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Dapel Zuhumnan - My Story

Published on 23 August 2018

A recent PhD graduate from the School of Business, Dapel is very quickly carving out a successful career for himself

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I first found out about UoD from a Professor at the University of Manchester, whom I initially contacted for supervision. The Manchester Professor recommended UoD as my research proposal fitted the expertise of his colleagues at Dundee. Secondly, I was offered the admission at the time I needed, otherwise I would have missed the PhD funding opportunity offered by the Petroleum TechnologyFund (PTDF) Nigeria.

At Manchester, I wanted to study how corruption makes it harder for oil revenue to fight poverty in Nigeria. But when I eventually moved to Dundee, I worked on three essays in Empirical Development Economics on Nigeria: Poverty mobility, Inequality and oil in Nigeria.

My time in Dundee was challenging and interesting at the same. But is paying off now. I’m glad I was awarded a degree in Economics from the birth home of Economics: Scotland, where the intellectual godfather of Economics, Sir Adam Smith, was born and raised in Kirkcaldy, 27.6 miles south, southwest of Dundee. 

“Economics is not just a game played only for the pleasure of clever people to show how smart they were"-

Milton Friedman

“It [economics] is judged ultimately by how well it helps us understand the world, and how well we

can help improve it”-

Gary Becker

These are the best things about my course!

The best thing about the University of Dundee is the diversity of the community. The University not only has a listening ear to the needs of its students, it is also proactive in dealing with student issues regarding the progress of their studies, welfare, and future career plans.

The city is cheap to live in, relative to other parts of the UK. The people are warm and fuzzy and it is an easy city to get around. You may not need a bus unless you’re travelling out of town as major locations are within the radius of a working distance.

I love to get along with people from different backgrounds. I joined the school gym to play games; I frequently visited friends international on Perth Road. It is a lovely community that meets every Saturday evening. You get to meet, interact and network with people. I went there to play table tennis a lot at no cost to the player. Finally, I loved being at Central Baptist Church on Ward Road. It is just a 5 minute walk from campus. You find a lot of students and good people there.

One of the best things than happened to me was to Bill & Gregory as my supervisors. I printed a t-shirt to honour them both!

“The best thing about the University of Dundee is the diversity of the community.”

Dapel Zuhumnan

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Story category Student experience