Lifelong learning: gaining global perspectives and new knowledge

From balancing work life to her favourite modules, Katie Melville, Global Central Banking & Financial Regulation qualifications participant, shares her journey.

It’s been a long time coming but I’m finally entering the last lap of my MSc in Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation. In February this year, I completed the modules needed to achieve the post-graduate diploma, almost four years after starting. My journey’s been a long one, but it’s been very rewarding - and I’m not done yet. Having worked in the financial services sector on risk and regulatory topics since the global financial crisis, I was keen to pursue a formal post-graduate qualification, which expanded my economic policy-making knowledge. In 2019, I moved to Australia, returned to working in the public sector and decided to finally take action! My employer is committed to staff learning and development and generous in providing support and flexibility to pursue further education. The only question was what and where to study. 

Friends who worked at the Bank of England introduced me to the Global Central Banking and Financial Regulation programme, which was developed in-house by regulators for regulators. I was delighted to see that Warwick Business School was now offering it externally, and I could participate from down under using their award-winning online learning platform. Many course participants were from other regulators, central banks and financial sector practitioners, so I loved the idea of staying connected to that community. Having worked in both public and private sectors, I appreciate the mix of perspectives and experiences participants bring to group discussions. 

I’ve loved the multi-disciplinary and modular nature of the programme. Part law, part finance and part economics – plus a little bit of moral philosophy and neuroscience! From pricing a bond to theorising what drives ethical decision-making, it’s appealed to my broad interests and generalist background. The course structure has allowed me to select the modules that spoke to me and to pursue them at my own pace and in my preferred sequence. While time zones made joining the live sessions challenging, the online nature of the materials, recordings, discussions and exercises made it easy to participate asynchronously at times that worked for me and my work schedule. I’ve also developed great relationships with other course participants over the years. 

The iterative approach I’ve taken also worked well for my employer and me – starting with a single module for a post-graduate award, taking two more to upgrade to a certificate and three more to complete the diploma. This also allowed for a little thing called the global pandemic to intervene – many in the financial services and regulatory sector had to focus on preventing its negative impacts and WBS was incredibly supportive of students pausing and deferring where necessary to support continued study alongside full-time and intense workloads. 

My favourite module was Financial Conduct, Leadership and Ethics. I’ve long been fascinated by what drives good decision-making in financial services, given the many conduct and behavioural scandals that have come to light and affected financial health and, in some cases, the viability of financial institutions. I currently work in a specialist team focused on governance, culture, remuneration and accountability, so it built on my existing knowledge and familiarised me with the empirical basis and current academic debates related to my current role. I also wrote my final essay on using ethical intelligence to ensure responsible leadership in artificial intelligence – a topic so inspiring and topical I am considering how to explore it further in my dissertation.

One of the biggest benefits of doing this course is the knowledge and global perspectives I can bring back to my role within financial regulation here in Australia – and I am looking forward to focusing my dissertation on a topic that I hope can add real value to understanding and mitigating emerging risks to the financial system.