Key events
8th Globalisation and Economic Policy International Conference
The World Economy Annual Asia Lecture (sponsored by Wiley Publishers) delivered by Dr Hans Genberg, Advisor, South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre titled 'Implementing Macro-prudential Policies: Challenges, Pitfalls and Way Forward'
8th Globalisation and Economic Policy International Conference NSE Malaysia, in conjunction with Nottingham Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP), Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM) and Special Projects Cluster, Majlis Professor Negara (MPN) hosted the 8th GEP conference on Current Issues in International Economics and Open-Economy Macroeconomics at the Kuala Lumpur Teaching Centre. The annual conference is a major forum for academic interaction and debate, attracting prestigious speakers from universities around the world. It included two invited lectures as well as presentation and discussion of fourteen academic papers. The invited lectures were sponsored by sponsored by Boustead Holdings Berhad and Wiley Publishers, respectively. In the first invited lecture, Professor Christine Ennew, Provost and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus talked on The Future of International Education. Dr Hans Genberg, Advisor, South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre talked about Implementing Macro-prudential Policies: Challenges, Pitfalls and Way Forward in the second invited lecture. Some 200 participants from Asia, Europe and Australia attended the conference.
NSE Research Seminar on current issues in Economics
On behalf of NSE, Dr Nusrate Aziz organized a day-long research seminar on current issues in economics. The seminar was held at Nottingham University Malaysia Campus on 15 February 2015. Dr Rasyad Parinduri, Dr Saumik Paul and Dr David Prentice from Nottingham University Malaysia Campus; and Dr Gareth Leeves and Dr Luc Borrowman from Monash University presented their papers on social health insurance, crop diversification, poverty and economic well-being, gender gaps in job satisfaction, and housing affordability stress, respectively. Some 45 participants attended the seminar.
Dr Prentice visited Sri Lanka to deliver a workshop, 16 to 17 March 2015
Seaside, Colombo
Dr Prentice visited three high schools in Kandy and Colombo in Sri Lanka on 16 and 17 March 2015 to discuss studying and careers in Economics as well as presenting a workshop. The three schools were Gateway International School in Kandy, Gateway International School in Colombo and Ladies College in Colombo. He writes, "
The workshop was a lot of fun to run and the students seem to enjoy it. It was based around the Prisoners’ Dilemma. This is a classic problem in game theory, which is both fun and introduces the Nash equilibrium – the main solution concept applied in game theory. After explaining the game, I then had two student volunteers come on stage and play the game. In this game players are in aggregate better off if they cooperate but have strong incentives to cheat. After watching the volunteers play, at the Gateway School in Colombo, where we had over 50 students in the class, the class broke up into groups and played the game themselves several times while I went around each group checking how they were going. At the other schools, two student volunteers then played the game three times in succession. Playing the game several times provides opportunities to sustain cooperation through rewards and punishment (though the Nash equilibrium still features cheating each time). At one school, two friends volunteered and one girl played cooperate expecting her friend to do so. She was then shocked (and their classmates very surprised, bursting into laughter) to find her friend had cheated! I did see the two friends make up afterwards though!"
Dr Prentice's visit to Nottingham UK Campus, 15 to 27 June 2015
Dr. Prentice visited the UK campus from 15 to 27 June 2015 as to to attend the Exam Board, present in the School seminar series and to discuss research with colleagues there. He also attended a one day festschrift for Professor Sir David Greenaway and the end of semester lunch!
He writes, "
Exam Board is a series of meetings which cover the results for second year and third year students, including one with the external moderators. In the meetings results are both reviewed and discussed – particularly for borderline cases. The prizes are also awarded. It was interesting attending these meetings and getting to meet the external moderators. I learned a lot that will help for handling results next year.
Despite everyone being busy with the Exam Boards, about 20 colleagues and graduate students attended my seminar and I received some good feedback. Over the period of two weeks I met a lot of colleagues to discuss about research and teaching including mainly the UK lecturers for the modules I teach. My colleagues were both friendly and helpful with advice for my research and interested to talk about teaching too.
It was great to be able to attend the festschrift for Professor Sir David Greenaway. This was a one day workshop featuring a set of papers in International Economics presented by colleagues from Nottingham and other universities. As well as hearing some interesting papers presented it was also great to meet and catch up with other colleagues from UK, European and US universities who were there for the occasion.
Finally, Nottingham is also a very pleasant place to visit. I was able to walk to campus from where I stayed and it was a short trip to the centre of the city as there are buses running all the time and the tramline will be extended out to the campus too in near future. It is the train line, which makes visiting London and other parts of the UK straightforward. I got the chance to visit the villages not far from Nottingham where the Prentices lived before migrating to Australia in the mid nineteenth century and also do some orienteering too!"
NSE Malaysia Essay Competition 2015
This year we had the second annual Nottingham Economic Essay Competition. This competition was open to all pre-university students in Malaysia. And the essays could either be sole or jointly authored. The topic the students had to write on was “Has openness to international trade and investment benefited or harmed the Malaysian economy? How can Malaysia ensure that it reaps more benefits than harms from international trade and investment in the future?”
The first prize winner was to receive RM 1000, the second prize winner RM 800 and the third prize winner RM 600. In addition, there were three consolation prizes of RM 350 each. The competition attracted 24 entries from students across Malaysia. The judges for the competition were Dr Nusrate Aziz, Dr Kong Yoke Fong and Dr David Prentice.
The winners of the competition were:
- Melissa Liang Pei Yun (Institute of Science and Management, Sabah)
- Wong Huey Teng and Shalini Samudri A/P Ananda Rao (MCKL)
- Edward Chai Chuan Jun and Li Zhe Lai (Marlborough College, Nusajaya, Johor)
Consolation prizes (in no particular order)
- Lena Fricker (Alice Smith)
- Lydia Loh Ying Yi (Lodge International School, Kuching, Sarawak)
- Matthias Shao Wei Tio (Lodge International School, Kuching, Sarawak)
Dr. Prentice writes, “The judges were impressed by the quality of the entries and it took some time to select the prize winners. The best essays were those that directly answered all parts of the question. They discussed both international trade and investment. And they also suggested sensible policies for ensuring Malaysia could reap the most benefits from openness. They also showed they were familiar with the economic arguments around these issues. Finally, the best essays were well presented and referenced the facts and arguments in a professional way.”
NSE Malaysia team enters the final of Coronet Global Academic Challenge
A team from NSE Malaysia comprising of Leong Shi Cheah (team leader), Chiew Yen Khai and Low Jiun Horng (all three are Year 2 BSc (Hons) Economics students in the 2015/2016 academic year), has been chosen as one of the three teams globally to enter into the final round of Corenet Global Academic Challenge. The inaugural global challenge which asks teams to propose solutions to reduce the gap between the speed of business and the speed of real estate, is open to university students at all levels (undergraduate, master and PhD). It has attracted 29 submissions from 11 countries. The team along with faculty advisor, Dr Teo Wing Leong, will travel to Los Angeles, United States, to participate in the final round to be held on 18 October.
All the best, team!