University College London

The implementation of sound quantitative actuarial models is a vital task to assess risk in insurance, finance, and other industries and professions. This course provides a self-contained introduction to both theoretical and practical implementation of various quantitative modelling techniques applicable to finance and insurance. The course combines diverse quantitative disciplines, from probability to statistics, from actuarial science to quantitative finance. Students are able to apply the acquired knowledge to evaluate various insurance products.

This course engages the past, present, and future of social anthropology and material culture studies. The course examines anthropology’s relationship to colonial practices asking whether its methods and concerns encourage complicity with power, or resistant forms of thinking. It explores the conditions for anthropology as an ethical praxis in the light of this earlier history, and looks at past and present contributions from feminism, queer and trans studies, and decolonial approaches. The second half of the course focuses on specific debates and topics, for example: multi-species anthropology, capitalism/neoliberalism, technology and infrastructure studies, the Anthropocene.   

This course provides a theoretical and practical overview on the economic "globalization," and the changes in international business over time, in the context of the continuous changing global economy trends. It emphasizes on international business strategy and development by integrating three key concepts. The first one is the international business which approaches business globalization, internationalization, and extroversion theoretically. The second one is strategy which extends the international business concept and theories with critical thinking on which, when, where and how shall be applied best. Furthermore, practical business development models, methods, and frameworks are presented to implement the selected international business strategy. The course covers all types of businesses, from the multinational firm to the start-up, aiming to sustain, develop, or achieve effective and successful international business. 

This course is an interdisciplinary course that explores the relationship between art and architecture through visits to London’s famous museums, art galleries, public artworks, and iconic architecture. Students analyze the impact architecture has on viewing art with seminars which take place in some of London’s most famous museums and galleries such as the British Museum, Tate Modern, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The course then consider alternatives to this model, including more recent curatorial phenomena by organizations such as ArtAngel which commission contemporary artists to make artworks in unexpected places: from a performance in an abandoned Underground station to a concrete cast of an entire house. Through the lens of specific case studies of art and architecture, the course examines relevant critical issues such as race, globalization, and environmental justice. In doing so, students interrogate how urban circumstances have shaped issues in modern and contemporary art and architecture in London.