Course title Business Research Skills Topic You have been asked

							Profiting from the Credit Crisis!

Project Co-ordinator:
Dr Lisa Bradley
Course Director Bsc (Hons) Business Finance and Investment

2008 has been as exciting and turbulent year in the financial markets, all the
basic components of a stimulating and relevant research area for the final years
on the BSc (Hons) Business Finance and Investment (BFI) on the Coleraine
Campus. From the Northern Rock crisis and the credit crunch, to volatility in
house prices and exchange rates, over sixty students have been relying on the
skills and theory they have developed throughout their degree to develop a
current research report fit for presentation to a panel of experts. It’s all part of a
student research project co-ordinated by Dr Lisa Bradley (School of Business,
Retail and Financial Services) and supported by the BFI course team. The best
projects were short listed for the final of the competition to compete for their
share of a final prize fund of over £1500. A number of experts from Invest NI, and
the banking and finance sector formed the panel that judged the presentations
decided “dragons den” style who walked away with the largest amount of cash.
Speaking about the project Sara Arbuthnot from Invest NI commented
“development of financial services is one of our target areas for foreign direct
investment (FDI) and we are delighted to be supporting the competition that is
encouraging research in this area.” Sara will be joined on the panel by Stephen
McAnee (H.A.Leslie & Co – a leading local Insurance Broker). Stephen is
particularly impressed at how the competition is encouraging the development of
links between upcoming graduates and Northern Ireland’s financial sector.
“Improving graduate employability and increasing their awareness of
opportunities available in financial services is important to the progress of the
local economy” commented Stephen. Other partners include the First Trust Bank,
Northern Bank, and Bank of Ireland.

The students battled it out on Wednesday 21st May 2008 at UUC with Liangqian
Li (Ann) securing the top prize of £500. Ann presented her perspective on what
Northern Ireland could learn from other prosperous financial centres and
successfully target FDI. All the prizes will be awarded at a special financial
services conference in Belfast on the 3rd June. The conference organised by Dr
Lisa Bradley, hosted in Invest NI headquarters Belfast and promised to be an
exciting event due to the presence of guest speaker Alison Donaldson, founder
and principal of Donaldson Legal Consulting. Alison has extensive derivatives
experience as well as a wealth of experience of a more general nature gained
over the years in the investment banking industry. Her presentation on “Financial
Markets: the impact of global change” will surely spark a lot of debate among the
delegates.

The project has been made possible by the additional support from the Higher
Education Innovation Fund (HEIF). Dr Bradley would particularly like to thank the
industrial partners, BFI staff and the Ulster Business Schools academic
enterprise team for making the event possible.




Standing from left: Gregory Smyth (First Trust Bank), Jim Herron (Bank of
Ireland), Stephen Mc Namee (H.A. Leslie & Co.)
Seated from left: Lisa Bradley (SBRFS), Sara Arbuthnot (Invest NI)
(Missing from photograph Gordon Keys, Northern Bank)