Xingzhi Yao

Country of origin: China

Studying for a PhD in Economics, Lancaster University Management School

Lancaster University Management School ranks very highly in the UK and provides courses in a variety of subjects. 

In particular, LUMS is renowned for its exceptional performance in the area of finance, financial economics and accounting, which was very attractive to me. The living cost at Lancaster was also lower than in many other places, and the environment was nice and clean, which made me feel quite safe whilst living here.

The best part of my MSc in Money, Banking and Finance was my dissertation as well as the workshops on econometric and statistical packages. My dissertation supervisor was very organised and helpful, gave me a very good topic to research, helped me to solve any problems which arose from the process of writing the thesis and guided me when I was looking to pursue a PhD after graduating.

During my time at Lancaster I joined many day trips organised by the Lancaster University Students Union, which proved to be very convenient, safe and cost-saving. My time here has been very busy but happy. I devoted all my time to performing as well as possible in academia and I did gain a lot from the experience.

I have now been offered a PhD position with a full scholarship in the Department of Economics at Lancaster. The programme starts in October and my topic is ‘The impact of structural breaks and level shifts on the long memory properties of intraday volatility measures’. My MSc studies provided me with lots of theories about finance and economics and the workshops on econometric packages will benefit my future research.