Dear Alumni,
It has been a year full of new challenges, but also many new accomplishments and successes: we introduced new scholarships and initiatives to widen participation amongst our students, we received a collection of positive rankings, we made improvements to our workload model, we created new programmes, we ran a series of successful alumni events around the world, and we introduced new events such as inaugural lectures. I would like to thank all of you who have contributed to these successes.
Earlier this month many of our staff, students and alumni also attended the CogX Festival. As sponsors of the event, it was wonderful to see such great attendance, and such excellent panels and masterclass events. The Bayes stall was also bustling throughout the Festival, as our colleagues spoke to prospective students and professionals about the variety of programmes we offer.
We also recently received some good news, as we were ranked highly by both The Times Good University Guide 2024 and The Guardian’s Best UK Universities subject league tables. In The Guardian’s ranking, Marketing courses at Bayes moved up four places to rank as the best in the UK, while Accounting and Finance programmes moved up one place to 29th in the UK. The Times also ranked the School particularly well for the Business, Management and Marketing programmes.
During September, I have had the opportunity to welcome almost all of our new students to Bayes. While doing this, I have met many interesting and enthusiastic people. They range from central bankers from Nigeria and aspiring marketers from Vietnam to future medical leaders from London. During my talks, I have challenged them all to connect with each other, support each other, challenge their beliefs and try to put some of the ideas that they learn into practice. I always walk away feeling proud of the kind of professionals and leaders we are helping to create.
We are edging closer to completing the building work at Bunhill Row and Finsbury Square. I was really impressed when touring the teaching spaces in Finsbury Square. Our new Alumni Lounge on the 7th floor is particularly impressive. Despite the remaining construction work, it is nice to see our buildings busy with students again.
We have an important year ahead of us. This year, our focus will be on a few areas: strengthening our research environment and leveraging our research for funding and impact, organising for scale on our undergraduate programmes and delivering innovation on our postgraduate programmes, continuing to build our brand and external relationships, and ensuring our professional services are correctly tuned to support the School.
There is still a lot on our to-do list to keep improving the School for our staff, students, alumni and contacts, and I am looking forward to making more progress this year.
Please do reach out if you have any concerns or ideas.
Best wishes,
André
Professor André Spicer
Dean of Bayes Business School