Warwick: Inside Europe’s Premier Student Policy Forum

By Nelly Hashemi

From Feb. 6-8, I represented Webster Vienna Private University at the Warwick Economics Summit 2026 in the U.K., one of Europe’s most selective student-led forums on global economics, geopolitics and public policy.

I attended in several capacities: as a Warwick Economics Summit Ambassador, Global Student Ambassador, President of the Sigma Iota Rho International Studies Honor Society (Eta Alpha Chapter, representing all Webster campuses) and alongside my professional work with Global Neighbours and UN Women Austria.

As a Warwick Ambassador, I supported the organization and coordination of our student delegates while also engaging substantively in discussions with senior speakers. The summit featured figures including Jon Slade, Chief Exectuive Officer of the Financial Times; Anna Manz, Chief Financial Officer of Nestlé; Nathan Sheets, Global Chief Economist at Citigroup; Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN; and Nobel Prize-winning economist Philippe Aghion.

I actively engaged in discussions with targeted, research-driven questions. During Slade’s keynote on AI, economics and democracy, I opened the Q&A with how markets for information can function when misinformation is cheaper, faster and more profitable than verification and what concrete policy or industry mechanisms could raise the cost of falsehoods without creating censorship or elite media monopolies. The question was taken up directly on stage and led to a brief exchange afterward.

In a macroeconomic keynote by Sheets, I challenged whether the resilience suggested by global Purchasing Managers’ Indices masks deeper structural fragilities, noting that a majority of global employment sits outside the formal, tech-enabled sectors PMI data captures. Sheets responded positively, acknowledging the distributional blind spots of aggregate indicators.

A particularly engaging moment was a debate on whether protectionism helps or hurts the domestic industry, where I challenged assumptions that trade fragmentation necessarily enhances economic security. Following the session, I spoke directly with Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Advisor at CEBR, about historical cases of protectionist policy, current tariff dynamics and the political economy of industrial policy in Europe.

I used the summit strategically to build institutional bridges. In my role at Global Neighbours, a Vienna-based think and do tank connecting political, economic and societal stakeholders across Europe, Asia and beyond, I engaged with speakers to explore future formats such as policy essays, interviews and expert dialogues. Global Neighbours’ mission to create trusted spaces for cross-regional exchange strongly aligned with the summit’s focus on navigating fragmentation without abandoning cooperation. Separately, my work as Co-Team Lead for Social Media at UN Women Austria, where I lead and plan campaigns on women’s rights and gender equality, informed my engagement with panels on labor, purpose and inclusion, allowing me to connect economic debates with advocacy-driven policy work.

Representing Webster in such a setting reaffirmed how international education, research engagement and applied policy work can reinforce one another and how students can contribute meaningfully to high-level global dialogue when given the tools and ambition to do so.