The new Head of the Adam Smith Business School, Professor Jim Love, reflects on his career to date and reveals his ambitions for the School

As indicated elsewhere, change in many forms has been a recurrent feature of my career, from starting as a young lecturer through to roles as an academic manager. Having become interested as an undergraduate in issues of international trade and economic development and having done some fieldwork in Ghana for an MSc dissertation, it was apparent that a great deal more could be learned from living and working overseas than from seeking to conduct research with occasional visits from a UK base.

The three years spent in Addis Ababa, when I worked at Haile Sellassie I University, covered a continuing civil war with Eritrea, a major rural famine and the start of a political revolution. In Ghana there were coups and countercoups against the background of an economic collapse. Both in Ethiopia and Ghana many students and staff were heavily involved in political activities and university life was severely disrupted, often quite violently in Ethiopia where having the military on campus became a fairly regular event. My research focussed on the classic 'commodity problem' of heavy dependence on a particular source of earnings, coffee in the case of Ethiopia and cocoa in Ghana, and on related policy options. This issue resonates heavily with the present debate about Scotland and oil revenues and with the focus in some parts of the University on the Business School's recruitment markets.

As a new lecturer in Addis Ababa, where virtually every first year student in all programmes across the university was required to take Economics, my first teaching experience was with very large class sizes of several hundred. One unexpected consequence of the disruption to campus life in Addis was that university closures meant more time for research and I decided to use the material I had to write a PhD.

Moving from Ghana to Sweden involved quite dramatic change. Life in Lund was characterised by an environment of relative affluence and political and social stability.

The various changes in location, interspersed with periods back at Strathclyde, meant that I experienced not only markedly different cultural, economic and political circumstances, but also worked in universities with quite diverse academic and organisational structures and with many individuals with strikingly different personalities, motivations and ambitions.

Later my range of international experience was further enhanced by research projects in countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, each of which also had particular economic and political problems. Giving a public lecture in Kathmandu, for example, the audience started to grow in number. While it might have been tempting to suggest this reflected the quality of the lecture, the explanation was given by the occasional sound of gunfire and skirmishing in neighbouring streets between Maoists and government troops and by people retreating to the security of the British Council compound. Then as a Dean and Vice Principal I was involved in transnational education operations in countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

As a Dean, I led a business school through unconditional accreditation by AACSB and EQUIS in the same academic year, and with AMBA reaccreditation also being achieved in between, became the first Scottish-based Dean to achieve 'triple accreditation' and the third in the UK. As a Vice Principal, in addition to responsibilities for areas such as estates management and internationalisation, I introduced a new university-wide resource allocation model, merged two faculties into a single faculty and led a review of university governance and decision-making processes.

While the early part of my career did involve working in some ‘difficult’ environments, that experience did, I think, equip me with an appreciation of the problems faced by some universities and by many students from overseas coming to study in Scotland and other parts of the UK.

I am delighted to have joined the Adam Smith Business School this summer. The formation of the School three years ago from the former departments of Accounting and Finance, Economics and Management created a School of considerable academic weight.

Subsequent developments, led by Professor Farhad Noorbakhsh, in the recruitment of high-quality students at undergraduate, taught Masters and PhD levels and of excellent academic and support staff have enhanced further the standing of the School within the University and much further afield.
The major attraction of the School for me was that its very positive advances to date mean the School is extremely well-placed to continue to develop its international status. Milestones along that trajectory will include the outcomes of this year's Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the attainment of 'triple accreditation' by adding EQUIS to AACSB and AMBA, both of which the School can look forward to with confidence. These will help foster development of greater involvement with high-quality partners around the world for the purposes of research and teaching collaborations and of student and staff exchanges. In addition, the School has a firm basis for further expansion of its engagement with business and public sector organisations and for having substantial impacts on future behaviours and policies in these arenas.

As the School moves forward, we will also be seeking to build stronger networks and relationships with and across our many alumni, locally and internationally, to help provide support and connections for their continuing career success and to help extend our reputation, reach and influence.

Reputation, driven by quality performance, is all-important in shaping the School's future. The academic world, like any other area of activity, is subject to uncertainties, but I believe the School is very well positioned to move on to further achievements. I look forward to contributing to the School's success.