I needed to get the right knowledge for my job; I’ve got working knowledge and experience, but you can’t do anything without CIMA. You need that understanding of finance because everything is connected to it. If you weren’t studying, what would you like to do? I’d like to get involved in tennis. It’s too late for me to be

a professional though! What did you want to do when you were young? I don’t even remember! I think I admired aeroplanes and Formula One, so I was just loving speed, flying and driving. What advice would you give to other students? I think that everybody should try to do whatever he or she wants and not be scared by any barriers, because you can always make it. Don’t be afraid. Who inspires you? The people I admire are those who begin their projects from scratch, develop them, and succeed through the years by envisioning the future of the company - and not giving up when hard times approach. Thank you, Grigor!

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To give yourself the best chance of success at your exams, start preparing as early as you can! Leaving your revision until the week before might seem like the easiest option, but if you take some time out each day to read through your material, you’ll be ready when exam time comes around. Some people study best alone, others like the support of a group –

but whatever your preference, you can use our top tips for studying. 1. Planning Take some time to make a revision plan. Consider the time you want to spend on each exam and balance it with your work routine and other commitments. Once you know how much time you have to work with, draft a timetable - but be realistic with your expectations.

great minds

live video series

2. Familiarity with the syllabus and the exam Checking the syllabus of each module will help you focus on the topics you’re most likely to be asked about. It is essential that you revise each module thoroughly and familiarise yourself with the structure of your exam. 3. Objective oriented approach Set objectives for each day, e.g. to cover a chapter or attempt a past paper. Setting targets based on the number of hours you want to spend studying may lead to clockwatching! 4. Concepts Try to understand the underlying concepts behind each topic: knowing the theory will help prepare you for a variety of questions. Building your conceptual knowledge right from the beginning will also help you throughout your career.

These events are live interviews with business leaders, giving you the chance to ask them questions. If you miss it, don’t worry – the videos are published online shortly after! To register, email studentassociation@lsbf. org.uk with 100 words on why you would like to attend and what questions you would like to ask. Successful students will be contacted directly.

5. Seek help

Baker & McKenzie – Robert West, Partner 8 June, 15:00 Sceptre Court

If you’re struggling, don’t be embarrassed to ask a teacher or a friend to help you. If you start having difficulties, reach out quickly to avoid letting things pile up.

MediaCom | Claudine Collins, UK Managing Director 19 June, 16:30 Sceptre Court

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Carlyle Group | Andrew Burgess, Partner and Managing Director 24 June, 15:30 Sceptre Court