The 2021-22 academic year saw many changes for the Barcelona School of Economics, the most noticeable being the change of our brand name from “Barcelona Graduate School of Economics” to “Barcelona School of Economics” (BSE). We have come a long way since the School was founded in 2006 by Andreu Mas-Colell and our new name reflects how we have evolved. It also confirms our ambition to continue evolving to meet future needs and challenges in higher education and research. The new BSE name gives us room to continue developing new ways to connect education programs to the research conducted across our community.

After the uncertainty that surrounded the pandemic, this year we were able to start holding lectures and events in person once again. We welcomed 248 students to campus for the Master’s programs and the 2022 editions of the Summer Forum and the Summer School were held again in person. The Summer Forum attracted over 700 participants while over 600 students attended the Summer School.

Our professional courses continue to evolve with more than 180 people attending the five different professional courses we offered this year. We have been able to hold these courses in person as well as remotely allowing participants to get exposure to prevailing theoretical and empirical topics in a way that suits their schedule. The demand for in-company training has also been growing and last year we worked with four different companies to train 134 people in specialized areas of economics.

As our academic offerings continue to grow and evolve, so does our research. The European Research Council (ERC) offers competitive grants to support frontier research projects and this year, five new grants were awarded to BSE Affiliated Professors and Researchers, taking the total number of current grants amongst our faculty to 34.

There has also been change in our Scientific Council this year with the Board of Trustees appointing Matthew O. Jackson (Stanford University) to the position of Chair. Professor Jackson is the second renowned academic figure to lead the BSE Scientific Council after Hugo Sonnenschein, who chaired the group since 2008, sadly passed away last year. The Scientific Council gathered in May to offer valuable new guidance on how BSE can continue to improve the academic programs and research.

We would like to thank all our sponsors, the companies and institutions that continue to support us as we evolve in the world of higher education as well as the Board of Trustees and Scientific Council for their continued dedication to the growth of the School.

Thank you also to our Affiliated Professors who have helped us through the uncertain times that the pandemic brought whilst maintaining the highest level of quality in their teaching and research activities. The same has to be said of the administrative team who continue to support students, alumni, and faculty with great professionalism and help BSE to continuously evolve.