Nick Hope

On applying for the Rhodes Scholarship 

It didn’t occur to me to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship or anything like it. It was Ashton Calvert (Tasmania & New College 1966) who suggested it. He and I had been at high school and then at university together, and we were extremely close. One day, he said, ‘You know, we should apply for a Rhodes Scholarship.’ He told me what it was, and it sounded wonderful, if improbable. I said, ‘Do you really think we would have a chance?’ and he said, ‘Well, somebody’s got to win.’ I won that year, and I was the youngest person ever to receive  the Tasmanian Rhodes Scholarship. I held the record for just a year, because Ashton was two weeks younger than me, when he won the following year! 

When I learned I was selected for the Scholarship, I was stunned, initially. I remember going home and wondering whether I really wanted to do this. The thought of leaving my parents and my family, my grandmother especially, was overwhelming. So, going to Oxford was a big adjustment.  

‘What the World Bank was doing was very much something I wanted to be a part of’ 

I went on to Princeton to begin studying for a PhD. It differed greatly from Oxford: it seemed to me you were doing examinations every time you turned around, and there was never enough time to do the real work. After passing the general examinations, I succumbed to a sort of homesickness for Australia, understandable after six years away. Accordingly, I applied for and was appointed to a position at Monash University in Melbourne. But before we moved back there, I investigated employment opportunities in the US, including an interview at the World Bank. The interviewers encouraged me to apply for their young professionals’ programme, however, nothing came of it then as I was determined to return to Australia. Some four years later, out of the blue, I was contacted and asked if I would interview again for a position with the World Bank. There were several twists and turns in the process; eventually, I decided that what the work the Bank was doing was very much the sort of thing I’d wanted to be a part of, ever since my early interest in the UN. So, we moved to Washington, DC and I assumed my first position there, essentially working as a financial economist.  

In 1980, I was drafted into the team preparing the Bank’s 1980 World Development Report, after which I was appointed Chief of the External Debt Division. During my six years there, I gained considerable knowledge of developing countries’ borrowing policies, and their difficulties in managing their external debt. I was also involved in the activities of multilateral and bilateral creditors as they assisted many countries’ efforts to extricate themselves from serious debt difficulties.  

By the mid-1980s, we had to decide when and whether to return to Australia. The decision to remain at the Bank was a comparatively easy one, especially as it seemed best given the educational opportunities for our three children. Once that decision was taken, then I decided I needed more knowledge of how the Bank’s operational activities functioned. I was considered for the position of division chief of a country programme in Latin America, but the language specialist who evaluated whether I could quickly learn Spanish, had no difficulty concluding that I was no linguist! Shortly thereafter, I was offered a division overseeing financial and industrial projects in East Asia. That provided my introduction to how projects were identified and implemented at the country level, and my new job required me to cooperate with other agencies lending for similar purposes in the region, as well as with the client countries’ development banks and development agencies to finance in-country projects.  

That job was too good to last! The World Bank was restructured in 1987, and I participated in one of the task forces designing the new structure that put me out of a job. My new division was responsible for industry and energy projects in Indonesia and the island economies of the Pacific Region. Three years later, in August 1990, I was appointed to direct the Bank’s resident staff in Indonesia, resulting in a three-and-a half-year posting to Jakarta. I enjoyed the time there immensely, as the access to senior policy makers was unequalled; the challenges of the position were as interesting as they were fulfilling. The experience added to my conviction that effective assistance to countries in their development efforts could be successful and rewarding. 

Thereafter, I returned to Washington where I became the Bank’s director for its programmes in Chia and Mongolia. What I found particularly challenging in the job was the responsibility of the historical moment when China’s integration into the global economy was accelerating. To contribute to events, I needed to learn an enormous amount about China and the transformation of its economy. That became my abiding interest over the ensuing 30 years and continues to be so today.  

When my work on China for the Bank ended, I had the good fortune to be offered a post in a new research centre that Anne Krueger was establishing at Stanford University. Its focus was economic development policy. Initially, I served as deputy director with responsibility for research on Chinese economic policy reform. Later, after I took over as director, my interests had to broaden to include economic priorities in India and the major economies of Latin America. One of my proudest accomplishments was the establishment of a visiting fellowships programme for senior Chinese officials from the ministries of Finance and of Commerce. During a six-month visit to Stanford the selected officials conducted research under my supervision on topical policy problems of concern to their respective ministers. Although US-China relations are currently very far from what, at the start of this century, I believed they might become, I hope that some of my work with those scholars will ultimately have a positive lasting effect.