At the Blavatnik School of Government we have started the New Year with much excitement about what’s to come. We are about to enter the last week before the admissions deadline, so we urge everyone who is considering applying to join us next September to do it soon (there is still time, the deadline is Friday 22 January).

We are also gradually filling the calendar with interesting and engaging events, some just available for our students and some open to a public audience.

For the students, the Dean’s Forums are making a comeback after the winter break. They are discussions led by our Dean Ngaire Woods, and they are designed to provide our students with the opportunity to speak and ask questions to experts and practitioners from a wide variety of fields. Some of the first guests of the year include Sergei Guriev, Russian economist and professor at the Sciences Po in Paris, and Shobhana Bhartia, chairperson and editorial director of the Hindustan Times Group (one of India’s newspapers and media groups). Students will also be engaging with a series of sessions titled “What’s In The News?”, based around current affairs and chaired by Bill Emmott, former editor of the Economist.

We have also been planning events open to the public. We are delighted that our first public lecture of the year (and the first in our new building) will be a talk by Lord Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford: “China and Europe in a less certain world”. This event will take place on Friday 22 January and is jointly hosted by the Blavatnik School and the Oxford International Relations Society. Sign up on our website to attend.

The other big event for this month is something that we’re sure many people have been looking forward: the first Open Day of the new Blavatnik School of Government building. After moving in last month, we are very excited to open the doors of our new home on Saturday 30 January and welcome visitors to discover more about the School and the building.

Visitors will find out about the green roof that provides rainwater for our toilets, see the stunning open forum design from the inside and enjoy one of the most beautiful views of Oxford – weather permitting!

Throughout the day we will run tours with volunteer staff and students, and there will be also the opportunity to hear our dean Ngaire Woods and Herzog & de Meuron’s associate, John O’Mara, talk about the School and the inspiration for the design of the building. Regrettably, we won’t be able to grant access to non-registered people, so it is really important to register in advance for either a tour or a talk – you can find instructions on how to do this on the event's page.

Finally, two more events and dates to put in the calendar:

• 'Political order and political decay"- a public talk by Professor Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Director of FSI’s Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, on Friday 12 February. See more information about the talk.
• The Challenges of Government Conference 2016 – the first major event in the new Blavatnik School of Government building will take place on 19-20 May. Registration will open in February, and lots of sessions will be live web streamed to reach audiences worldwide. 

We hope to see you at one of these events, and we look forward to involving students and public even more frequently in the coming months.

A complete list of upcoming events and information on how to attend and get involved is available on our events page.