View from the hill

View from

theThe magazine of Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School

…born or made?

SPriNG 2013

Seeking the best evidence Witness support and preparation

The buck stops here. Or does it?

The board or the CEO – where should the power lie?

News from your school Recent developments at

Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School

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CoNteNtS

2 Yay! Yet another email! Are email interruptions at work

actually a bad thing?

4 Seeking the best evidence Supporting witnesses giving

evidence in court

6 the buck stops here. or does it?

Assessing UK and US models of corporate governance

8 is the Government’s bark worse than its bite?

The legislative minefield surrounding dangerous dogs

10 entrepreneurs – born or made?

Helping young entrepreneurs succeed

12 the power of community Success of the EC1 New Deal

14 “ A striking lesson in intelligent design”

The new Kingston Business School building – a year in

16 the changing face of retail An article from alumna Helen

Dickinson, director general of the British Retail Consortium

18 Life after Leveson? Law alumnus Ardi Kolah examines

self-regulation in the press

19 Staff news

20 Business School news

21 Law School news

22 research at Kingston

24 international news

26 Student achievements

29 Business services

30 Careers and employability

31 work placements

32 Alumni profiles

Disclaimer and copyright notice Unless otherwise indicated, the views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Kingston University. Kingston University has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein, but does not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions. The University will not be liable for any loss that may arise from reliance on information contained in this magazine. All material in this magazine is copyright of Kingston University unless otherwise stated. Material may not be copied, reproduced, republished or transmitted in any way except for your own personal non-commercial use. Any other use requires the written permission of Kingston University.

Kingston UniversityKingston Hill campusKingston HillKingston upon ThamesSurrey KT2 7LB

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SPriNG 2013

Editorial team: Anne Keetch, Alison Cahn, Anisha Appa and Rob FlatteryDesign: Ball Design ConsultancyPrinted by: DST Output

What a year! Since the last issue of this magazine, we have opened a fantastic new building on Kingston

Hill, won an Olympic gold medal (well, your fellow alumnus Ed McKeever did) and joined the University Alliance, a group of 24 major UK business-engaged universities committed to delivering world-class research and a quality student experience. We’ve also presented a report on young enterprise at Downing Street, joined a House of Lords committee on small business, and secured EPAS and AMBA re-accreditations for five years. Our graduates have continued to push themselves and their University up the league tables, with our Business Studies graduates receiving the 15th highest starting salary in the UK, and our Accounting graduates the sixth highest.

On the academic side, the main feature of the year has been the publication of ‘Led by Learning’, a new strategy that articulates Kingston University’s vision for the future: to be internationally recognised for a creative approach to education that has practical outcomes that benefit people and communities.

The world of education is changing fast. I am sure that in 10 years, your University will be a very different institution from the one you studied at, and those students that follow in your footsteps will have a learning experience that’s very different to the one you had. Yes, the buildings will be smarter but, beyond that, the way students learn will be different, both in the way learning is delivered and who delivers it.

Already most students get the majority of their knowledge from outside the University, whether it’s via books, journal articles or open learning materials from other universities. The way students interact with each other and with staff members is also changing profoundly, and technology now mediates most learning interactions.

So you may wonder what the role of the University, your Business School and your Law School, will be in 10 years’ time. This is where ‘Led by Learning’ comes into play. The role of the University, as a trusted and safe place where knowledge is both challenged and integrated with the requirements of the workplace or future study, has never been more important.

In 10 years’ time, we academics will be spending most of our time working alongside students and guiding their thinking; not working in front of students imparting knowledge. High-level critical-thinking skills, however, are not the only skills that make a Business or a Law graduate successful. Without an entrepreneurial spirit, advocacy and mediation skills, and an ability to integrate sustainability and ethics into their day-to-day behaviours, our graduates will not be able to achieve a key aspect of the University’s mission: to benefit people and communities.

I hope you enjoy this issue of View from the hill and that it gives you a flavour of the things that have happened in the past year at your Business

School and your Law School. As I always say at graduation, do keep in touch. For those of you that haven’t already done so, please join our social media channels. They are listed at business.kingston.ac.uk/social and law.kingston.ac.uk/social

Professor Jean-Noël ezingeard mSc ingDip PhD frSA dean, faculty of Business and Law, Kingston University

1The magazine of Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School

The academic literature on interruptions at work suggests that enforced interruptions make people less effective, and so one

might expect email interruptions to be no different. The problem is that research on interruptions has usually been carried out in experimental conditions, not in the workplace. People are given a task, interrupted at some point, perhaps by someone coming to talk to them, and the effect on their performance when they resume the task is measured; usually their accuracy is reduced and the time taken to complete the task is increased.

What difference would it make if email interruptions were examined as they actually occur in the workplace? This is what Dr Russell’s email research project wanted to find out, and whether email interruptions have an impact on mood as well as performance.

The first phase of the research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), began with exploratory interviews with email users.

They were asked how they felt about email and the strategies they used to deal with it. Emails are different from many other interruptions in the workplace because people have some control over them: they have a choice about whether to turn their email alert on and whether to look at an email when it arrives.

What became clear is that different people use very different strategies to deal with emails. Some people dealt with them in the order they came in, not prioritising at all. Others had highly organised systems of folders and sub-folders, flagging and prioritising. And some people just let them pile up in their inbox, never deleting any.

The next stage of the research (also funded by the ESRC) looked at the interaction between email behaviour, mood and personality type. Fifty-four people, across a range of jobs and businesses, recorded their experience after each email interruption, their mood before receiving the email, their strategy for dealing with it, and their mood afterwards.

Yay! Yet another email!we all hate email at work, don’t we? the constant interruptions, never being able to focus on the job in hand. New research by Dr emma russell suggests that some of us thrive on these interruptions – it all depends on our personality type and the mood we are in when those emails arrive.

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The results suggested that how people were affected by email interruptions depended on their personality type.

While everyone felt overloaded by constant email interruptions, in more normal conditions extroverts felt better after dealing with emails; probably because they need more stimulation to feel positive. Generally, the longer they spent dealing with an email, the better they felt.

Introverts, however, didn’t benefit from email interruptions. These personality types don’t need this extra stimulation, and could easily feel overloaded. For introverts, the less time they spent dealing with an email, the better.

Worriers and people who get anxious at work were especially badly affected by email interruptions, particularly if they were already in an anxious state of mind.

In general, people’s mood when an email arrives affected both the strategy chosen and the impact the email had

on their mood and performance. If people were bored or tired, for instance, they tended to check their email immediately, and doing so often improved their mood and performance.

Did this mean that people were using emails to lift their mood? To find out, people were again asked to record their email interruptions, saying what strategy they used to deal with each email and what goals it helped them achieve – these goals could be linked to their wellbeing, their immediate task or longer-term work goals.

It became clear that people were choosing their email strategy to satisfy multiple goals, including improving their mood, and not just the task in hand.

The final phase of the research, which is funded by the Richard Benjamin Trust, looks at pathological behaviour around emails and smartphones. These behaviours include addictive checking of email or smartphones; phantom vibrations (when people feel their phone vibrate when it hasn’t); and absent presence, when someone is physically present in company but psychologically absent because they are engaging with their smartphone. The prevalence of different ‘bad habits’ and the impact on people’s goals should be reported later this year.

The intention is to use the results of all three stages to produce guidance on use of email at work. Current guidance usually recommends that people don’t have their email alert on but set aside specific time periods for checking emails, so reducing interruptions. While this strategy might work well for introverts and worriers, it could actually reduce extroverts’ efficiency and wellbeing. It may also be the least effective strategy when people are feeling bored or tired at work. At these times it seems that email interruptions can have a beneficial impact on mood, which in turn can enhance work performance.

Dr emma russell is a chartered psychologist and lecturer in occupational psychology at Kingston Business School. Organisations interested in taking part in the final phase of this research should contact Emma: [email protected]


I find courtrooms absolutely fascinating. I like nothing better than to carry out research about witnesses and how they give their evidence. I also

recognise that, for a witness, the prospect of going into a courtroom is usually extremely daunting. A witness may be wondering if the cross-examiner will put words into their mouth, if they will be interrupted, if they will ever get out what they want to say. The pressure on the witness can be enormous, especially if they know that their evidence will make or break the case.

Fortunately, in 2005, in the case R v Momodou, the Court of Appeal said that: ‘witnesses should not be disadvantaged by ignorance of the court process nor, when they come to give evidence, taken by surprise at the way it works.’ This gave a green light to proper witness preparation, which is now widely accepted as a good thing for witnesses.

In criminal courts, the charity Victim Support runs the Witness Service, which provides witnesses with information about what to expect at court

and arranges pre-trial court familiarisation visits. If necessary, the Witness Service can offer support in court while the witness gives evidence. There is no equivalent of the Witness Service in the civil courts, so organisations involved in high-value commercial disputes buy in witness preparation specialists to prepare their witnesses.

A team of experienced barristers from Kingston Law School, as part of a witness preparation service, provides one-to-one sessions for witnesses. The team helps by demystifying the legal process and putting the witness though

mock cross-examination on a case study, giving feedback about how the witness performed. It’s really about giving the witness the skills to give accurate, coherent testimony.

The witness preparation team is scrupulous about ethics. A dress rehearsal of their evidence is strictly off limits, as is offering any suggestions about what the witness should say in evidence. What the preparation aims to do is enable witnesses to be in control of their evidence, rather than allowing the cross-examiner to assert total control, which they will do if given the chance.

Many experienced litigators have come to regard witness preparation as essential in the run up to a trial. They are keen to ensure that witnesses are freed from debilitating nerves and are not disadvantaged by the alien environment of the hearing or by the cross-examiners’ tactics.

Of course, not all witnesses will be typical, robust adults. April Jones’ abduction in Wales, the attempted extradition to the US of Gary McKinnon

Seeking the best evidence

Professor Penny Cooper describes recent ground-breaking changes to the support offered to witnesses who give evidence in court…

The pressure on the witness can be enormous, especially if they know that their evidence will make or break the case.

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and the disclosures in relation to Jimmy Savile, all provide a reminder that courts should adapt traditional procedures for children and vulnerable adults. When vulnerable witnesses give evidence in criminal cases in England and Wales, they are eligible for special measures such as TV links, screens to protect their identity, pre-recorded interviews and the help of intermediaries.

Intermediaries, the most innovative of special measures, are expert advisers on witness communication. Their specialism is in working with those with communication needs, including young children and adults with learning disabilities, autism, Alzheimer’s, mental illness and brain injury. Already, in thousands of cases, intermediaries have shown police interviewers, lawyers and judges how best to communicate with vulnerable witnesses. Intermediaries are also permitted to intervene during the trial if communication is breaking down or there are misunderstandings.

In court it is vital that questions are fairly put and that all witnesses have a proper chance to get across their answers. Now, more than ever, the legal system recognises the witness’s right to have the opportunity to give his or her best evidence. To that end, witness familiarisation and special measures such as intermediaries are increasingly common. Traditional ways of handling witnesses – ways rooted in the late 1700s when barristers such as aggressive cross-examiner William Garrow took control of the courtroom – are changing. As one judge said recently: ‘Old habits die hard, but die they must.’ The courtroom remains as fascinating as ever.

Professor Penny Cooper is a barrister whose research area is witness evidence. She teaches witness handling techniques to judges and barristers. She has written and delivered all the accredited training for Ministry of Justice (England and Wales) and Department of Justice (Northern Ireland) intermediaries and writes the national guidance. She leads the Kingston Law School team that prepares witnesses for blue-chip clients and chairs the committee of The Advocate’s Gateway – a national project promoting best practice with vulnerable witnesses and defendants.

Now, more than ever, the legal system recognises the witness’s right to have the opportunity to give his or her best evidence.


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the buck stops here. or does it?

who is ultimately responsible for the good running of a corporation: the chief executive officer or the board

of directors? this question has been brought into sharp focus by a series of corporate scandals on both sides

of the Atlantic. Professor Giampiero favato examines the different approaches to corporate governance in the UK and US, and argues that, when things go badly wrong, those in charge should be held criminally responsible.


wanting. In America, it led to corporate governance being subject to federal legislation for the first time. Before 2006, different states had different regulations, and a company could choose its regulations by deciding where it would be incorporated. Following the Enron and Worldcom scandals, the US congress, for the first time, passed legislation covering the disclosure of financial information.

CEOs and chief financial officers must now personally swear that their company’s financial reports are accurate and complete. “I wasn’t aware of financial issues” is no longer a defence, and penalties for wilful non-compliance include fines of up to $5million and 20 years in prison. What’s more, they must disclose any material change in the company’s financial conditions.

In the UK, the role of NEDs has been strengthened, and their responsibilities increased. Non-executives can

be liable for negligence, and may be prosecuted by minority shareholders, for instance, if they don’t hold the executives to account.

Which approach best protects shareholders and the public? While the UK system of independent NEDs generally offers better protection from risk, what it doesn’t do is hold chief executives personally responsible if things go badly wrong. The CEO is seen as just another member of the board; whereas, in reality, he or she is number one.

Sometimes CEOs do make disastrous decisions that affect us all, and they should be criminally liable for those. Fred Goodwin, former CEO of

the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), said he decided to buy the Dutch bank ABN AMRO because Barclays wanted to buy it. Not enough was done to assess the risk, so RBS ended up with a toxic asset and taxpayers bailed them out. In my opinion, he should be in jail for that.

Very often we underestimate the impact of crimes against money. Because of what CEOs like Fred Goodwin did, we are all suffering; the poorest in particular through cuts in social welfare. So, perhaps what we need is a mixture of the US and UK approaches to corporate governance.

Professor Giampiero favato is head of the department of accounting and finance at Kingston Business School and a member of the Corporate Finance Faculty at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW); his current research area is financial risk.

Using Beethoven’s music as an analogy, the US approach

to governance is ‘heroic’, like his impetuous symphony no. 3, allegedly dedicated to Napoleon; while the British approach sounds more like

his no. 6 ‘pastoral’ symphony, where all the instruments follow established norms

regarding the number, tempo and order of movements.

Different theories of executive behaviour underly the different approaches to corporate governance in the UK and US. The US approach, which puts the chief executive officer (CEO) firmly in charge, follows the

stewardship theory. This assumes that executives have the company’s and shareholder’s interests at heart, and so can be relied on to take the right decisions. In the UK, the agency theory holds sway. This assumes that executives are primarily motivated by self interest, and therefore need independent oversight to ensure shareholders and the public are protected – in the UK, this independent oversight is provided by non-executive directors.

Using Beethoven’s music as an analogy, the US approach to governance is ‘heroic’, like his impetuous symphony no. 3, allegedly dedicated to Napoleon; while the British approach sounds more like his no. 6 ‘pastoral’ symphony, where all the instruments follow established norms regarding the number, tempo and order of movements.

The UK corporate governance regulations are contained in The British Combined Code (1998 and 2003), which brings together and refines a series of different reports and codes of best practice. The Combined Code expects both executive and non-executive directors (NEDs) to be directly involved in the management of the company; for instance, by running the appointments committee and setting down guidelines on the level of executive remuneration. In America, non-executives have a more advisory role.

In the UK, NEDs are expected to be clearly independent and should not have any current or previous personal or business links to the company. Unlike in the US, they will outnumber the executive directors.

There is also a difference in the amount of information that companies are expected to supply to shareholders and the public. In the UK, the annual report and accounts contain quantitive and qualitative information, setting out both the financial results and how the results were achieved. In the US, all that matters is the bottom line: that the company is profitable and the shareholders make money.

The approach to risk is different on either side of the Atlantic. In the UK, but not in the US, the board of directors is expected to consider and report on risk and future liabilities. It allows NEDs to provide an external perception of risk and challenge executives who may be pursuing vested interests.

The corporate scandals of the first decade of this century tested regulation on both sides of the Atlantic, and found it

The law covering dangerous dogs provokes strong, and conflicting, emotions among the UK’s eight-million

dog owners, and the rest of the population; in particular, the victims of an attack and their relatives. Those victims appear to be on the increase. According to the NHS there were 6,447 hospital admissions due to dog bites or strikes between May 2011 and April 2012, a 5.2 per cent rise on the previous year.

The current law on dangerous dogs is the subject of much criticism. These revolve around three issues: that the law focuses on a limited group of breeds; that it doesn’t cover private places where dogs are permitted to be, such as the dog’s home, where many attacks take place; and that it is reactive, not proactive, meaning that an incident must normally occur before action is taken.

In the past couple of years, two private member’s bills aimed at dealing with the problem have failed

to get through Parliament. Now the Government is getting behind new legislation. Last April it issued a consultation on tackling irresponsible dog ownership and reducing attacks, which stated:

“The Government considers that the law on dangerous dogs needs changing to promote more responsible ownership of dogs and to reduce the number of dog attacks.”

What are the problems with the current legislation? Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 contains a breed-specific ban on four breeds: the Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and the Fila Braziliero. There are, however, other breeds responsible for many attacks.

The Act does not seem to take into account what truly makes a dog dangerous. All breeds of dog have the potential to be aggressive, but not all have the potential to do real harm. There is a good case for expanding the list of banned breeds, as it does not include breeds with similar

the subject of dangerous dogs is a potential minefield for legislators, but current Government proposals to amend the law don’t go far enough, argues Amy Croft.

Is the Government’s bark

“ The Government considers that the law on dangerous dogs needs changing to promote more responsible ownership of dogs and to reduce the number of dog attacks.”

worse than its bite?

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characteristics to those banned. It can also be argued that there is no justification for listing breeds at all, and that any categorisation should be based on the characteristics that mean an animal is capable of inflicting real harm.

At present, if a dog is not one of the identified breeds, then it is only covered by the legislation if it has been dangerously out of control in a public place, or a private place where it is not permitted to be. Many attacks, however, occur in private places where the dog is allowed to be, such as the dog’s own home.

The 1991 Act provided for the creation of the Index of Exempted Dogs. This allowed owners of dogs from the banned breeds to keep their dog if it was assessed to pose a low risk and fulfilled the following conditions: that the dog is kept on a lead and muzzled in public; that it is insured; and that it is microchipped. In 1997, however, the law was amended so dogs can only be

Scotland have recently enacted new legislation to extend the law on dangerous dog attacks to cover private places (among other things). Yet, at the time of writing, there is still no change in the law in England.

Even if the English law is changed, it seems likely that the breed-specific part of the legislation will remain. It would seem sensible, therefore, to extend the banned breeds to other types of dogs with the same dangerous characteristics as the Pit Bull. Owners should also be allowed to have their dogs assessed for the Index of Exempted Dogs without the need to be prosecuted first. Otherwise, the Government will miss this opportunity to return sense to the law in this emotive area.

Amy Croft, a Kingston alumna, is a senior lecturer and associate director of undergraduate programmes at Kingston Law School specialising in criminal law and practical legal skills.

added to the exempted list by court order. This normally means that the owner will need to be subject to a prosecution under the 1991 Act before their dog can be added to the list.

The Dogs Act 1871 also allows for a court order to be made directing an owner to keep their dog under proper control; but, again, this is an entirely reactive provision, only likely to occur following an incident.

The Government’s proposed changes do tackle some of the gaps in current legislation including expanding the current law to cover all private places and compulsory microchipping of all dogs.

The consultation ended in June and was followed, in November, by the publication of Sir Gordon Langley’s Inquiry Into Dog Attacks on Postal Workers. This echoed many of the concerns raised in the consultation responses, and suggested some sensible proposals for reform.

Both Northern Ireland and


entrepreneursCan enterprise be taught or is it in the genes? New research looking at the long-term impact of the UK’s largest enterprise education charity suggests that enterprise programmes can help young entrepreneurs succeed, in the good times and the bad, as Dr rosemary Athayde explains.

Born or made?

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Governments worldwide are continuing to increase investment in enterprise education at all levels,

from primary school through to university. The reason is not hard to find. International bodies such as the European Commission (EC) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) see encouraging enterprise as key to boosting innovation, sustaining social progress and ensuring economic recovery.

Where is the evidence to justify such expenditure? Has the public investment in enterprise education been worthwhile?

Young Enterprise (YE), the UK’s largest business and enterprise education charity, turned 50 in 2012. To mark this anniversary, the charity asked Kingston Business School’s Small Business Research Centre to find out how its alumni fare compared with others who haven’t taken part in one of its programmes.

The Centre carried out a detailed investigation of people who took part in YE programmes, dating back to the start of the charity in 1962. Using three online surveys, focus groups, face-to-face and telephone interviews, the aim was to discover what YE alumni are doing now, and what impact they think participation in a YE programme had on their careers and career choices.

Survey respondents included 371 YE alumni and a control group of 202 people who have not been on a YE programme. Most of the alumni took part in the charity’s Company Programme, which helps young people run a real business for a year at secondary school. Others took part in the Graduate Enterprise scheme, which helps students create a fully fledged company at university. Respondents came from every region of the UK and were aged from under 25 to over 65, spanning the charity’s history. Approximately equal numbers of men and women took part.

The results suggest that the programmes do have an impact. YE alumni (42 per cent) are significantly more likely to be running their own businesses than people in the control group (26 per cent). Many YE alumni are serial entrepreneurs and have run their own business in the past or are currently

setting up additional businesses. Some run several businesses already.

Businesses run by YE alumni are highly diverse and often very innovative. The most common small firm in Britain, according to the latest national statistics, is in construction, has no or few employees and a modest turnover. Firms run by YE alumni are, by contrast, most likely to be digital businesses such as ‘cloud’ computing services

(21.2 per cent), consultancy (18.6 per cent) and several other high-tech sectors including advanced engineering product development and environmental technologies (10.3 per cent). YE alumni are also working in fashionable ‘retro’ heritage tourism; oil and gas exploration; the manufacture of polymers for corrosion control: advertising agencies; design consultancies; internet sales and imports.

An unusually high proportion of YE firms are limited companies (42 per cent), compared with both the national average (27.7 per cent) and the control group (23 per cent), which may suggest alumni gained a healthy understanding of how to protect themselves against risk.

YE alumni are more likely to employ people and have, on average, a higher turnover than the control group. Twelve per cent of YE run businesses have a turnover greater than £500,000 compared with three per cent of businesses in the control group. Some YE are very successful, with three per cent of YE businesses having a turnover of more than £1m compared with none in the control group.

the study was supplemented by 50 case studies of Ye alumni. roy Stanley founded the tanfield Group, one of the world’s largest makers of commercial electric vehicles, and said that Young enterprise had helped him as a young man with no previous exposure to business: “when i did the programme it was in the very early days in management thinking, so it was really far ahead of its time,” he said. “for a working-class kid who hadn’t had any formal exposure to business, it quickly helped me acquire a lot of knowledge.”

When it comes to adapting to the recession, YE alumni show resilience. Almost half (49.6 per cent) of them identified increasing sales as their main business objective, and a further 30 per cent said they were developing new products or services to make things better for their customers.

YE alumni seem to have a more positive attitude to entrepreneurship. The research used the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK annual survey to ask questions of a representative sample of the adult population aged between 18 and 64 years. Preliminary results suggest that YE alumni are more likely to perceive potential start-up opportunities, to believe they have the skills and experience needed, and to know someone who has recently started a business. They are less likely to be put off starting a business by fear of failure.

As one alumnus put it: “You can’t learn to swim by reading a book. You have to at least paddle around a bit while doing it, and Young Enterprise gives you that: the chance to paddle.”

Dr rosemary Athayde is a senior researcher in Kingston Business School's Small Business Research Centre, with a particular interest in entrepreneurial behaviour and enterprise education. Her report on the impact of the Young Enterprise programme was launched at a special event in Downing Street last year.

“You can’t learn to swim by reading a book. You have to at least paddle around a bit while doing it, and Young Enterprise gives you that: the chance to paddle.”


we seem to have lost faith as a nation in our power to change things. Last November’s elections for police commissioners in england attracted less than 15 per cent of the eligible population to vote. Can the law offer a vehicle for getting people involved in transforming their communities? Professor matthew humphreys mBe argues, from personal experience, that it can.

The power of community

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I’ve always cared about urban regeneration and social justice. It’s one of my specialist subjects as a law academic. A decade ago I was given

the opportunity to put my academic interests into practice. The catalyst for me was the New Deal – introduced by the last Labour government to get local people in deprived areas to work with their service providers – the local council, police, schools, health service – to identify what changes they want and then to make them happen.

The government believed that previous regeneration schemes had been too top-down, and so hadn’t worked. The New Deal’s aim was to involve the community in taking decisions about what happens in their own area.

I live in south Islington, EC1, an area of deprivation just a mile from the City of London, where some of the nation’s wealthiest people live and work. Between 2001 and 2011 we received £53million from the government and were one of 29 New Deal sites. I became involved early on and, for the past five years of the 10-year project, was chair of the EC1 New Deal Partnership Board.

It may seem a lot, but that’s the kind of money that government departments pour into a deprived area like EC1 on a regular basis, with little to show for it. Our challenge was to spend it wisely, on things that the local community wanted, and so transform the look and feel of EC1.

The important thing was to find out what people really cared about: all the research suggests that people get involved when they care about something. We used a variety of mechanisms to do this, including Mori opinion testing, going around estates asking people, talking to residents, committees, open meetings and focus groups.

Fear of crime and estate security came out as a huge priority for people, even though the actual incidence of crime wasn’t anywhere near as high as the perception. So we installed security doors and CCTV cameras in estates, and created green spaces. It was transformational: instead of people rushing through the estate and into their homes, slamming the doors behind them, they started to come out and

make use of communal spaces. We did an enormous amount in

schools, creating after-school clubs, getting the community in to use schools after hours. Again it changed the way people felt about the local schools: rather than seeing them as full of troublesome young people causing problems, they started to be part of the community.

One of the big challenges was to go beyond the local elite and members of the political parties. We did that by involving a particular type of person: the campaigners, people who really care about an issue. They often came out of nowhere. People underestimate themselves and feel that nobody will listen to them; they assume that the high-level statutory partners in health, education, local government – the people who traditionally run things – were a different species. Through the New Deal, they found out they were not.

Over 10 years it made a real difference to EC1: 69 per cent of residents say the New Deal has improved the area as a place to live.

The question for me now is whether the new Localism Act can be a similar tool to help transform communities. It introduces significant changes to local democracy and accountability, and represents a fundamental shift in the way that local decisions are made and local services delivered.

My reservation is, firstly, financial. There is only £3.2million to support implementation of the Localism Act across the whole country – very different from the £53million we got to spend on a population of fewer than 5,000 people. That money really helped to get people involved, to bring the service providers to the table, and made sure we saw results.

Secondly, local people need support and guidance. It isn’t always easy to deal with, and sometimes challenge, those who provide services, as the Localism Act encourages. The Act does provide a framework for this, as the New Deal did, but, without money, you rely on volunteers to do a lot of the work, and they need help. So, as well as the ideas coming from the bottom up, you need help and support to come from the top down.

Finally, much of the success of the EC1 New Deal came from the vision and willingness of the local service providers to commit to the process. Whatever the law says, if that vision and willingness isn’t there, it is going to be very hard to change anything.

Professor matthew humphreys is head of Kingston Law School, adjunct professor at Notre Dame University and visiting lecturer at Hong Kong University.


Kingston Business School’s new £26million home was officially opened in April 2012 by willie walsh, chief executive of international Airlines Group (iAG) and former British Airways boss. After giving a lecture and answering questions from students, mr walsh performed the official opening ceremony in front of a packed audience of students, staff, alumni and guests.

Thanking Mr Walsh, Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard, dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, said: “This great building will provide world-class facilities to match the School’s reputation for programme innovation and research excellence.”

Nearly a year in, and the building is bustling with students and staff coming and going – to lectures, seminars, events or to relax with a cappuccino, and perhaps some sushi, from the cafe in the atrium. It certainly gives the air of being a very popular new space on campus. So what do our students, staff and friends think of it now?

What the people say…“ A striking

lesson in intelligent design”

Dr Nicola rees, principal lecturer at Kingston Law SchoolNot long after the building opened, I was giving a lecture, and, while discussing a particularly hot topic, the building seemed to join in … by automatically opening the windows and letting in a welcome rush of cool air, allowing us to move on!

ron Ybanez Cortes, final-year student studying BA in Business managementThe new Kingston Business School is out of this world, and is definitely one of the main reasons my third year is going so well and I’m enjoying my experience here at Kingston. The numerous computer rooms mean there is no longer a struggle to find a computer, whatever the time of day. And the new cafe is great – it gives students the opportunity to eat healthy food as well as the option to pay by card – it’s just really convenient.

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Even before the building opened, it was praised by London Evening Standard architecture critic Kieran Long as having “the kind of practical space that offers a striking lesson in intelligent, fit-for-purpose design”.Some of the features that earned this accolade:

• A150-seathigh-spectieredlecturetheatre and flexible classrooms

• Fivecomputerroomswithatotalof 280 seats

• SocialareasforpostgraduateandmBA students

• Abusinessresearchhub,whichincludes the Small Business research Centre and research student offices

• Amootcourtroomallowinglawstudents to hone their practical legal skills

• UniversalWi-Fiaccessandnetworksystems in the main lecture theatre for streaming lectures, and video-conferencing facilities

• Plasmascreensthroughouttheatrium, featuring important news and advertising upcoming events

• Socialandinformallearningspacesincluding the inspiring ground-floor atrium and cafe.

ed mcKeever, olympic gold medalist and Kingston Business School alumnusIt’s great to see all the amazing new facilities at Kingston. It feels, more than ever, that the whole University is completely geared towards the needs of its students.

tiffany mortimer-fennell, elior staff working in the atrium cafeI love that we’re so busy, and not just at lunchtimes. It’s great to see the atrium being used so much by staff and students – for studying, meeting or just a good gossip … and of course, so many are sipping the cappuccinos I’ve made them!

rachana Bista, mSc in international Business management with Project management studentThe building really depicts the image of Kingston Business School as being advanced, creative and technologically minded.

Lauren Jacobs, final-year student studying BA in Business managementThe new Business School is a fantastic place that offers a centre to your learning. You’ve got classrooms, meeting rooms, social space, as well as all the University services, in one area. It really gives you a sense of identity in that you’re not just a Kingston University student, you’re a Kingston Business School student.

Udayanga Sachinda Jayatilleke, third-year student studying BA in marketing managementIt is kind of the new landmark on the Kingston Hill campus. The chill-out lounge on the ground floor is a perfect meet-up spot for everyone.

Julia Bond, Kingston University director of estates Development and Kingston Business School alumnaI remember thinking the extension to the old Business School over 20 years ago was a much-needed improvement! We’ve moved on significantly from there though and, over the past few years, we’ve been transforming older spaces and creating fantastic new facilities. The next phase of developments across the University will see investment of up to £80million, possibly with the single biggest building project the University has undertaken ... which should keep me busy for a while!

wayne hitchings, Kingston University’s energy manager and Kingston alumnusConstructing a brand new building gave us the opportunity to make it highly energy efficient: providing a high percentage of natural heating and cooling through the ground-source heat-pump; insulating the building to the latest standards; using natural ventilation wherever possible; occupancy sensing, allowing services to be cut off when rooms are empty; and many other energy efficient features. This has enabled us to minimise the building’s carbon footprint. The building achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating, the world’s top environmental assessment and rating system for buildings – something we’re very proud of.


is the future in your hands?

16

to increase to over a third by 2020. So, what does this trend mean for a traditional retail business?

For retailers, the answer lies firmly with their customers. Retailers must determine where and how their customers now want to buy their products. Those retailers already operating both online and on the high street are striving to align their internet and bricks and mortar offerings or risk cannibalising sales, or confusing the customer through contradictory information. Successful retail businesses are putting an increased focus on integrating these channels to create a compelling brand presence. Product information and brand identity must be consistent across all channels, with the aim of moving the consumer along the buying process, closer to that all-important sale.

While businesses need to evolve to meet the changing demands of consumers, so do regulators, who must ensure that the rules promote privacy while still providing the flexibility for companies to innovate. Privacy is a key consideration driving purchasing decisions, especially when using new services or technologies. Indeed, the virtue of ‘trust’ may soon become one of retailers’ biggest competitive advantages (though consumers currently also remain fixated on value for money).

The converged lifestyle is here to stay. Businesses will continue to see a trend towards greater integration of devices within the consumer lifestyle, meaning a rapid evolution of business models for those that operate in the sector.

Retailers are responding to ensure the legacy of the British success story lives on.

retail is a British success story, even in these hard times. But the high street is changing, and retailers need to change too if that success is to

continue, according to helen Dickinson, Kingston Business School alumna and recently appointed director general of the British retail Consortium.

Consumers are adopting new technology faster than ever before: 27 per cent of UK adults were smartphone users in 2011, and the UK accounted for 11 per cent of global internet retail sales.

Retail is vital to the British economy, with over 280,000 retail outlets in the UK and 10.5 per cent of all jobs,

including 40 per cent of all under 20s in employment, in retail. More than £300billion, over a third of consumer spending, goes through shops, and the sector is responsible for 12 per cent of investment in training. UK retail is also good value: goods are five per cent cheaper than in the Eurozone, and households now spend just 10 per cent of their income on food compared with a third in the 1950s.

The sector, however, is facing significant change. While consumer incomes are being squeezed and we are buying less, technology is changing the way people shop.

The relationship between consumers and technology is fascinating. Consumers talk about how technology enables their lifestyle. From buying goods online to keeping up with friends on social networks, they are becoming more reliant on a range of technologies that perform important – although often overlapping – tasks. The devices on offer seem increasingly to serve one purpose: to enable consumers to get what they want, when they want it.

Consumers are adopting new technology faster than ever before: 27 per cent of UK adults were smartphone users in 2011, and the UK accounted for 11 per cent of global internet retail sales. Across almost every category of goods, consumers often prefer to buy items online rather than at a physical store. In 2011, internet sales accounted for around nine per cent of retail sales, and this is forecast


Life after Leveson?“is ‘self-medication’ the right cure for the recent abuses of press intrusion in the UK?”, asks Kingston Law School alumnus Ardi Kolah

The question on everyone’s lips right now is how will the British press be ‘self-medicated’ (no, this isn’t a misprint) so

that it becomes acceptable to the victims of the insidious and unlawful behaviour of a small but extremely powerful group of journalists at the heart of News International?

The reaction of many American commentators to the UK Government proposals in the wake of the hefty Leveson report is mixture of wonder and amazement. A press regulator backed by statute is a non-starter in the US and wouldn’t even pass the briefest ‘First Amendment test’.

What on earth does an ‘independent regulator underpinned by statute’ look like? What distinctions, in a practical sense, will there be with Ofcom? The fine print of such a solution still needs to be agreed.

Just look at the mess that the BBC found itself in recently, and it’s meant to be accountable to the licence fee payer.

David Cameron’s position could be seen well before he got up in Parliament to call for restraint rather than legislation. Not surprising, given that he was responsible for directing communications at Carlton TV before getting involved in the cut and thrust of politics, so he wasn’t going to be a ‘statutory control is the answer’ enthusiast.

However, it would be wrong to use the current crisis engulfing the British media to destroy its important role in a free and democratic society.

“Consistent with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the establishment, maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy in a nation and for economic development,” declared the UNESCO Windhoek Conference in 1991. A free press remains a defining feature of a democratic society today.

The definition of a ‘free press’ now of course includes social media, where ordinary citizens can come

together and share a voice loud enough to topple governments. In Egypt, the ‘We are all Khaled Said’ Facebook campaign, set up following the death of a 28-year old beaten to death while in detention, soon snowballed from thousands to more than a million supporters online. It became one of the most powerful rallying points in denouncing the regime’s violence and abuse.

Today, most reasonably minded people recognise the need for the law to protect the right of freedom of expression, as enshrined under the Human Rights Act 1998.

But such freedom needs to be counterbalanced with a corresponding duty to exercise that freedom responsibly. ‘Self-medication’ may indeed be the answer, but only if the patient agrees to take the medicine.

Given that, the Press Complaints Commission singularly failed to administer proper restraint against some of the UK’s worst excesses of press intrusion, let’s hope that any future compromise worked out with the press barons goes some way to restoring the reputation of a once proud but now battered profession.

Ardi Kolah LLM is director of communications at Genworth Financial, a former BBC news and current affairs TV and radio producer and has spent the past 20 years in the public relations industry. He’s the author of Essential Law for Marketers 2nd Edition, published by Kogan Page.

18

Whores, burglars and highwaymen

No, not new staff at Kingston University, but characters analysed in Dr Gregory Durston’s two books published in 2012 – Burglars and Bobbies: Crime and Policing in Victorian London; and Whores and Highwaymen: Crime and Justice in the Eighteenth Century Metropolis.

Honorary Fellowship

Professor Peter Saville, visiting professor of leadership, HRM and organisation, was appointed Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) in June, joining a select group of eminent psychologists who are pioneers in their profession. Past recipients include Professor Sigmund Freud and Professor Carl Jung.

House of Commons

Dr Stuart Archbold and Dr Mark Farmer from Kingston Business School were speakers at a prestigious Industry and Parliament Trust event at the House of Commons, showcasing their work on ‘The Science of Executive Pay’. Their research also appeared in The Guardian newspaper.

New professorial appointments

StAff NewS

This year has been a great year for developing the professoriate at Kingston Law School.

Professor Penny Darbyshire was awarded an ad hominem chair for her work over her career, in particular, the research behind her book Sitting in Judgment: the Working Lives of Judges.

Professor Penny Cooper, whose expertise lies in witness evidence, including witness familiarisation, vulnerable witnesses and special measures, joined Kingston from City University last year. Penny will be developing enterprise projects around witness preparation and advising and training of the judiciary. To learn more, read Penny’s article on pages 4 and 5.

The Law School now boasts five professors covering a wide range of academic research and enterprise expertise.

An audience at Downing Street

Dr Rosemary Athayde’s report, showing that running a business while still at school or university almost doubles your chances of being your own boss later in life, was launched at a special event in Downing Street marking 50 years of Young Enterprise. Read more about Rosemary’s findings on pages 10 and 11.

Professor Penny Darbyshire

Professor Robert Blackburn and Dr Rosemary Athayde

Dr John Tribe

Dr Stuart Archbold

Business and Law learning and teaching prizes

Business and Law students were invited to vote for their most effective lecturer. Prizes were awarded for excellence and innovation in any area of teaching and learning. The winners were:

Accounting and finance1st place: Dr Mark Farmer2nd place: Jeremy Fernando

Informatics and operations management1st place: Dr Daniel Russell2nd place: Dr Ki-Soon Hwang

Law1st place: Mark Saunders2nd place: Dr Gregory Durston

Leadership, organisation and human resource management1st place: Kerstin Alfes2nd place: James O’Brien

Strategy, marketing and entrepreneurship1st place: George Masikunas2nd place: Mark Anderson

In the shadow of dinosaurs

Kingston Law School’s Dr John Tribe gave a lecture at the Insolvency Lawyers’ Association annual dinner at London’s Natural History Museum. His lecture, ‘Punishment and Insolvency: a historical overview – should modern policy take a more punitive approach to debtor misconduct?’, was presented to more than 500 members and guests at the prestigious black-tie event. Professor Matthew Humphreys MBE, head of Kingston Law School, said: “This public lecture is a great accolade for John, proving yet again that Kingston Law School and its scholars are at the forefront of their respective subjects. We will continue to impact on policy making and development at the highest levels.”

Dr Gregory Durston


Business School2012 hiGhLiGhtS

International accreditations awarded

European Foundation for Management (EFMD) The high quality of Kingston Business School programmes at international level was confirmed in June when EFMD awarded the maximum five year EPAS re-accreditation to four Kingston Business School courses: the BA in Business Management; BA in International Business; Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) and the MSc in International Business. The Business School also holds accreditation for its doctoral programmes (DBA).

The Association of MBAs (AMBA)Kingston Business School has recently received AMBA re-accreditation for a further five years, the maximum that can be awarded, classing our programmes among the best in the world. We were the first business school to receive triple accreditation from AMBA for our MBA, DBA and masters in International Business Management programmes, and are still only one of three to receive this accolade. Kingston’s Moscow MBA – run in collaboration with the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RPANE) – also achieved five-year re-accreditation from AMBA, the world’s impartial authority on postgraduate management education.

Kingston MBA among the best in Russia

Kingston Business School’s MBA course in Moscow has been named one of the best in

Russia. The programme was ranked second among 20 Russian MBAs in a prestigious league table produced by Russian national business newspaper Kommersant, having previously been ranked number one by the newspaper Izvestia, and by the business journal Company Secrets.

Climbing the league tables

Starting salaries Kingston graduates continue to push themselves and their University up the league tables, with our business studies graduates receiving the 15th highest starting salary in the UK, and our accounting graduates the sixth highest.

Entrepreneurial graduates Kingston had the highest number of graduate start-up companies of any UK higher education institution in 2010–2011, according to the latest higher education business and community interaction survey. With 179 start-ups, Kingston is 19 ahead of the next best, having already topped the table the previous academic year. We were also first for the number of staff employed by graduate start-ups for the past two years, and, in 2010–2011, were second for turnover.

Eduniversal Masters RankingSeveral of Kingston’s masters programmes featured in a ranking of the world’s best business and management masters and MBA programmes. The Eduniversal Masters Ranking 2012–13 evaluated 20,000 programmes from 153 countries, based on reputation with employers, graduate salary levels and student satisfaction.

New Kingston Business School officially opened

The fantastic new £26million Kingston Business School building was officially opened in April by Willie Walsh, chief executive of the International Airlines Group (IAG) and former British Airways boss. Read more on pages 14–15.

Honorary doctorates

Last year we awarded two Honorary Doctorates of Letters in recognition of outstanding contributions to business and entrepreneurship.

Apprentice and Countdown TV star Nick Hewer “has made an impressive contribution to promoting entrepreneurship in this country,” said Dr Sunitha Narendran, head of the Department of

Leadership, Human Resources Management and Organisation, “giving back to society through his vigour and commitment to helping make a difference to those born into less privileged circumstances.”

Yoganathan Ratheesan is a Kingston graduate who heads up the billion-dollar mobile company Lebara, one of Europe’s fastest-growing mobile operations, which he co-founded more than 10 years ago.

Today Lebara has over four-million customers, 1,000 employees, operations in eight countries, and a vision to be the brand of choice for one-billion people worldwide by 2020. In 2008, the Lebara Foundation was established to improve the quality of life and future prospects of children and their families. Eventually, Yoganathan and his co-founders want to donate half of their wealth to the Foundation.

Tan Sri Francis Teoh Sock Ping was admitted as the first member of Kingston University’s new Court of Benefactors in recognition of his generous support. Tan Sri Francis recently

donated £500,000 to fund the YTL Chair in Innovation and Technology Management, held by Professor Audley Genus at Kingston Business School.

Willie Walsh opening the new Kingston Business School

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Law School2012 hiGhLiGhtS

Kingston Law School moves home

The Law School moved to its new home in Kenry House in December, as part of the £50million first phase of investment in the University’s estate. The Law School now benefits from more space and better facilities as well as a permanent home for the Muir Hunter Museum of Bankruptcy. The move also allows the Stable Block, our old home, to be refurbished as part of the next £80million phase of improvements.

Community Legal Advice Centre

The Kingston University Community Legal Advice Centre (KUCLAC), run by Kingston Law School students for local individuals, charities, businesses and groups, opened its doors to the public in October. The Centre, which provides free legal advice through an appointment-based one-to-one service, is funded by the University’s Opportunities Fund and a donation from a Law School alumnus. Professional volunteers from the Kingston legal community and Law School staff provide guidance to the students, who carry out research as well as helping clients.

“The Law School had been looking for ways to better serve the community while also giving our students opportunities to enhance their skills,” said founder

Robert Sugden. “A legal advice service ticks those boxes, especially at a time when Legal Aid cuts are making it harder for people to access legal advice.”

Feedback from our clients has been very encouraging, who praise the professionalism of the service and the client care they have received from our student advisers. More information about the service is available at www.kingston.ac.uk/law/legaladvice

Masters of mediation

Kingston Law School reinforced its reputation as the focus of mediation in UK higher education with Professor Matthew Humphreys and Mark Saunders qualifying as mediators in 2012.

The Law School now has seven trained and qualified mediators contributing to the School’s Mediation Centre, which offers a free service to staff, students and local residents.

Patient professionalism

Being patient and placid are not normally characteristics learnt at law schools, but they are some of the useful attributes students gain at Kingston through the professional skills competitions they take part in. These competitions included mooting, client interviewing and negotiation.

In November, we were delighted to host the 5th National Mediation Competition at Kingston Hill. Teams from universities across the UK used their mediation skills to help two parties resolve a deadlock that they were unable to resolve, despite there often being a fairly obvious solution when viewed from outside. The panel of judges included experienced practitioners such as Paul Randolph, a barrister and highly successful mediator known for his patience and perseverance in resolving the most intractable of disputes.

“Professional skills competitions benefit students by placing their substantive studies in context, allowing them to develop practical skills,” said Mark Saunders, principal lecturer and organiser of the National Mediation Competition. “Mediation is something practising lawyers are increasingly called on to participate in. While law students rarely need to be taught how to problem solve, or encouraged to express their opinions, competitions such as these allow them to learn effectiveness in a range of professional contexts, including the ability to be patient, sensitive and placid.”

Staff PhD successes

Vincenzo Bavoso, Carolyn Johnston, Nicola Rees and John Tribe, all lecturers in the Law School, achieved their PhDs in 2012. Each was a real personal achievement, and all the more remarkable as they were working at the same time.

Kenry House – the Law School’s new home

Pamela Sellman and Paul Randolph


Research plays a very important role in the Business School, which has an international reputation for the

quality of its research. We have a vibrant research community where staff and research students work alongside associates from government and industry.

Professor Robert Blackburn at the House of Lords

Director of research at Kingston Business School, Professor Robert Blackburn has been appointed as a specialist adviser to the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) House of Lords Select Committee. The committee’s role is to consider how the government can help SMEs export more products and services, and to recommend action. Professor Blackburn, who has extensive expertise in the SME sector, said: “I see it as a great honour for myself and also for Kingston Business School – it really shows how well respected and far-reaching the work we do is.”

Professor Audley Genus Professor Genus, the YTL Professor of Innovation and Technology Management, has extensive expertise in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship, technology policy and strategy, and new approaches for stimulating ‘green’ innovation in firms and communities.

The findings were presented at a one-day conference in February 2013.

The Smart Communities project, an innovative community action research project on reducing energy consumption in north Kingston, is now in its second year, with the results due at the end of 2013.

The Group, in collaboration with St George’s, University of London and Royal Holloway, University of London, has also been researching the self-management of type-1 diabetes among teenagers.

The group was also awarded three research grants in 2012: • an Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Council (EPSRC) award for research on organisational adaptation to flood risk;

• an EPSRC award to co-ordinate the Digital Economy Sustainable Society Network; and

• an Arts and Humanities Research Council award to develop a research proposal on sustainable communities.

Award-winning research

A paper by research assistant Eva Kašperová and Dr John Kitching from Kingston’s Small Business Research Centre won recognition from the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in November. ‘(Dis) Embodied Entrepreneurs: a critique of entrepreneurial identity studies’ was awarded ‘Best paper in Critical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship Track’.

research in Kingston Business School

reSeArCh

We have a vibrant research community where staff and research students work alongside associates from government and industry.

Three new professors join the Small Business Research Centre (SBRC)

Professor Dirk De ClercqProfessor De Clercq, who holds a PhD in Business Administration, joins the SBRC, where he extends his research in entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital, firm internationalisation and cross-country studies.

Professor George Saridakis Professor Saridakis is a newly appointed professor of small business and entrepreneurship. His current research encompasses the economics of small firms and entrepreneurship, and empirical work in the field of the economics of crime.

KAVERN project: what makes entrepreneurs successful

Professor Audley Genus’s research into the secrets of entrepreneurs’ success began in 2012, when he introduced the Kingston Audio-Visual Entrepreneurship Resources and Network (KAVERN) to build a bank of evidence about the activities of entrepreneurs. The research aims to increase understanding about the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs, and how these differ according to their background and the sector in which they operate.

Behaviour and Practice Research Group

The Behaviour and Practice Research Group had a busy 2012. Researchers from the ground-breaking CHARM project, which investigates whether we can shape individual behaviour by communicating what other people do, analysed three case studies looking at how to: • reduce energy consumption; • increase walking; and• encourage sustainable behaviours.

Professor Robert Blackburn

Professor Lynn Martin and Eva Kašperová

Professor Audley Genus

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approaches to freedom of association’ with Victoria Lambropoulos at the Voices at Work Australasian Meeting, RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia.

The TEEL Group hosted two conferences in 2012. In May, a Global Education Leaders Programme (GELP) Conference on Crisis in Labour Law took place at Kingston University, organised by Professor Gwyneth Pitt. In November, a Conference on Climate Change Governance was held at Schroders in the City of London, organised by Dr Stephen Turner. Dr Turner presented a paper, as did his colleague Dr Nadia Kalogeropoulou. Head of Kingston Law School Professor Matthew Humphreys and Michael Wynn also chaired sessions.

Doctoral completions in 2012

In 2012, Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School saw 12 doctoral completions. We congratulate the following graduates on their achievements.

Doctor of Business AdministrationDAVIES Gareth thesis: The Impact of Organisational Culture, Learning and Knowledge Development on PerformanceGONZALEZ BREE Francisco thesis: An Examination of Drivers of Attitudes and Intention to Use ATMs for Cash DepositsHUDSON Philip George thesis: Understanding why Beyond Budgeting has not been widely adoptedKIWANUKA Keefa thesis: An Evaluation of the Impact of the Competitive Pressures of New Public Management on the Voluntary Sector Organisations’ EffectivenessKOSHY Jacob Kalaparampil thesis: An exploration of the use in practice of credit risk models

Doctor of PhilosophyGROVES Winnifred Ngum thesis: Diagnosing and prescribing by nurses in different healthcare settings: perceptions and experiences of key stakeholders in CameroonKULDILOKE Somsawai thesis: Determinants of consumer intention towards ethical buyingLI Zelin thesis: A Socio-Technical Approach for Mobile Health Informatics Together with Organisational Change: Case Studies in Community Healthcare Service Centres in ChinaRACHELE Judith Smith thesis: Effective Diversity ManagementREES Nicola Jane thesis: The Labyrinthine Law of Disposal of the DeadWESTON Alia thesis: Creativity in the Informal Economy of ZimbabweXU Weiwei thesis: Career Management: A Study of the Chinese Film Production Industry

Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School are both research active for the principle reasons of exploring real-world issues to benefit our students, practitioners of business and law, and society. here we look at just some of the research areas of 2012.

research in Kingston Law School

Research is a crucial element within the mission of Kingston Law School. There’s a strong research culture across

the School, which underpins our high-quality teaching. It forms both an essential part of the day-to-day intellectual activities of our academic staff and the development strategy of the School as a whole. The role of research within the legal profession continues to grow as areas of law gain more prominence in everyday life, and so does the scope of the research we perform. All staff are engaged in research and scholarship, and participate in the wider academic research community. Particular areas of research strength include criminal and civil justice; public, European and environmental law; insolvency law and debtor protection; medical law and ethics; and employment law.

Research is a crucial element within the mission of Kingston Law School. There’s a strong research culture across the School, which underpins our high-quality teaching.

Kingston Law School presence at conferences in 2012

Kingston Law School’s academics organised and hosted several international conferences in 2012, as well as presenting papers at many others. Professor Penny Darbyshire, Dr Carolyn Johnston and Susan Watson all presented papers at the International Conference on Law and Society in Hawaii in the summer. The theme of the conference was socio-legal conversations across a sea of islands.

Michael Wynn, director of the Trade Environmental and Employment Law (TEEL) Group, presented papers at several international conferences, including ‘The European Directive on Temporary Agency Work: Propagating markets in temporary labour’ at the Conference on Temporary Work, Agencies and Unfree Labour: Insecurity in the New World of Work in Montreal, Canada; and ‘Unfair labour practices and labour power: comparisons of Australian and UK


International work organisation

Since 1997, Kingston University has played a leading role in developing the UK Work Organisation Network, linking employers, trade unions and government with those researching new ways of working to meet today’s competitive challenges. The European Commission is now providing three years’ funding for a new European Workplace Innovation Network, involving partners in all 27 EU member states, plus EEA countries such as Norway. Our established university partners are active in this, including the University of Agder (Norway), Linnaeus University (Sweden), and Kazimiero Simonaviciaus University (Lithuania).

Students’ Quality Circles

Over the past three years, Students’ Quality Circles (SQC) at Kingston have piloted new approaches to higher education, with student-led and self-managed projects. Our students have begun to change the culture of learning at Kingston Hill and have represented Kingston Business School at an Erasmus Intensive Programme on Ethical Management in France, and spoken at SQC conventions in India and Pakistan. The SQC has created interest in Sweden, where both the nuclear industry and furniture-maker IKEA are looking at developing Staff Quality Circles.

Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade

Kingston’s relationship with the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (SIFT), which specialises in teaching China’s top international business professionals, has developed and matured over the past couple of years with more exchanges of students and staff.

A Business School trio lectured to two ‘experimental’ first-year cohorts for six weeks last summer. Tony Sims, principal lecturer in informatics and operations management, and Christopher Kronenberg, lecturer in strategy, marketing and entrepreneurship, were joined by Kingston MBA alumnus, David Knull, managing director of social health apps company Sanosync. They were warmly welcomed by the dean of SIFT’s business school, Dean Wei, and treated with a great deal of care and respect.

David, Tony and Christopher were thoroughly impressed with the students’ academic level and their appetite for a Western academic perspective. They were intrigued by the students’ desire to address topics around government restrictions in society; topics that we usually perceive as taboo in China. The Chinese teacher who assisted David told him that it is perfectly acceptable to address such issues in an academic setting.

Building on relationships that began in 2010, David was introduced to some members of the local Shanghai business community, gaining a truly unique and fascinating insight into Chinese business practices and the distinctive notion of Chinese social connections (Guānxi). David was the guest of honour at a gathering of a local syndicate of technology business owners at their exclusive venue in the former home of Chinese Vice-President Rong Yiren. Fortunately David was able to use his knowledge of the language and hurriedly learnt Chinese dining etiquette.

We anticipate continuing to develop the enriching relationship between Kingston and SIFT in the coming year, and to expand Kingston Business School’s connections in China.

Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School have a strategy to extend their international footprint through collaborating with high-quality international partners, as well as attracting international students to study at Kingston. Associate dean Dr Stuart Archbold revisits some of the developments in 2012.

iNterNAti NAL NewS

Alumni event in Athens, hosted by the British Ambassador

Visit to the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade

24

Alumni events in Athens, Moscow and Istanbul

The British Ambassador in Athens, Dr David Landsman OBE, hosted 250 alumni at the ever-popular annual Greek get-together in June. Kingston’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julius Weinberg, and a number of staff from Kingston Business School and the School of Engineering attended.

A new alumni gathering took place in Moscow last October, at the marvellous residence of the British Ambassador Tim Barrow CMG LVO MBE, which overlooks the Kremlin. The Vice-Chancellor and several University staff joined more than 200 alumni: many graduates of our Russian MBA programme. The sumptuous public rooms and the substantial balcony allowed us to enjoy our surroundings. It is an experience certain to be repeated in 2013.

Kingston Business School was also represented at the inaugural alumni event in Istanbul, reflecting the increasing numbers of students, particularly postgraduate students, coming to the University from Turkey. Dr Stuart Archbold, director of Kingston Business School, and Janice Halsey, from Kingston’s International Office, attended the event, held in a traditional Turkish restaurant with stunning views over the Bosphorus. Around 20 alumni turned up, and we are hoping to host an even larger event in 2013.

For news about alumni events, see our alumni pages at www.kingston.ac.uk/alumni

International collaboration

Our strategy to extend our international-footprint through collaborating with high-quality international partners, as well as attracting international students to study at Kingston, is moving forward. As well as ERASMUS and Study Abroad partnerships developed at University level, the Faculty currently has collaborative partnerships in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Mumbai, Moscow, Shanghai and Bangkok. Discussions are taking place with potential partners in Austria, France, Germany, India, Nigeria, Norway, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

International visits, links and exchanges

Janja Hojnik from Maribor University, Slovenia, visited Kingston Law School recently, and gave a very interesting public lecture on ‘buy national’ campaigns and their compliance with international trade law and EU law. The School has a link with Maribor University, which enables staff exchanges, and Eric Jeanpierre, the Law School’s Erasmus and Study Abroad co-ordinator, is currently a visiting lecturer there.

Professor Markus Frischutt from the Management Centre Innsbruck (MCI), Austria, another of the Law School's partner institutions, will visit the School this spring including delivering a lecture.

Dr Hiroko Onishi, a senior lecturer at Kingston Law School, visited Deusto

in Spain in September with a group of students, and presented her research into intellectual property law.

The Law School has student exchanges with Lund University, Sweden, and is developing links with Victoria University in Australia. The School is also developing an international online community between law students at Kingston and three African universities: Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Hargeisa University in Somaliland; and Vaal University in South Africa.

Web developments

A new ‘Globalisation and law’ section has been developed on the Kingston Law School website, presenting the work of the Globalisation and Law Group. It includes short essays and articles by former and current students. Take a look at law.kingston.ac.uk/research/globalisation-and-law-group

The British Ambassador’s residence in Moscow made the perfect venue

Future OpportunitiesSuggestions for further opportunities for international collaborations can be directed to Dr Stuart Archbold at s.archbold@�kingston.ac.uk


Master of Business Administration (MBA) students who graduated with distinctionThomas BoehmeFrances BrownCarl GrinterJulia Hicks Niccola IrwinNicola KirbyAnnaclaire KletteGraham StallwoodAndreas Solomou (Institute of Banking Studies Cyprus)Georgios Ioannou (Athens Business School)Kiriaki Farini (Thessaloniki Business School)Christos Mantoudis (Thessaloniki Business School)Alexandros Tsatsos (Thessaloniki Business School)Viktor Arshinov (The Academy of National Economy, Moscow)Maxim Mozgovoy (The Academy of National Economy, Moscow)Dmitry Obsharov (The Academy of National Economy, Moscow)

Viacheslav Smolenskiy (The Academy of National Economy, Moscow)Oksana Vorontsova (The Academy of National Economy, Moscow)

Postgraduate students who graduated with distinction

Advertising & the Creative Economy MA Film Making & the Creative Economy MA Erica Cammarata Sebastian Whyte

Human Resource Management PgDip International Human Resource Management MScSaskia Lawley Owen Severn Lindsey Barnes

International Business Management MA/MSc International Business Management with Entrepreneurship MScAnh Ngoc MaiNitin Shukla

Jon HetlandCaroline MørchChristoffer SejerstedKevin EmelifeKusalin Lunjakornkul

Internal Communications Management PgDip Oliver Howard

Law PgDip Oliver Leslie

Management Studies MA/PgDip Katie BarnesRachel HowesHelen JeffreyBenjamin LakerKatie MillsDaniel ShurlockMartin Hodges (Veolia programme)Maria Kapiki

Management & Business Studies Research MScRahul Chawdhary Benedetta Crisafulli Tina Miedtank John Pereira

Undergraduate students who graduated with first‑class honours

Accounting & Finance BA (hons)Georgios AchmanoglouMaahinur Ali Jahangir Alom Shivani Anand Athanasios BarkasMandeep Bath Mohamed Bharwani Alexander Cole Dawid Domagala Rakel Foti Charles Furnell Zarange Ghawsi Shahidul Hassan Haider Kazzaz Chrysanthi LagouTatjana Lukic Omar Makkawy Sarbjeet Mann Humzha Memon Kyriakos Merelis

StUDeNt AChieVemeNtS

26

At the Business and Law January graduations, the following students graduated with first-class honours or distinctions. we would like to recognise their efforts once again and wish them, and all recent graduates, the best of success with their futures.

Dimosthenis Michalas Charanjit Multani Athina Papadimitriou Sinita Rajmohan Nishanth Rameshwaran Jeyaruby Shanmugaratnam Georgios Sivridis Alie SoufanMark Tewkesbury Mathuran Thevakanthan Aikaterini Tsinou Sotiria TsiogkaZoeliyana Zoelkifli

Business Administration BBA (hons)Chandni Kirpalani Mohammad Shahid Rohan Abhyankar (SVKM Mumbai)Anirudh Baliga (SVKM Mumbai)

Business Administration BA (hons) Ioanna Kefala Nikolaos Notaridis Panagiota Sivri

Business Management BA (hons)Khalid Al OtaibaNicolas Appadurai

Unless otherwise stated, graduates studied at Kingston Business School or Kingston Law School, UK. Graduates who studied Kingston qualifications at our partner business schools in Moscow, Greece and India also attended our recent graduation.

Nadia Bazara Rochelle Etienne Benjamin Graystone Bikram Gurung Al-Karim Lalji Clare Mcneil Chi-Yan Ngai Ida Sjostrom Abbas Taki Khatija Variawa Braynard Zara

Business Management Practice BA (hons)Jenny Coombe Linda CorcoranAngela GrantJames King Susan Lockett Vicky O’reilly David Paver Tamsin Pearce Louise Porter Rebecca Scouse Katie Shepherd Greta Skripskaite David Somorin Fay Warner

Business Studies BA (hons)Natasha Bates Satnam Bhogal Nicola Brookfield Aidan Bruynseels Ije Davis-Ihekweme Lauren Ferrary Danielle Mouncer Andrew Santiago Jak Taylor Luke Uijtenhaak

Business with Law BA (hons)Tabitha Lawrence

Entrepreneurship & Management BA (hons)Juliet Koteng Jacob MedinaLoell Wolfries

Human Resource Management BA (hons)Izabela Leczynska

International Business BA (hons)Visarda Curraj

Marketing Communications & Advertising BA (hons)James Mcconnell

Marketing Management BA (hons)Arlit Kastrati Samantha Keating

Law LLBMays Al-Juboori Laura Dugan Armand Dyrma Emma LindnerDiana Nankabirwa

Law with International Law LLBAzra Karup


2012 saw business and law students accomplish a range of extraordinary achievements. individually and collectively, within their academic studies and as extracurricular activities, our students continue to strive for excellence. we would like to share some of these successes with you.

Students’ Quality CirclesThe Kingston Hawks, a Students’ Quality Circle, won a top international accolade for their work on communications between academics and students in the 2012 ICT Seagulls competition. Team leaders Waqas Ahmad, Jack Holmes and Lauren Jacobs from Kingston Business School were declared to have ‘the best university project’ and ‘the most committed university circle’. Students’ Quality Circles involve six to 12 students working together to tackle a practical problem related to their learning. The Kingston Hawks circle focused on course representatives and the creative use of social networking. Later in the year, Waqas Ahmad represented Kingston at the 4th National Convention on Student Quality Circles in Pakistan. In 2014, Kingston University will host the International Convention on Student Quality Circles (ICSQC).

Marketing students – great ambassadors for KingstonA student project by MA Marketing and MA Marketing Communications & Advertising students Andrea De Rosa, Aneliya Angelova, Dmytro Koshevoi, Noora Morefield and Patricia Bendsoe has been praised by the chief executive of the Neurological Commissioning Support (NCS). The project involved the students producing a marketing review and report for NCS, a not-for-profit third-sector organisation aiming to influence the NHS on the provision of improved services for people living with a neurological condition. Chief executive Sue Thomas described the collaboration as: “a truly productive and rewarding experience. I would not hesitate to contact Kingston University marketing students again, or to recommend them to other organisations. I do hope the students gained as much from the project as we did.”

Getting the most out of KingstonKingston students have been recognised for their involvement in extracurricular and non-core academic activities that develop their experience and skills for an increasingly competitive jobs market. Career Chase, which encourages university students to expand their experience beyond their degree course, awarded two Kingston Business School students a ‘Starred Career Chase’. Anique Rehal’s success came from organising work experience, volunteering at events and joining the Business Society, while Sophia Rendora was recognised for taking part in a two-day Bright Futures entrepreneurship programme and for her volunteering work with charities.

Two Kingston Law School students were recognised for making a positive start in the University’s Quest Scheme. Daniel Bellows was a medal bearer for the Olympic and Paralympic games, became the Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) Social Policy Volunteer of the year when he volunteered at the Kingston CAB and worked in the Kingston University Students’ Union bar. Ebru Bayir worked part-time as a legal assistant and caseworker at a criminal law solicitors, and arranged work experience at another solicitors, as well as working at the Kingston University Community Legal Advice Centre.

StUDeNt AChieVemeNtS

Rubbing shoulders with Richard BransonAs part of her masters, Somya Gulati undertook a management consultancy project for 3D virtual technology company Hoa2. Somya’s marketing and business plan so impressed her client, she was invited to represent them at the Virgin-sponsored UK Trade and Investment conferences in Delhi and Mumbai. The added bonus to all her hard work was meeting Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group.

Universities Business ChallengeA Kingston Law School team has reached the semi-finals of the IBM Universities Business Challenge. The Law Bees – students Elizabeth Fisher, Nayiri Keshishi, Shylaja Mohandas, Nora Neeva and Magie Awad – competed with undergraduates from across the UK. The competition challenges students to make critical business decisions for a series of simulated companies covering key business sectors. We wish the Law Bees all the best for the rest of the competition.Waqas Ahmad Lauren Jacobs

The Law Bees

Somya Gulati (far left) with Richard Branson

2012 saw business and law students accomplish a range of extraordinary achievements.

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BUSiNeSS SerViCeS

Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School offer top quality services to business including:

For more information about the services Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School could offer your organisation, please contact Kathryn Elliott on 020 8417 5632 or [email protected]

• Executive education and continuing professional development (CPD) including in-company training and development, work-based learning and tailored qualifications;

• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships – a government-funded scheme where academics work with a business (usually an SME) to help solve a strategically important challenge;

• Research and consultancy – we have 120 academics with experience across a range of sectors, as well as numerous specialist research centres and groups;

• Work placements, MBA and postgraduate consultancy projects.

here’s a taste of some of the projects we worked on in 2012:

GE InternationalProfessor Yannis Georgellis and Dr Stephen Gourlay from Kingston Business School delivered a bespoke workshop at GE International’s HR Managers Conference in October 2012. The workshop centred on adaptability and emotional resilience, which were identified as issues of interest to delegates in a pre-session questionnaire used to shape the workshop. It included psychological theories of adaptation; an interactive session on emotional resilience, contextualised for HR managers; and a practical tool to help staff build emotional resilience.

Amey PlcLast summer, Amey Plc commissioned Kingston’s Centre for Research in Employment, Skills and Society (CRESS) to undertake an in-depth and systematic analysis of their staff surveys. The purpose was to improve management’s understanding of staff views and their experiences of working at Amey. This understanding is helping the organisation build a company-wide employee engagement programme linked to their 2013 KPIs and objectives.

Property Solutions (UK) LtdResearch into the accounting treatment of the multi-billion-pound annual service charges paid by commercial firms leasing property in the UK had a major impact on the property services firm involved in the project. David Barrass, managing director of Property Solutions (UK) Ltd, said the knowledge transfer partnership resulted in a substantial increase in his firm’s revenue and gained extensive media coverage. The project, involving Dr Andrew Holt as academic superviser and Dr Stuart Archbold as lead academic, was independently assessed and awarded a grade of ‘very good’ by the government’s Technology Strategy Board last year.

KBC Advanced TechnologiesKingston’s two-year knowledge transfer partnership with KBC Advanced Technologies, a global energy consulting group, was awarded the highest grade of ‘outstanding’ by the Technology Strategy Board. The project introduced a major change initiative to improve the management of organisational knowledge between KBC’s offices in Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. This was achieved by reviewing current practice and implementing new working processes and systems. Now KBC have adopted a social networking approach, using Yammer, which acts as a starting point to share knowledge that is stored on the company’s intranet. Sandeep Krishnappa – global knowledge manager at KBC said: “I see this project continuing for another three years to embed the new ideas throughout the organisation and provide the company with a competitive advantage in a challenging global marketplace.”

Kathryn Elliott


CAreerS AND emPLoYABiLitY

Spotlight on careers and employability

the University’s Careers and employability team worked with alumni and employers to provide another extensive programme of events to help students battle their way to success through a tough economic climate. employers are still tightening their belts and making students and graduates work harder for their precious opportunities. this competition helps to maintain the team’s drive to reach out to as many students as possible during and after their time at Kingston University.

We have also expanded the range of activities we offer students. We co-ordinated the participation of 40 final-year and postgraduate Business students in a leadership programme, which enabled them to meet with young, inspiring leaders from across London. We supported 12 teams of students to enter the 2012 IBM Universities Challenge, seeing one team, ‘The Law Bees’, reach the semi-final in December (see page 28). We hope to be celebrating their victory in February!

So far this academic year, the team has run 24 employer-focused events, with 16 of these open to our current Business and Law students. We built on the success of some of last years’ events such as ‘Retail Careers Uncovered’, which, this year, included Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Apple and Arcadia as exhibitors. New events were created to delve into sectors not previously covered, such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and insurance and risk, with representatives from leading companies including Unilever, L’Oreal, Heinz, AXA, Zurich and Reckitt Benckiser. These were a real hit with the students.

Talks have been given by a range of fantastic employers, and also by Sir Trevor McDonald OBE and Simon Dixon, an accounting, banking and finance guru (and a Kingston alumnus).

This year’s ‘JobStart’ programme featured industry representatives from HSBC, News International and John Lewis, training Business final-year and postgraduate students in interview, assessment centre and application techniques. The ‘Law & Order’ programme helped focus Law students on career options and relevant training, including sessions with the law firm Thomas Eggar LLP.

With widening participation being such a core aim of the University, the team were pleased to take on four black and minority ethnic (BME) student interns from HR and marketing programmes to work with us on various projects. This helped the students gain confidence and grow professionally. We hope to continue this scheme over the next semester to reach out to more students.

Thank you

Most of our employability activity relies on external support from the local and national employers and our alumni. If you’ve been involved in anything this academic year, we want to say a huge thank you! We are always looking for new and innovative ways of working with employers and alumni, and any ideas are welcome. If you would like to get involved with any activities, we would love to hear from you – please contact Kingston’s talent development and employability manager: Tonia Galati at t.galati@�kingston.ac.uk

With widening participation being such a core aim of the University, the team were pleased to take on four black and minority ethnic (BME) student interns from HR and marketing programmes to work with us on various projects.

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worK PLACemeNtS

help a student, and your business

“While on placement I was in a ‘real’ job – if I wasn’t there then the business would have hired a permanent member to join the team. I was given a lot of responsibility, which has enabled me to really build my CV and, although I originally said I wanted to do a placement to help my graduate job applications, I was accepted on to GE’s graduate Financial Management Programme, which means that I haven’t had to do any other graduate job applications anyway!

Kingston University is always seeking good employers who might offer a placement to one of our students. we particularly welcome offers from Kingston alumni. Placements offer a win-win for students and for employers in these tough economic times.

Placements make a real difference to students: as well as increasing their chances of securing a job when they graduate, we find that students who work for a year in business as part of their degree also obtain a better class of degree – for many, a 2:1 or a first.

Of course, it isn’t just the students who benefit. Companies who take Kingston students on placement also win – gaining another pair of hands, perhaps to work on a project they haven’t had the resource for previously, a fresh approach to their business, the opportunity for their staff to grow as managers and mentors, and the possibility of recruiting a graduate who already knows their business.

Natasha Turner, now in her final year of her BA in Business Studies, shares her experience of doing a placement.

“For me, choosing to do a placement was a no-brainer. Despite having had plenty of part-time jobs from the age of 14, I knew that they weren’t going to make my CV stand out against the thousands of other applicants going for each graduate job.

“After 30 placement applications and lots of help and support from the Placement Office, I finally secured a placement at General Electric (GE) working within their Home Lending subsidiary in Watford. I had applied for a finance role and I was put in the Tax and Treasury team.

“In my role I was responsible for looking after the loans we had with other GE businesses. I had to calculate the interest repayments on these loans, produce the relevant documents and take these documents to the chief financial officer. I would explain the transactions to him and then he would sign these off with his approval. I was responsible for making sure the transactions went through properly, and then had to book them in the General Ledger. Some transactions had to go to the Board of Directors for approval, and twice I took the opportunity to go to present the items at the Board myself.

“As well as being offered a graduate job, I really believe that while on placement I learnt so many soft skills that simply cannot be taught at university. I have learnt what it is like to work in an office – the accepted norms and the definite don’ts! I would recommend doing a placement to everyone; the year is completely what you make of it!”

At Kingston Hill we have a dedicated team who help students with the whole process of applying for an internship in their penultimate year – we may also be able to help your business, whether large or small, by finding the right intern for you.

If you would like to learn more about how a placement student may benefit your organisation, please get in touch with placements co-ordinator Maggie Boyden on 020 8417 5102 or email [email protected]

“As well as being offered a graduate job, I really believe that while on placement I learnt so many soft skills that simply cannot be taught at university.”


In 2001 my career took a change of direction when I moved to the Cayman Islands with my family, as an attorney in a Cayman law firm specialising in the law of trusts. I joined the offshore law firm of Appleby in 2003, becoming a partner in 2006. Now practice group head of Private Client and Trusts for the Appleby Group, I continue to specialise in trust law advice and trust litigation.

While I could never have predicted when I left Kingston that I would spend a significant portion of my working life overseas, I do know that the education I received there was a key part of the journey.

His Honour Judge Ebraham Mooncey – Law BA 1981

Getting a law degree from Kingston meant that I would not be running my parent’s grocery shop. Intentions to become a solicitor were ended by unsuitable work experience and made me chance a career at

the Bar. Words like ‘don’t’ always encouraged! I had nothing to lose, given my starting point.

Called to the Bar and working ‘second’ jobs in any spare time to survive the early years, eventually I secured a seat in a small set. I helped build up chambers and built up my practice on the basis of being able to get on with a variety of people and being ‘a safe pair of hands’. Ultimately, ending up in the best chambers at 7 Bedford Row, I was appointed recorder in 2004 and, in 2009, full-time circuit judge doing criminal cases in the Crown Court.

Kingston, and in particular Bob Upex, saw in the young me someone who, though not the brightest, put in the right environment would potentially flourish. Encountering good people who influenced and helped me along the way and good fortune were all crucial. Memories of being a student and student disc jockey still linger. Kingston has become bigger, stronger and better since my days, and looks good on any CV as an excellent place to study.

ALUmNi AChieVemeNtS

Simon Goedhals – Law LLB 2012Although working full time during my law degree at Kingston, I took part in as many extracurricular activities as possible (to make myself stand out to employers). I served as president of the Law Society;

BPP Law School liaison officer; student member on the Board of Advisers; student tutor on the Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme; and participated in lots of workshops, moots and student programmes. I also did work experience for an in-house legal department and a mid-sized regional law firm.

Three months after graduating I secured a training contract with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of the six largest and most profitable law firms in the world. The firm is paying my fees for the Legal Practice Course and providing a substantial grant for my living expenses. When I begin my two years’ training at the firm in February 2014, I will experience a wide range of legal practice and get the opportunity to spend six months at one of its 28 offices around the world.

Carlos de Serpa Pimentel – Law LLB 1988

Kingston provided a great platform to launch a legal career. The Kingston Law Society offered a strong focal point: mooting and interviewing competitions stand out, as do Law Society

Balls. I then took an LLM in European Law, followed by the Bar Vocational Course, 12 months’ pupillage and 10 years practising in Chancery Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn. I also spent six months as a ‘stagiaire’ in Brussels at the European Commission from 1991 to 1992 on a Bar Council scholarship.

Stephanie Peskett – MA in Human Resource Strategy & Change 2008

After six years working in learning and human resources, I decided to consolidate my experience with a qualification.

I joined the Kingston programme while on maternity leave with my first child – when he was just seven weeks old. It was the best career and personal move I've taken. At a point when many new parents, especially women, are wondering about their identity and balancing the needs of family and career, my studies allowed me to express my ideas, evaluate my future career and grow in confidence.

On completing my MA and maternity leave, I wasn’t sure what the job market would make of me, but my investment in the MA paid immediate dividends – I more than doubled my salary straight away.

A year, and another child later, I joined Unilever as global learning manager for leadership development. I develop the talent to meet Unilever’s compelling vision – to double its size and halve its environmental impact – by working with partner organisations, business schools and executive educators to design and deliver leadership development programmes across the business globally. Unilever is the top employer for graduate talent in 20 key countries, and frequently ranks in the top 10 companies for leadership talent globally.

I couldn't be in a better place, and my experience at Kingston was a major contributing factor in getting me here.

many of our alumni stay in regular contact after graduating. for some it’s to say ‘thank you’ and ‘look what i’ve achieved’, for others it’s wanting to help current students through mentoring, lecturing or offering work placements, or for the networking opportunities. irrespective of why, we always enjoy hearing what our graduates are up to. here’s a little taster...

Business alumniLaw alumni

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Ashley Baker – MSc in International Business Management 2012

The knowledge and skill-set I acquired during my time at Kingston definitely helped me in the next stage of my career. Kingston allowed me to relive the glory days of my undergraduate

studies and also to achieve my goals. Don’t be fooled into thinking it was easy though – I had to put in a lot of hard work ... and it has paid off!

I am currently one of the first members of the Alltech Graduate Academy. I was selected out of a pool of more than 1,500 applicants as one of the inaugural participants in the program after a rigorous selection process. I have now joined the Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. team, the brewing and distilling division of the company, with the task of helping grow this sector tenfold in the coming years. I am really excited about the opportunity to apply my acquired skills to this position within Alltech. I believe Kingston has been instrumental in my success so far – the knowledge of markets, business and finance, coupled with the improved critical-thinking skills I have learned, have helped to transform me from simply being an educated person to an applied person.

olympic alumniKingston Business School and Kingston Law School alumni helped make the London 2012 olympics games ‘inspire a generation’. here are just a few of them.

Ed McKeever MBE – Accounting & Finance 2008Ed was awarded an MBE in the 2013 new year’s honours after powering his way to Olympic glory by winning gold in the K1 200m men’s kayak sprint. Ed returned to Kingston in October, accompanied by his world-beating kayak and gold medal, for a special evening in the new Kingston Business School building. Ed shared memories of his time at Kingston, tales from his Olympic summer and his plans to defend his Olympic title at the 2016 Rio games.

Graeme Mew – Law 1980Graeme Mew, known for his razor-sharp legal brain and devotion to sport, sat on the Olympic Games’ sports arbitration panel, which dealt with disputes such as doping allegations, false starts, nationality issues and qualifying criteria.

John Lunt – Management Studies 1988John, triathlete, marathon runner and managing director of multisport event management agency Human Race, was responsible for staging the Olympic triathlon in Hyde Park as its official competition manager.

Gareth Canning – Accounting & Finance 2008Gareth carried the flame in the Paralympic torch relay. Nominated by his coaches because “he inspires people”, Gareth plays football for the Chelsea Community Project – a team for athletes who have cerebral palsy, like Gareth, or are multi-disabled.

Human Resource Management studentsKingston Business School undergraduate and masters students took part in their very own marathon before the games started, by being involved in some of the 100,000 interviews to select Games Makers.

“I couldn’t be in a better place, and my experience at Kingston was a major contributing factor in getting me here.”

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Kingston Business SchoolT: +44 (0)20 8417 9000

Course enquiriesFor undergraduate course enquiriesE: ugadmissions@�kingston.ac.ukFor postgraduate course enquiriesE: businesspgenquiry@�kingston.ac.ukbusiness.kingston.ac.uk

Kingston Law SchoolT: +44 (0)20 8417 9000

Course enquiriesFor undergraduate course enquiriesE: ugadmissions@�kingston.ac.ukFor postgraduate course enquiriesE: lawpgenquiry@�kingston.ac.uklaw.kingston.ac.uk

Alumni enquiriesAnne KeetchT: +44 (0)20 8417 5668E: [email protected]

www.kingston.ac.ukKingston University London Kingston Hill campus Kingston Hill Kingston upon Thames Surrey KT2 7LB

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