J-Pal hires more ITFD students

Congratulations to Filippo Sebastio, who will work for J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) in Bangladesh, starting this summer. He will help with evaluating policy interventions designed to reduce poverty, using the randomized experiment methodology.

Happy memories... or not?

I have just come back from the BGSE graduation ceremony, at the AXA forum at the other end of town. It was the normal mixture of fun and speeches, saying good-bye to students that I had come to get to know and greeting the parents that produced the interesting, alert, curious boys and girls that we taught. I feel a bit nostalgic about everyone leaving - didn't I just get to know you a few months ago?

But before I get all bleary-eyed, perhaps I should heed a bit of advice that comes out of really interesting research. Ever found yourself moaning silently when some postmodernist quack cr***ed on about how reality is socially constructed? Well, it turns out that there is some truth to that. In Science, there is an incredible bit of research showing that people who can perfectly well remember events change their view if you surround them by people who say something else. The scientists in question used MRI scanners to find out how this happens. Turns out that two parts of the brain, linked to fear and emotion, are involved in us changing our memories -- the hippocampus and the amygdala. Get a computer to tell people they remember wrong, and these parts of the brain do nothing. With people, it's the opposite. So maybe that's the point of ceremonies -- to create salient events that help us recall all that was great about a really great class!

Fabio Sola joins the World Bank in Brasilia

Congratulations to Fabio Sola (ITFD 2011) who will be joining the World Bank's country office in Brasilia this fall. He we work in the Lead Economist's office, and will have a chance to apply his econometric skills and understanding of macrofinancial issues.

Application season...

Every year, we see a similar pattern - applications to the ITFD program start slow in November, and then pick up from December onwards. Compared to this time last year, application numbers are up 37%, which is encouraging. What is most striking is that the quality seems to vary a lot by date of application, with really good students often applying early. We process applications until the programme is full, and urge everyone to apply as early as they can - and before the end of March if possible. Scholarships are filled periodically until they are gone, so for our applicants who need some funding, applying early is a good idea, too. So if you are thinking of ITFD, maybe the right thing to do is to sit down with a good cup of tea over the holidays, fill in the forms and write the statement of purpose (yes, we do read them, and they do matter!), and give it a shot.

Good news from the bureaucratic front - we're official!

Why oh why does the EU turn every good idea into a bureaucratic nightmare? When I first heard about the Bologna ideas, I was really excited. Three-year BAs, compatible degrees across Europe, new syllabi - I could already see good education of the snappy, focused, useful variety coming to all of Europe (and not just the UK). Some years later, it's clear that the teaching Taliban have highjacked the undergraduate teaching structure; many ideas entirely unrelated to the basic idea of having compatible ideas across Europe have been tagged on. One of the really idiotic things that the Bologna process gave us is that Master's degrees now need to be certified by the national authorities -- you can get an "official" and "unofficial" master, effectively. In the US, there are universities that are accredited, and those that are not - fine. MIT is accredited, and Abraham Lincoln College in Podunk, Nebraska, is not. But the idea of perfectly well-established universities having to submit each and every course syllabus, etc., for a master to be officially approved (including those that have been taught for decades) is straight out of Kafka.

To cut a long story short, we got there -- the good fairies in the Barcelona GSE office guided us through the whole process, and starting with the class of 2011, our (and all other Barcelona GSE) masters are official - hooray!

The class of 2010 graduates

... and what a gorgeous-looking, fun and stylish crowd they are! It's been a pleasure to teach you. I hope you will all stay in touch -- I'll miss you!

[and here is a link to some other pics from the graduation party, including photos of the other master's programs]