Nova Academia, a new academic initiative | Prof Paul Frijters

Prof Paul Frijters details a new academic initiative originating from the Dutch/Belgium resistance groups. Nova Academia intends to become a new academic institution, starting out as an international mentorship programme, then a 1-year campus-programme, then a full-on multi-year college programme. He talks about the plans, who is involved, what the target audience is, what has been built so far, how people in our networks can help or join, and how we could cooperate with other initiatives. This is especially for people with a sincere interest in constructively building alternative education systems.

Paul Frijters is the Professor of Economics and Wellbeing at MBS College in Saudi Arabia. Previously, he was a Professor in Wellbeing Economics at the LSE, and he remains an emeritus professor. Prior to this Paul worked in Australia for 15 years and was the Research Director of the Rumici Project, an international project analysing the migration of people from the countryside to the cities in China and Indonesia. The project, which was sponsored by ministries, the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and many others, tracked 20,000 individuals over many years. In 2009 he was voted Australia's best young economist under 40 by the Australian Economic Society. Paul has a Masters in Econometrics and a PhD entitled “wellbeing in Russia during the transition”. He publishes regularly in top 50 economics journals, as well as inter-disciplinary outlets and Handbooks. He has (co-)authored around 150 papers, 6 books and is in the top 1% of cited economists.
Paul is interested in all aspects of social science, but particularly wellbeing and public policy. He has in the past worked as a health economist, a labour economist, a specialist on the economics of China, and an econometrician.

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