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LATEST NEWS

New SOAS Director at the IFCELS Welcome Reception

The new Director of SOAS, Valerie Amos, welcomed IFCELS stu-dents on ICC, FDPS and ELAS at the start of year reception on 30th September. She also awarded prizes to 2014-15 students on all three programmes (see the prize winners list below). Apply Early and Save £90! For 2015-16, we are again waiving the £90 fee for ICC and FDPS applications received before the end of April 2016. From 1 May onwards, the fee will apply so don’t delay to get your application in early and save! Former FDPS Student Wins Business Japanese Prize Belated congratulations to Min Jeong who studied on FDPS in 2013-14 and went on to the MSc International Management for Japan at SOAS. Earlier this year, he beat seven other finalists to win the prestigious Sir Peter Parker Award for Spoken Business Japanese. Seehttps://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem99791.html for the full story. IFCELS Prize Winners List 2014-15 Each year we award prizes to recognise student achievement on our three year-round programmes. Congratulations to all our prize winners, who each received a cheque for £250. Qianyun Qin - ICC Achievement Prize Now studying BSc Mathematics at Durham Qianru Liao - ICC Progress Prize Now studying BSc Business Studies at City University Liza Azzouzi - FDPS Achievement Prize Now studying LLM International Law at SOAS Zeyu Chen - FDPS Progress Prize Now studying MSc Management at Birmingham Sathal Khun - ELAS Bhasi Panikker Progress Prize Now studying MA History of Art and/or Archaeology at SOAS

“FDPS’ amazing and supportive teachers

enabled me to acquire and expand my criti-

cal thinking but also to appreciate

other’s approaches and perspectives. I am

very glad to pursue my Master’s at SOAS in

International Law. It’s something that I

could probably never have done without

my unforgettable time on the FDPS

Pre-master’s.”

- Liza Azzouzi

UPCOMING EVENTS

Next Entrance Tests and Interviews for ICC and FDPS Beijing, China: 6 December London: 16 December Shanghai, China: 5 December Interviews will be available when our staff are in your country (see IFCELS Staff Visits for details). For the latest test dates, please go to www.soas.ac.uk/ifcels/testdates

Destinations 2015 We now have a full list of undergraduate destinations for our 2014-15 ICC students. Once again they did really well, with 78% of stu-dents who went on to university gaining places at top 30 universi-ties and 70% continuing their studies in a University of London in-stitution. Go to http://www.soas.ac.uk/ifcels/ugfoundation/destinations/ to see the full list. The postgraduate list from FDPS Pre-Master’s is still incomplete but, as things stand at the moment, more than half the students whose destinations we know have gone on to University of London Colleges including UCL, KCL and SOAS. Non-University of Lon-don destinations include Birmingham, Bristol, Kent, Leeds and Nottingham as well as two students to Warwick and two placed in Cass Business School. See http://www.soas.ac.uk/ifcels/pgfoundation/destinations/ for the latest list. IFCELS Scholarships for 2015-16 Following the success of the FDPS scholarship scheme offered in 2014-2015, we are again offering six scholarships of £2000 to stu-dents who accept a place on the FDPS programme with the inten-tion of progressing on to a Master’s degree at SOAS in 2017. And for 2015-16, we have extended the scholarship programme to ICC. As with FDPS, six scholarships of £2000 will be awarded to applicants who accept a place on the ICC programme with the in-tention of progressing on to an undergraduate degree at SOAS in 2017. Details can be found at http://www.soas.ac.uk/ifcels/scholarships/ IFCELS Lecturer in Debate at University of Exeter Development Studies lecturer Mark McQuinn was invited to speak at a debate organised by the University of Exeter in Octo-ber. Mark spoke in favour of the debate proposal that vol-untary work in developing countries that takes place along with tourist visits does more harm than good. After speeches for and against by the invited speakers and 30 minutes of questions from the audience of 120 people, a final vote was held. The vote was in favour of the proposal by a large majority. Mark com-mented: “ I drew on the skills taught in IFCELS oral presentation classes in structuring and delivering my presentation.”

IFCELS staff and students at the 2015 welcome reception

The debate at Exeter (Mark McQuinn on right)

Liza Azzouzi with SOAS Director Valerie

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AROUND SOAS

IFCELS STAFF VISITS

STUDENT PROFILE STAFF PROFILE

Pat Das Bhaumik, Business and Finance Lecturer

Pat has been teaching at SOAS since 2005. In IFCELS he is the subject lecturer for the Inter-national Business Studies module on the FDPS Pre-master’s and in summer 2015 de-veloped and taught a new Summer Course in Global Business Strategy. Outside SOAS he is an international business consultant for MNEs specializing in international finance and strategy and has established a successful SME

in India. Pat has a background in economics and holds an MBA in Finance from Brunel University. It’s been a busy year for Pat as he also wrote and is teaching the new Introduction to Financial Management module on our FDPS Pre-master’s. Pat says: “This new module will be suitable for graduates with a quantitative background who want to go on to Master’s pro-grammes in Finance and related areas. It aims to cover the basic building blocks of financial management and all the considerations needed to make financial decisions and should provide students with the concepts and theories of corporate finance that underlie the techniques that are offered as aids for the understanding, eval-uation and resolution of financial managers’ problems. “Students will follow the existing International Business studies syl-labus in term 1 and then in terms 2 and 3, I’ll be using lectures, case studies and readings to help them grasp the basic concepts and how to apply them in financial decision making. Learning will be assessed by an assignment each term and a final exam in June.”

Harry Potter at King’s Cross Station The real-life King’s Cross Station, which Thitima refers to above, is just a 15 minute walk away from SOAS (or one stop by Tube train) and 5 minutes from our student accommodation. It’s the main station for trains leaving for Cambridge, North East England (York and Newcastle) and Eastern Scotland (Edinburgh). Potterphiles (Harry Potter fans) come from all over the world to visit the famous Platform 9 ¾, from where the Hogwarts Express leaves and have their photo tak-en. And – surprise surprise! – there’s even a souvenir shop. https://www.kingscross.co.uk/harry-potters-platform-9-34

Graham Davies Bangkok, Thailand: 10-17 November Guangzhou, Shanghai & Beijing, China: 1-9 December

Matthew Murphy Osaka & Tokyo, Japan: February 2016 (dates tbc)

Staff member to be confirmed Milan, Italy: late February 2016

Rachel Humphries Bangkok, Thailand & Jakarta, Indonesia: March 2016

One of our staff will visit Milan, Italy in late February. Please see www.soas.ac.uk/ifcels/visits for the latest information.

REMINDER

Thitima Songjiarapanit ELAS September 2014 – July 2015

I graduated with a degree in Business Education from Chulalangkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in 2014. Before starting my postgraduate studies, I was looking for a one-year course in an English-speaking country. I had heard about SOAS from family and friends, so decided to apply for the ELAS pro-gramme, entering at level A1 in autumn 2014 and completing A3 and receiving a Diploma in Academic English with International Business Studies in July 2015. I was attracted to ELAS as it offers a more flexible structure than the FDPS Pre-master’s. I found the academic English classes par-ticularly useful and became much more confident of my language skills, especially essay-writing and presentations. With the Interna-tional Business academic option, I have particularly enjoyed the mixture of students from different backgrounds and the different perspectives they bring to class discussions. I loved the central location of SOAS in London and the fact that it is easy to get around everywhere. I loved watching the Harry Potter films when growing up, and whilst here I was very excited to visit the Harry Potter studios at Warner Bros. Here you can see some of the costumes worn and where many scenes were filmed. I felt like I was part of a Harry Potter film. I have also been to platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross sta-tion, where Harry departed for Hogwarts, and taken a Harry Potter tour through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square (see article below for more about Harry Potter at King’s Cross). I am now on a Master’s in International Business Management at Hult Business School in Boston for eight months, followed by two months in Shanghai, and then back to London next summer for my final module. I won a scholarship for this programme, and believe my experiences studying on ELAS helped me achieve this. After I finish, I plan to return to Thailand to work on the marketing side in my family’s motorcycle distribution business. I gained many useful skills whilst studying at SOAS, not only aca-demic ones, but also social, in particular how to interact with differ-ent types of people. Perhaps surprisingly to British people, the thing I miss most about London is the weather – it is much more varied than in Thailand.

STAFF ANNOUNCEMENT

New Acting Head of ELAS programme

David Fisher has stepped down as Head of ELAS and has been replaced by Rachel Humphreys on an interim basis. Some of you will know Rachel as she has been a Programme Tutor on ICC since 1996 and has visited Italy, Hong Kong and China on recruitment visits in the past few years.

David will continue as our Head of Teaching and Learning and will carry on doing Skype interviews for ICC applicants.

The next edition of IFCELS Connect will be published in late February 2016. If you are not on the mailing list and would like to be, please mail us at ifcels@soas.ac.uk