We are delighted to announce that Professor Anderson has been appointed as the new Director of PPE and a joint Professor in Politics and Economics at Warwick.

Chris's research focuses on the micro-foundations of markets and democracy and examines how economic and political structures shape citizens’ judgments and behaviours. He has written on the popularity of governments and the legitimacy of political institutions, the link between welfare states, income inequality, and citizen behaviour, and the political behaviour of immigrants. Most recently, Chris was Professor of Government and Labor Relations at Cornell University; currently, he is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics.

Students and staff on the PPE programme are looking forward to working closely with Chris on the PPE programme's continued success.

Thank you to all the finalists who have given their feedback on their PPE degree. We are so happy you are letting us know what is best about the degree and how we can work together to ensure its continued development.

To celebrate meeting our targets for response rate, we have given out 4 prizes, an iPad Air 2 and 3 £50 iTunes vouchers.

Congratulations to our winners: Joshua Abey, Harry Amos, Rosalind Mulley and Julien Wond Ten Yuen.

The National Student Survey (NSS) 2015 is now open for final year undergraduate students to have their say on their teaching and learning experience during their time at University. The NSS is the primary measure of the satisfaction of finalist students in the UK and the results are published nationally so that performance in teaching and learning can be evaluated and compared across university departments and programmes.

The survey gives students the opportunity to reflect on their experiences over their time at Warwick and to score the Programme and University against a number of criteria. The NSS closes on Thursday 30 April 2015.

Here are some of the ways in how we have acted on NSS and other feedback: Understand what our students value in their teaching and learning experiences

- Improving speed at which your assessment feedback is returned, within the University 20-day deadline

- Improvements to the system for monitoring the quality of assessment feedback provided to you

- Introducing a more comprehensive induction programme to support studetn through those key first days and weeks.

Make your voice heard!

The PPE Programme wants to hear from as many students as possible; last year the response rate of Warwick PPE students was 74%. This year, we are keen to exceed this to ensure the final views expressed through the survey are representative.

Complete the National Student Survey now

This year, if together with Economics achieve 75%, all final year students will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 8 Summer Party tickets, and if we exceed 83% all of the final year students will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 4 iPads. This is in addition to the central University scheme whereby all students completing the NSS will be eligible for a £5 voucher for Warwick Food and Drink.

Our congratulations to Jay Shah, a second-year undergraduate in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics programme. Jay has won second place in a contest for essays about the future of Africa. The competition for undergraduates and young professionals was sponsored by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in conjunction with a conference, "Africa's Turn?"

Jay's essay, Progress and Growth in Africa, presented Africa as the world's latest investment frontier. Jay, who lived in Kenya prior to starting his degree at the University of Warwick, said that the contest offered him a way to express opinions on issues for which he has a passion.

I'd like to announce that PPE has a forum. The Forum is for students and staff to discuss anything relevant to the past, present, and future curriculum and organization of PPE—Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, open to all students and staff in the three PPE Departments. To launch it, I've posted a comment on the PPE guest lecture by Oliver James. Everyone is welcome to join in. Mark Harrison