Schools from across Europe and the world came to Pamplona to present an essay on the theme of ‘Growth and Job Creation’for the XII edition of the International Forum. 

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St John’s International School of Waterloo in Belgium came away with the prize after being selected by a panel of experts at the Universidad de Navarra.  Gallagher-Teske, Jack Kleinjan Ben Renshaw and Naomi Crombie won for their work which made a SWOT analysis (a business term which evaluates the strength of a product and its position in the market) of Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland.



Alban D'entremont is a Canadian professor at the Univeristy of Navarre, an expert in Geography and a member of the University of the United Nations.  Scott Wishart is an American law professor at the University of Navarre since 2005. Finally, the last member of the jury is Mirko Abbritti an Italian professor of macroeconomics that holds a PhD on International Economy by the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEID), Geneva.  D'entremont said in the round table after the final presentations: “In my view the topics were ambitious, and I think it's part of being a young person to want to bring it all in.”



After her team received the award, Naomi Crombie said that she was “excited and a little bit surprised” and added that “the quality of all the presentations was very impressive”. She and her team still don't know to what development project they want to give the money to, but they were moving towards an organisation working with micro-finances.



The XII International Forum started on Thursday 15th of November. 23 teams made of senior year school students from all over the world came to Pamplona to present their ideas on the topic of this edition: “Growth and Job Creation”. Schools from Germany, Luxemburg, Guatemala, Spain, Poland and Belgium participated in a competition that not only gives the student the chance to apply what they know about economics to real life but also to experience a true university journey.



From the 23 starting teams, 4 passed to the final round: St. John's International School, International School of Munich, Senara High School from Madrid and the International School of Luxembourg.

The International School of Munich has participated over the last three years and won every edition, but this year had to settle with a very respectable second place.  Their topic focused on Spain and was titled: “How to Stimulate the Spanish Economy in the Short Run and Establish Employment in the Long Run”. One of their professor’s Marsha McDougall  accompanied the students to Pamplona and said: 'It's a great economics review for the students and it's a chance for them to apply what they have learned to a real life problem.'

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Denice Harvey is also a professor at the same school and explained the importance for them to take part in these events: 'It's part of the IB [International Baccalaureate] philosophy too to encourage students to be enquirers and to develop these independent skills'



The Senara High School from Madrid took the third place, with a project that offered a very clear stance against austerity in favour of a Keynesian economic perspective.  The jury thought that their biggest challenge was the language but they managed to present their ideas clearly and respond to the jury's questions.

On the fourth place of the classification was the International School of Luxembourg. The team compared Europe to a “sick man” that has to recover as soon as possible. Their presentation was a real “performance” as Alban D'entremont expressed.



The XII International Forum is held every year at the University of Navarra. José Vázquez Alarcón, general coordinator of the forum, explained how this congress gives the students the opportunity to be judged by university professors and to develop a famiarity with academic rigour.