We are proud to announce that Aleksandr Ermakov, a Finance PhD student from the University of Luxembourg, has been recruited as an Assistant Professor in Finance (Lecturer in the UK) at the University of Manchester, Alliance Manchester Business School, this year.
Aleksandr Ermakov is the first PhD student to reap the benefits of the reform of our Doctoral Programme in Finance. This reform, a collaborative effort of the Department of Finance at the Faculty, was designed to align it with international best practices, prioritizing academic quality over quantity. The Programme starts with the Master in Quantitative Economics and Finance and continues with the Doctoral Programme in Finance. Professor Holcblat explains that the reform of the Programme was based on two pillars:
(1) Emphasizing quality over quantity and thus directing resources towards more ambitious research projects.
(2) Hiring PhD students on behalf of the department. Previously, every PhD student was hired by a professor and remained attached to the professor. New PhD student pooling allows for better academic freedom while creating the right incentives. On the one hand, students are incentivized to work hard so professors want to advise them, and on the other hand, professors are incentivized to take good care of students to favor collaboration.
After successfully defending his doctoral thesis in December 2023, Aleksandr went to the international academic job market with the support of the Department of Finance and received offers from several prominent business schools. His fast recruitment by a prominent European business school attests to the positive impact of this reform and FDEF’s commitment to academic excellence. Aleksandr’s PhD thesis advisors, Professors Benjamin Holcblat and Roberto Steri, are delighted with their student’s achievements, which paves the way for future Finance PhD students from the University of Luxembourg. Professor Holcblat says:
‟ In addition to his new position, Alex has achieved significant milestones, such as being selected for the prestigious tutorial of the European Finance Association, a distinction given to only 8 out of approximately 200 students. We are happy that programme’s reform enables our PhD students to reach their full potential.”
Assistant professor/Senior research scientist
Indeed, the reform of the PhD Programme and Alexandr’s success are a testimony of the Department of Finance’s ambitions, which now comfortably ranks among the top 10 European finance departments based on the number of top economics, finance, and mathematical statistics publications per professor.
We warmly congratulate Aleksandr on this accomplishment and thank him for his dedication and hard work at the Department of Finance. We look forward to following his academic career in finance and continuing to support our students in their academic and professional journeys.