Westminster Business School Blog An Interview With Recent International Economic Policy And Analysis MA Student: Zohaib Taj

An Interview With Recent International Economic Policy And Analysis MA Student: Zohaib Taj

January 8, 2016
Postgraduate
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Hi Zohaib, can you tell us something about yourself?

My name is Zohaib Taj, I am from Pakistan originally and I have been living in London for seven years – since my GCSEs. If I stay in England after my Master’s degree, I am planning to work in consulting or to go into the financial services. But if I go back to Pakistan, I am planning to work for the government for the public policy department. In terms of hobbies, I love to socialise – I used to go clubbing a lot but since last year I prefer to meet friends for coffee.

Why did you decide to study International Economic Policy and Analysis MA at Westminster Business School?

I’m planning to go back to Pakistan and work for the government in the policy making department, and the International Economic Policy and Analysis MA (IEPA MA) is the only course which will lead me there. I studied Business Economics for my Bachelor degree (at Westminster Business School) and before that I did Business Economics for my A-levels. I was getting good grades and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I would continue with the subject.

I chose to study my Master’s at Westminster partly because I loved my undergraduate experience. Westminster Business School has a great campus, is really friendly and has lots of opportunity for socialisation. There are many good people from all over the world. Also, I just couldn’t find a course like the International Economic Policy and Analysis MA at any other university. Even at LSE, the course that I found related to this was about development economics management, so there was no economic policy analysis.

Zohaib_Taj_International_Economic_Policy_and_Analysis_MA_Westminster_Business_School — With fellow IEPA students on the International Development Management MA class trip to the United Nations, Geneva

What have been the highlights for you whilst studying at Westminster?

I think the location is really good and I have made good friends. I particularly enjoyed traveling to Holland with the Students’ Union – there were 3 buses full of people and we went to Amsterdam for two days. It was a great trip. The module on IEPA MA that I enjoyed the most was Strategy and Appraisal. It is all about how consumers and producers are affected by policy making and policy options for areas of market failure such as the smoking in public ban, or monopolies.

What have been the biggest challenges for you over the last year?

The biggest challenge I had was picking the topic for my dissertation. I was really interested in macro economics (specifically macro-monetary policies) and had many topics in mind. I did a lot of research and finally I found a great topic which was more recent and looked at the financial crisis and the policies of the United States. It’s going really well now – I feel really positive and finding focus has helped me a lot.