I hope that you, your family and friends are well and safe in these difficult times.
Here at Bunhill Row in London, we have been welcoming our new and returning students to the start of the new academic year. While this year will look and feel different and while much of learning will be online at the beginning, we are determined to provide our students with the best education and student experience possible. We have put measures in place to make our campus Covid secure, enabling us safely to deliver some small group, in-person teaching. This blended approach puts us in a strong position to move quickly to deliver more education remotely should restrictions tighten, either nationally or locally. In the future, when restrictions ease, we will be able gradually to expand our on-campus activities safely.
This also means that, for now, physical access to campus has to be tightly managed and is currently restricted to small groups of staff and students. It is my hope and wish that we can soon welcome our alumni as well as all staff and students back to campus.
As you know, the process for renaming our Business School started during the summer, will continue with Council approving the new name in the spring and will end with its launch in September 2021. Alumni, students and staff will have the opportunity to contribute to the name finding process as part of a wide consultation with all stakeholder groups, nationally and internationally. As you may have seen, in the interim we are using the name ‘The Business School (formerly Cass)’ with the additional strap line ‘Changing more than a name’ to signal our commitment to the name change and the wider changes we will be making.
If you have any questions about this process, please see answers to the FAQs here.
After eleven successful years at City, our President, Professor Sir Paul Curran, will be standing down as President in the summer. We thank Sir Paul for his leadership and his dedicated service to our community.
Professor Anthony Finkelstein CBE FREng has been appointed the new President. He will join City next year from his position as the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security. Previously, he was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Head Computer Science at University College London. I am looking forward to working with him.
Throughout October, City is hosting a series of events to mark and explore the meaning and importance of Black History Month. You can find out more about our events programme and sign up here.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new graduates, who have recently joined our global alumni network. To our new alumni and to you all, stay safe and I send you my best wishes for the months ahead.
I hope you enjoy this edition.
Best wishes,
Paolo
Professor Paolo Volpin
Dean of the Business School