 So let me just first introduce myself. Good evening, London time to everyone. My name is Senya, and I am Actors Director of the Center for Financial and Management Studies, SEPHEMS. So I am really honored to be here with you and present to you what is going on at SEPHEMS and some of the ways of what SEPHEMS is and some of the history of SEPHEMS as well and also about how the study at SEPHEMS goes. So what I've heard is that you are either thinking about applying or you have already applied. So I'm sure you will have some questions to ask after. So once more warm welcome and let's start from the beginning. So University of London. We call it a Golden Triangle of Britain. So we have University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and University of London. So it's a federal university like Cambridge and Oxford operates with 17 colleges and 10 research institutes and centres. And all of us are having the work on campus. We do a lot of teaching on campus. However, we also have a separate distance learning programs which we offer to the students who are studying from abroad. And the university itself is funded in 1836 and has over 75,000 students in the UK. However, like we started with distance learning way, way, way before internet and online and Zoom. We started in 1858 when Britain still was an empire. So now we have 55,000 students all over the world in 180 countries and a global reputation and experience for teaching and research both online and offline. So this is one of the first universities. Actually, it is the first university in Britain which allowed females to study. University of Cambridge, University of Oxford in the 19th century didn't have it. I didn't have it in their university status. However, University of London was the first one who had this. And it was what made University of London a bit different than other universities around the world. And we started with distance learning programs. And how we did it at the time as Britain was an empire. And we had students studying on distance. They had their secondments in different parts of the empire. And they still needed to study and to understand the world around them. So what has happened is that the books were basically shipped by boats and they were receiving it and studying it. Very colonial past of the university indeed. However, this is something which we need to discuss on further being the source of what this colonial past has brought to current and contemporary contexts of where we are at the moment. So going back to SEPHEMS, Center for Finance and Management Studies, we are at SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies. And we are one of the partner institutions of the University of London which delivers programs in finance and management studies. So we offer these internationally recognized master programs by distance learning. And at the moment, we have about 2,500 students who are studying in over 160 countries, studying online, enrolled on our courses. SOAS also offers some other programs like Center for Development and Environmental Policy, SEPHEMS. This is our sister program, then Center for International Studies and Diplomacy, CISD, Media and Gender Studies. You'll operate on distance or online learning depends on the program. But at SEPHEMS, we operate straight on distance. So I will explain a bit more later on the difference between distance and online learning. So at the moment, we do master programs, diploma programs, certificate and professional awards. So individual professional awards when you're taking only one module, it's very similar to those executive education programs where you study one particular module for two months and you pass exam, which is always in September or October, and you get an individual professional award awarded by the University of London. We have postgraduate certificate programs, postgraduate diploma programs and MSc programs. And I will explain the number of credits for each of them. So when it comes to individual professional awards, that's one module. So even if you take only one module, you're accredited. Then if you want to go further and take postgraduate certificate, you take two modules. If you want postgraduate diploma, you take four modules. And if you want MSc degree, you take six modules. One important point to mention is that dissertation is an elective module. You don't need to take it. But if you take it, you need to take also research methods module unless you are studying quantitative finance. In that case, if you are studying quantitative finance, you don't need to take research methods. You can straight go to dissertation. For all of our programs, dissertation is not obligatory. But you can take it. It's not a problem. And yeah, we can share the slides, no problem at all. So that's OK. And another point to mention, which may be also interesting for you, is that you can also start with the MSc program. But you can exit earlier. Sometimes we have students who are working full time and need some extra work, maybe some family issues, get married, travel abroad. And we then have exit degrees. So if you start the MSc program, but you want to exit earlier, you can exit with a PhD postgraduate diploma. And that's for modules. So it's all very flexibly organized. But why is that so? So I will show it on my next slide. So for MSc programs, you have to take six modules, as mentioned. And MSc program offerings are in MSc in finance and financial law, MSc finance banking, finance economic policy, finance and financial sector management, finance and quantitative finance, I already mentioned the program. Then you can take it to the National Business Administration. MSc in International Business Administration. MSc in public financial management. And MSc in public policy and management. So these are our offerings. These are different degrees which you can take. If you want to do a diploma, postgraduate diploma, so you can take four modules. And depending on which modules you take, you get one of these degrees, banking, economic policy, finance, financial law, financial sector management, policy studies, public financial management, public management, finance and international business administration, postgraduate certificate modules. And you can take one of those modules as an individual professional award, where you take only one module and you get a certificate of achievement in that particular module. So you also have some new modules like doing business in Africa, business and economics in China. So we have reworked the modules on sub-Saharan Africa and then now including the whole African continent. So and these are the study sessions which we have at the moment. So these are the dates and the deadlines for applications. So for session three, I assume you are interested in session three. Enrollment has just opened and the application deadline is the 14th of March on my birthday. And then enrollment closes on 29th of March. And the session starts date is on 12th of April. So these are the dates to keep in mind. And these are very strict dates, as far as I understand. And then application starts on May the 15th. Enrollment, that's application deadline. Enrollment opens on 23rd of May. Enrollment closes on 6th of June. And on 21st of June, the session starts. So these are two following sessions which are about to take place. So it's usually that the dates are, as it follows, the dates are November, January, February, April, April, June, July, September. That's usually how it works. So and how is all the teaching organized with us at 7th? So the first four weeks, you're studying the first part of the module. Let's say you take the module doing business in Africa. And the first four weeks, you study the first four weeks guided modules. You have your units, and you study your first four units. One of the points which I would like to mention here, which is quite important when it comes to business learning studying, this is not online learning. You don't have online lectures. This is learning pedagogy or pedagogy. I've heard that I can use both words. So it's on business learning. So it's very, very flexible. So you can fit in your day-to-day life if you work full time. You can fit studying daily like two hours, one or two hours per day to do your studying in order to be able to pass your exam. So I'm saying to students always instead of watching Netflix or binge-watching Netflix TV series, why not doing something slightly different, reading the unit and the reading material for sevens for your fourth degree. Then you have a week five. This is the week when you are catching up on the reading, you haven't managed to finish in weeks one to four. And you are writing your essay. And after week five, you submit your first assignment, your first essay. This is 1,500 words long. So it's not a very long essay, but it covers sessions one to four. And it helps you to prepare you for week six and nine and your exam. So then after week five, you continue with week six and two nine, where for four weeks you study. Again, you have the weekly units, unit six, unit seven, unit eight, and unit nine. And week 10, where you are again writing the assignment which focuses on week six to nine. And you're writing another assignment of 1,500 words and you're submitting it on the week 10 or week 11. So by doing so, you're getting the feedback from your tutor. Week one to four, assignment, feedback, week six to nine studying, week 10 reading, and you're getting the feedback. And you're ready to take an exam, which is taking place in September and October every year. You only have one exam per year, one exam data per year. And that is how it's been since 1858 at the University of London. And it works like that for more than 150 years. So you say, why would we change something which works well? So the exams are taken online in your own home. But the exams are procted and it is done in such a way. What else I would like to tell you? I'm sure you're going to have lots of questions about exams. But what you're going to receive? You're going to receive a comprehensive study package with units, textbooks, and reading. Once more, just to say, you don't have the lectures. You don't have any online material. It's all in that sense. Like you don't have online lectures. You don't have PowerPoint presentations from the lectures. It's all in text. And it's all based on your own flexibility to study it online. Because you will have a tutor throughout those 10 weeks of studying. And the tutor will be there to help you to guide you through those lectures, through those unit materials. That's going to be what the tutor is for. But the tutor is not going to give any lectures per se. It's based on yourself and your own questions which you're going to ask the tutor to help you with. So you're the one who initiates the talks with tutors. And tutors are also providing you with some feedbacks and some questions in such a way. Oh, yes, this is what we changed during the COVID times. So on the 4th of March, which was on Friday, we had the meeting at the University of London. And we have decided to abandon research centres and teaching centres exams. The first reason why we did that is because you have to pay 80 pounds, or minimal 40 pounds into the countries to actually be at the exam. But by doing it online, that cost will not be taken. And John Paul, it is possible to take two modules in a year. Yeah, it is possible to take. It's possible to take even more than that. It's possible to take four modules in a year. It's possible to take one module per session. That's not a problem at all. So you can take four modules per year and take four exams. So that's possible, no problem at all. But all the exams are going to be taken online. So just to you will have the exams are going to be taken at the same different times. It's like around six weeks, I guess, in September and October, where exams are taking place. And they're not taking the same. They're not going to be taken at the same time. So each exam, you will have 48 hours for each exam. And they're going to be taken at different times in September and October. There are different dates for each exam to take place. They're not taking time at the same time. So that's going to be in such a way. So that's very well organized. 150 years of practice makes it perfect to organize distance learning and to have it all clear how it's done. So it's a long time. So now everyone is doing distance learning, online learning, but the University of London is doing it for 150 years already. So they're not changing much of how they have done the things before. So we were thinking about going back to exam centres. But at the end, it seems that it's all going to be online when it comes to how exams are going to take place. Can I take an elective module before a core module? It depends on the program. But mostly you can. However, in most of the programs, we recommend that you first take your core modules first so that you establish your core strengths first and then you get electives. But for instance, for my own International Business Administration, yeah, you can. You can take the elective modules before the core modules. However, I'm not sure about says another. So there is a visual learning resource, but not audio. There are no online lectures at all provided. Some yes, but it's more like online videos, which you can watch as a part of your learning. But the modules are made in such a way that you don't need it. It's all mostly text with some videos here and there and some online lectures here and there, online guest speakers. But it's not provided as the kind of that it's throughout. So what we have, we have a comprehensive study packs with the units, textbooks, and readings. Some of them do include some visual materials as well. But it's a rather exception then that it's really taking place. We just wanted to make it simple and to make it straightforward because we have students who are, for instance, doing their fieldwork. We have students who are employed by the UN, by the World Bank. And sometimes they are in some very remote locations where they don't have internet connection. And so that's why it's better to have it all in textual material. We have a virtual learning environment where we have this kind of online platform, which is both audio and visual as well. So you can access your tutor. You can have discussions with your mates, with your classmates online. So this is the virtual platform. And you submit your paperwork, sorry, your assignments, you submit on that virtual platform. You have your academic tutors, which are there throughout these 10 weeks. They have 72 hours to respond to your questions. We put 72 hours because of the time zones. But it is usually that they respond immediately, unless it's like a three o'clock in London when you're submitting your questions, you will have to wait a couple of hours. So it's like a nine to five work, let's say. But they have to respond in 72 hours. That's kind of a ground rule. So you also have a source at the University of London Sandhouse and Source Library, which you can use. Source is one of the national UK national libraries. Well, we have five national libraries in the UK, and Source is one of them. So you have really amazing resources in the library at Source. And later on, when you graduate, you still have alumni access to the library. The same is for the University of London Sandhouse Library. It's one of the richest libraries in the UK and the world. The same is with Source Library as well. It's like really the resources you have in both sources combined, it's really amazing. And you have lifelong alumni access to them. Another point I would mention is the study skills resources, the resources on how to write the assignment, how to study online and on distance, how to do the rigorous work, what is academic integrity. All of that is available online. And all of you will really get an amazing help in hand with all those study skills resources from both University of London and Source. So if you would like to see how the modules actually work. Oh, sorry. Another point I forgot to mention is entry requirements. So you should have enough for a second class UK bachelor's degree or international equivalent in any discipline. Sometimes the students, if the students have lower ranked degrees, but have really a lot of work experience, it can always be recognized into your favor. Relevant professional experience always counts. And if your first degree is not taught in English, you will need to provide evidence of a language ability or any similar IELTS or any similar English ability requirement. So the fee is 1,820 pounds per module, which is like as it is in many of the, let me see, I have a question. That's exactly what this digital library, you don't have to be in UK at all to visit the library. When I was talking about library, I meant digital libraries. I should have mentioned it more clearly. What I meant was digital resources, which are really amazing. In both University of London and Source Library, both online, everything is available online. You don't have to be present at Source to be able to access those digital resources, which you need to have. Everything is available online. So which makes me, and you have it as an alumni, once you graduate, you have it as an alumni, you have an access to all of those resources. So the last point I would say is the fees. The fees are like 1,820 per module and 10,920 pounds for an MSc. As we can see the difference, when you're studying online, when you're studying on campus and when you're studying online, the fees are much higher. The fees are around 21,000 pounds when you're studying on campus. At the moment, our students, which are studying on campus, are actually studying online. That's why I'm always mentioning it's on distance. That's why it's 10,920 pounds. And independently, whether you are a British citizen or you are an international student, you pay the same amount, 10,920 pounds. The scholarship is available, but most of the scholarships are coming and some kind of internship loans are coming from employers. They are most willing for the employers, but you can also check it on our website at the University of London website if there are any particular scholarships which you may take. So at the moment, there are some, but there are many of them which can be taken. I'm not even sure whether the Chivening Scholarship operates for distance learning programs, but we should definitely lobby also Chivening Scholarship so that they're also able to operate on distance learning as well, that you don't have to take the courses on campus to get the scholarship. But at the moment, still, it is much better value for money to take the things online, or to take this on distance learning than to take it online, because at the moment, our students are actually studying online, but they are paying as if they are on campus. So distance learning is really something that has the best of both worlds of online and distance learning. And what else I would like to mention is we have, at the moment, we have, with our future learn, we have the courses if you would like to see how it works. So also we have our MOOCs courses on risk management in the global economy, understanding public financial management. So you can see some specimen examples about how we work and how we operate. We also have on our website, you can download some of the units on our SEPHEMS ACUK website. You can download the units and see whether it is something which you feel comfortable and the way how it is delivered is something you feel comfortable with. So last but not the least, a couple of more slides to put here. These are some of the avenues where our graduates work and where our students are employed later on. And also European Bank of Research and Development employs some of our students. Many of those consultancy, the consultancy corporations are employing our students. So there is a much wider list of our students where they work. So British Embassy, I don't know whether it's mentioned here, but the investment platforms throughout the world, many public policy, big international organizations, they're all employing our students at the moment. So we have been working in partnerships with many big international organizations. So if you have any questions, you can always ask me. And here, Dr. Alberto Asker, who is the module program director of public policy management and financial sector management modules, is here to answer any of your questions. And I'll stay here for as much as it's needed to answer some of your questions. I hope I didn't take so much of the time to go through the slides, but if any other questions, we are here. Either on chat or if it's possible, we can also answer them. You can also speak directly to us. Any further questions? I guess no. Kati and Rachel, if... Yes, hello. Yes, hi, Ibrahim. Yes, I have... Thank you for the brief presentation. I have two questions. One is about the academic tutas. According to your presentation, it seems that the whole learning will be just reading materials, mostly, except in some cases where it is required to interact with maybe fellow learners or the academic tutas. Yes. So what will be the role of the academic tutas except just answering questions to students? And then the other question is, if I have received an offer, or maybe I have started with maybe, let me say, MSc in public policy management, and then maybe later I have that intention to move to other sister courses, like maybe, let me say, the following steps. What is the protocol and what's the way forward? Over. Yes, so as far as I understand, the courses are not connected, so you can't move from one course to another. Like, you can move to those courses which are on SEPHIMS, those programs which I mentioned here, you can move without any problem. Let me just say, like... financial law, banking, economic policy, financial sector management, quantity finance, national business administration, public financial management, public policy management, you can move because they operate in the same way. However, CISD courses in diplomacy are 16 weeks long and they operate on different ways, on different platforms. So it's not that easy to move from one to another. However, our courses are operating on eight weeks programs, actually 10 weeks, sorry. So it's easier to move if you want to move from banking to financial sector management. It's just the metropore directors chatting in between. Related to which program you are at the moment you applied for, public financial management, you said? No, I said public policy and management. Yes, I think about the tutors and tutors' role. I think Alberto can say a bit more about this one because Alberto is a program director of public policy and management. If Alberto is here, he can say a few more words. So it's not only me speaking. I can add anything else. Alberto? Yes, hello, Stenya. Sorry, just a switch on. No worries. Microphone and all these, yes. Yeah, I wasn't sure whether you were still here. Just a saving band with and being able to listen better in this way. Yeah. Thank you, Stenya. As you said, within the opening of CISD, there are the two MSc programs, public policy management and public financial management, two CISD programs. They do overlap to a certain extent, although the public financial management program is more specialized in a sense. The public policy management program discover several ways to take the public sector, the management of the public sector. So there are a number of modules concerning public policy, others concerning public management, and others concerning public financial management. Instead of the MSc, public financial management is definitely more specialized. It may attract more an interest from the side of accountants. People are really walking, possibly in central government, treasuries or finance departments. And roughly, we may have four times more students in PPM with respect to BFM. Having said that, however, as I said, there are some overlaps. So even if you take the PPM, public policy and management program, it is still possible to select modules from the public financial management program in case you may like to study more subjects like financial planning and programming and budgeting in the public sector or public sector accounting or auditing or the way in which taxation and other sources of revenues are made in the public sector. So these are just a few words to zoom into the details of these MSc programs. But very happy to take any more specific questions. Yeah. If you have any questions, you can always contact Alberto as well further on email. It's AA144, I think. Is it? That's correct. So it's ACOK. But yeah. And what's the role of the tutors? So who will answer? Alberto or myself? If you like, I can spend a few words, Sonia. Yeah. So we have a pool of about 80 tutors. And most of them, they're like colleagues in other UK universities, UK-based universities. A few of them are based abroad. But typically, they share a heritage having studied or taught at SOAS in the past. So we keep these intellectual linkages in collaboration with them. And the role of tutor over the course of the study session is the one to provide assistance to students in many ways as students require this to happen. So there is an online forum where students try to induce some thinking, some discussion from the side of the students. But on the other hand, tutors are just there in case there is any question, either in the forum or through via direct messaging through the virtual learning environment. Tutors do also play an important role whenever it comes to marking the assignments, especially the first assignment, because the feedback which they provide to the first piece of written work from the side of the students is quite crucial to signal whether they are on spot on the right track based on what they write after the first four weeks into the course. Having said that, as Senia explained, these programs were originally designed, conceived as distance learning programs, not quite online learning programs, which means we do not kind of force or pull students to be online, to interact live or in a timely fashion to assignments given online and so on. It's a deliberate choice, which typically fits with a busy work and live family schedule of most of our students. So students may feel to be kind of in a solo mode sometimes because they have the assigned readings to do typically in the evenings or in the weekend, but still they're not alone. Any time they want to have an exchange, they have any questions to post to tutors, there are tutors assigned to them. I believe Senia, we must still retain a ratio of one tutor to about 10 students. So tutors are never quite overburden and so they can reply typically in a timely fashion. Yeah, indeed. So they're always there to help during those 10 weeks of studying and to give a feedback. Not just about the questions, but also there is a discussion forum and some questions, some thoughts as well as you go as it goes along. So, yeah. And I got another question on the chat box. What is the difference between SEPHEMSAUCE and the University of London? Indeed, it's a bit confusing with all those acronyms. Like when I just started, I had the same question. As well. So the University of London is a big confederation of the universities which provide distance learning courses. So University of London works in partnerships with institutions like SAUCE, LST, King's College, University College of London and all the other institutions around which are actually delivering all those distance learning programs. So, for instance, King's College would work mostly with computer science, goes mostly with the arts. And we are working as SEPHEMS and SAUCE, we are providing distance learning programs related to SEPHEMS, CISD, gender, media as well. So, and we are mostly working with the masses, MSC programs. So, well, for instance, LST works on undergraduate programs in finance and management. And we also do postgraduate programs in finance and management. So we are not overlapping, but we do different kinds of degrees throughout. And SEPHEMS is a part of SAUCE. So, SEPHEMS is one of those four programs which one of those four centers at SAUCE which offer distance learning. So you have SEPHEMS, you have CISD and you have Center for Gender and Media Studies at SAUCE. And at SEPHEMS offerings, you have finance and financial law, finance and banking, finance economic policy, financial sector management, quality finance, international business administration, public financial management and public policy management. Those are the programs which are offered through SEPHEMS. This is a part of SAUCE and SAUCE is a part of University of London as the way how to talk about it. So it's the big umbrella is University of London under the University of London, there is SAUCE and under SAUCE, there is SEPHEMS. I hope it's a bit clearer now. Yes, no? Again, you get accredited degrees from the University of London. Yeah, no worries. It is a bit of a, it's a big institution and a big structure. So it works like that, as I say, for more than 100 years when it comes to distance learning. So far it works well, but let's see. So far so good. We don't change much. We just, as the technology became more in place, we have actually just applied new technologies to the ways how we operate. So it's a bit easier. So we can now do exams. We don't have to do exams in the centres anymore. Exams are done at home. Any other questions we have? So far, we still have five minutes as far as I understood. So last questions, yes, no? We have seven more minutes actually. I'll just jump in and say thank you so much for that great session. And just so that all our students are aware, we have recorded this session and we will be sharing it with you via email as well. So if there is anything that maybe you want to go back and revisit or look through again, then we will be sharing that with you. So yeah, thank you again. That was a really great session. And yeah, unless there's any more questions, we can finish a little bit early. We can hold on for a few more moments. Yeah, just if there is anything just to clarify, these are, this is the way how we work. We work mostly with the textual material and also like some of our modules are very quantitative and you really need to work with the text as it goes around. And this is the best way to do this. And this is really what makes us different from all those degree meals which are mushrooming online. So we keep our academic integrity and we do it with the textual material with units with the reading which you need to do. And that's the way how we make say, we make a different, how we make ourselves different from other others on which offer this is learning programs. So sure, just to put my email address here in chat as well, if anyone needs has any further questions and Albertos is A144 as far as I remember. So you can always contact us. So yeah, if I register primacy and do finish four modules but discontinue later, yes indeed, you are eligible for a diploma. We call it the exit degree. So you register primacy but you did four modules, not all six modules, you come up with a diploma. If you do only one module, you get a professional award. If you do two, you get certificate. If you get four, you get a diploma. If you get all four of them, you get an MSc degree. And again, you don't need to do this dissertation per se. If you want for some employers, you need to do these dissertations or in some countries you need to do the dissertation, but it's not a requirement for everyone. You can do it but you don't have to. So if you want to do dissertation, the only requirement is that you do one module which is research methods. So that's all, unless you're doing quantity finance. If you're doing quantity finance, you don't even need to do the methods one. So other than that, that's the way it goes. So if you don't have any further questions, just I would like to thank you for being here with us today and I would just like to say that if you have any further questions, you can always contact me on my email. Brilliant. Thank you so much, everyone. That was great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy, Rachel and Alberto. And thank you for all of you who came to this open, open day session. So looking forward to seeing, to hear more from you and to see you in our modules. Bye-bye. Thank you. Thank you.