Professorial Inaugural Lecture with Professor Alan Parkinson

Lecture Title:
Reflections on a journey through, in and for education, including an exploration of business ethics and corruption, and particularly so regarding the East India Company in the seventeenth century.

This session reflects upon Alan’s education-related journey. It starts with an articulation of experiences and lessons learnt from studying for a professional accountancy qualification, and then from designing and delivering accountancy/management education initiatives in both online and face to face contexts. In so doing it captures pedagogical and scholarship ideas applied to his teaching and assessment in the learning arena. It progresses to explore the phenomenon of corrupt business practices, an anathema to the ideal of professional accountancy. It draws upon recent scandals in outline but lingers in particular on the practices adopted by the East India Company in the seventeenth century, not least with regard to the transatlantic slave trade. It concludes with a very personal reflection on those who have supported him on his journey ‘from there to here’.

Alan's Bio
Alan is Deputy Director (Education) and Professor of Financial Education in UCL School of Management. He is Chair of School Teaching Committee; Chair of School Examination Boards; and Lead: Finance, Accounting and Economics Teaching Team (Education Track). He is a qualified accountant- FCCA and ACMA/CGMA, with a Doctorate in Education (EdD) – Theme: Accounting Education, an MSc in Administrative Sciences, a Higher Education Teaching Certificate and an MA in Early Modern History. He has held Visiting Professor positions at several international universities. He specialises in Managerial Accounting, and Financial Management, and generic Accounting/Finance modules. He has played and continues to play a major role in the School’s on-line MSc in Professional Accountancy, and online MSc Accounting and Financial Management, collaborations with the University of London.

His is a Faculty Adviser at Harvard Medical School, contributing to its Surgical Leadership Program. His scholarship interests are accounting history, technology in education, and curriculum design/evaluation. He has extensive international training and consultancy expertise. He has published original and custom textbooks and scholarship papers and presents regularly at international scholarship conferences. He has held several senior positions in other universities including Queen Mary, University of London, and the Open University Business School. History is ‘always good to explore’, supporting Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur) is an emotional roller coaster way of life, and smiling is a particularly good hobby.

Host: Professor Emanuela Tilley, Integrated Engineering Programme, UCL Centre for Engineering Education
Welcome: Professor Kathy Armour, UCL Vice Provost Education & Student Experience
Inaugural Introduction: Professor David Chapman, UCL School of Management

The lecture will run from 5-6.30pm, with a drinks reception 6.30-7.30pm.