From the start of my academic career as an academic economist I consciously pursued what I consider the balance strategy for career development. By that I mean, I saw the university as a teaching and research institution with no conflict between the two.

​

I contributed to a wide range of areas in College administration, including resource, strategy and planning committees, promotions and appointment boards, adult and continuing education committees, and many Academic Council and Governing Body sub-committees.

​

I was privileged to be appointed Professor of Economic and therefore Head of the Department of Economics at a time when the university was undergoing major changes to become more outward looking and internationalized.​

​

This set new standards for staffing, teaching and research, but also entailed growing the department to its full potential and capability. In response to this, a few colleagues and I began a new Staff Development Programme which encouraged staff working full time in the department to undertake PhD research and thesis writing at other internationally recognized institutions (mainly in the UK).

 

During my time as Head of the department, I carried out the usual administrative duties (i.e. budget planning and management, teaching allocation, examinations, temporary/ part-time staffing etc.).

​

I led a range of changes in the academic curriculum - from revamping many individual courses to creating the highly innovative BA in Economics Through Transformational Learning, the Masters in the Economics of Business Practice, where participants learnt first-hand about the market economy, and also a Practitioner Doctoral Programme (DBA).

​

The latter was a jump I brought about for Economics which had tended to be in university a stayed and settled discipline partially but not least due to the believe by many that there’s a trade-off between teaching and research.