Spotlight On: Dr Ruijia Zhan, Lecturer in Finance and Accounting

Tell me more about your background – It would be great to find out more about your education and career so far.

I did PhD in accounting at the University of Bath and mainly focused on accounting research in the public sector, including NHS and local governments. Before joining UCL, I worked as a lecturer in accounting at the University of Southampton. 

Why are you excited to be joining the UCL Global Business School for Health?

The UCL Global Business School for Health (UCL GBSH) is the first business school focusing specifically on health in the world. I feel so excited that UCL has established a global business school for health as health issues are always one of the most important topics we are discussing all around the world. It is about people, society, development. I am very enthusiastic about health research and UCL GBSH is a great chance for me to explore how business can contribute to health. Furthermore, UCL GBSH has lots of interdisciplinary collaborations opportunities which bring together intelligent thinkings to improve the health industry. 

Is healthcare management an area more business schools should be exploring? If so, why?

Yes, of course. Healthcare management is very important to improve the development of global health. Nowadays, with the increasing ageing population, rising costs, fighting resources and austerity in public spending all drive the importance of improving healthcare management. Questions like value for money or effective use of resources are all very important and is worth exploring from a business perspective. 

What contribution do you want to bring to the school and future students?

My teaching and research mainly focus on financial reporting quality, cost analysis, and risk management in healthcare organisations, especially the NHS. My research can contribute to the analysis of value for money, effective costing and financing systems in healthcare and this contributes to the interdisciplinary research and will equip students with accounting knowledge and critical thinking which is key to becoming a future leader in the healthcare industry.