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Second Edition of BSE Summer Schools Launch
The 2008 edition of the BSE Summer Schools began on June 30th in the new Wellington building of the GSE. The 2-week summer schools offer a diverse range of courses designed for researchers, professionals and graduate students in different fields. In addition to the Barcelona Banking Summer School (BBSS) and the Barcelona Clusters Summer School (BCSS), this year the GSE is offering a new summer school in Microeconometrics (BMiSS).
Competition for the summer schools was tougher than the previous year, with more than 300 applicants. The final list of attendees numbered well over 200: 54 in Banking, 62 in Clusters, and 124 in Microeconometrics.
A glance at the registration list also reveals the international character of the student body. This year, students came from 39 different countries. Countries represented in high numbers include Mexico, the US, Brazil, and many countries of Europe. The international student body is taught by renowned academics and leading practitioners who come from around the world to teach.
Clusters summer school Director Emiliano Duch places an emphasis on working in small groups
A Preceding Reputation
The BSE Summer Schools, though only in their second year of existence, have already attracted some students based on reputation alone.
Microeconometrics summer school student Sauro Mocetti, an analyst at the Bank of Italy Research Department in Bologna, explains upon arrival that he chose the summer school in Microeconometrics because “based on the very good reputation of the other summer schools, I expect that this new summer school will be just as good.”
An ’04 graduate of the UPF MSc in Economics, now offered in cooperation with the GSE, Mocetti attended a course taught by summer school and UPF Professor Jaume Garcia four years ago. “Based on the quality of teaching in that course and the excellent reputations of the other professors, I am expecting the other courses to offer an excellent opportunity to learn at a high level.”
Summer school students had the opportunity to meet one another during the coffee break on the first day of classes
High Student Satisfaction
The GSE aims to repeat the success of the previous year’s summer schools. Evaluations from the 2007 edition revealed that participants were very happy with the school, with 100% reporting that they would recommend the summer school they had attended to a friend or colleague.
Regarding the course content, 2007 Banking Summer School student Alicia Garcia-Herrero reported "about 90% of the course content is directly applicable to my job." Speaking of the structure of one of the courses she enrolled in, she said "there is enough material for a full year course, but the essential content is distilled and taught during a 1-week interval."
Silvia Giannangeli, a student in the Banking summer school, says that “though this is the first day of the summer school, I can already see that the professors are of a high quality and that the student body is very international.” A Researcher in the Statistics Office of the Bank Unicredite, she looks forward to learning cutting edge tools that will help her in her work.
Banking summer school professors Jean Charles Rochet, Xavier Freixas, and Moshe Kim during the coffee break
Opportunities for Dynamic Interactions
One of the key goals of the summer schools is to foster learning through small class sizes, which allows students to interact with the top professors as well as get to know each other.
Beverly Morgan, a student from Jamaica in the Clusters Summer School, said that she was looking forward to “working in small groups to maximize learning. Listening to other people working allows you to make the most of your experience, since you get to compare strategies and learn what is most useful for others.”
The summer schools will also offer the opportunity for students to get to know one another and network while exploring Barcelona. Among the social activities to be offered is a cocktail hour, bike tour, and dinner with fellow students.
All courses are taught at the Ciutadella campus of the BSE, site of the Pompeu Fabra University. The campus is located in downtown Barcelona, within walking distance of both the beach and the city's financial, cultural and governmental centers.
Occurring during the same time period is the Barcelona Macroeconomics Summer School organized by CREI, one of the founding institutions of the BSE.
Upon registering, students received all course materials, BSE shoulder bag and USB pen drive