Getting My Money’s Worth!

Having studied much of his degree through a global pandemic, including a Year in Industry placement, Stage 3 student Kheireddine Adeyemi is now all about making the most of the resources available to him in his last year of University.

‘In Stage 1 & 2, I did almost all of my studying at home and rarely spoke to my professors and seminar leaders. I was quite disengaged from the course and the uni, and I barely made any effort with my course mates. This all made it very hard for me to actually enjoy my studies or meet new people.

The talks and resources provided by the HSS team really motivated me to change my approach; they encouraged me to think about my future and how my course fit into it.  I think with this help from the School of Economics and the company I worked for, I grew a lot during my placement year and this is what helped me really engage with the course this year.  As a result, this year, my experience has been completely different. The modules I have chosen are challenging but, since the beginning, I’ve been (getting my money’s worth) using all the support I can get from my teachers (booking meetings, raising queries etc…).

During the Autumn term, there was a casual Friday class (called Kenometrics) to help Econometrics students with their problems/queries. We would meet in the Kennedy building and explore the theory behind key concepts as well as more technical skills relevant to coding in Stata. These sessions were great for so many reasons. We were able to:

  • Build up a consistent routine
  • Network with course mates
  • Focus with less distractions – everyone had the same goal in mind
  • Access direct support from the module convenor – much easier to absorb teachings in person
  • Better understand the course and future examinations

Even outside of class, I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone to build relationships across the course. The society events held at Kennedy, such as the Casino night, have been a great opportunity for this (the smart Stage 1 & 2 students were able to get a lot of insight from their seniors into their current and future modules!).

My attitude this year has really enabled me to see beyond the difficulty of my course and begin to explore areas I find interesting. Despite how tricky the autumn Financial Economics module was (ECON5620), I read further into how information is incorporated to market prices. Now, for my dissertation, I’m exploring how Elon Musk’s Twitter activity affects cryptocurrency markets!

I’ve also been really impressed by how much the School of Economics are willing to support us. There are rooms in Kennedy booked off for the whole term just for Econ students to use. They’re also happy for us to use the meeting rooms when they aren’t booked. This has made it really easy for me to organise large group study sessions to tackle our Spring term modules… (Some people even do their video interviews there) If you want to be involved, drop me an email and I’ll see what I can do 😉!’

Kheireddine Adeyemi is studying for a degree in BSc Hons in Financial Economics with Econometrics with a Year in Industry.