Tributes paid to former Birkbeck student Rebecca Dykes
Rebecca studied for two years at the College for a Master’s in International Security and Global Governance.
Tributes have been paid to Birkbeck alumna Rebecca Dykes who has been killed in Beirut while working at the British Embassy in the city.
Rebecca, 30, obtained her MSc in International Security and Global Governance as a part-time student and is remembered as being “enthusiastic and ambitious” about her College studies.
Professor Matthew Davies, Executive Dean of Birkbeck’s School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened by Rebecca’s death. She is remembered by staff during the two years she spent at Birkbeck as a committed, inquiring and enthusiastic student. Our thoughts and condolences are with Rebecca’s family at this difficult time.”
Alex Colas, Assistant Dean of the Department of Politics, said: “I remember a lively young woman who was enthusiastic and ambitious about her studies.”
She had been working in the Lebanese capital as the programme and policy manager for the Department for International Development since January 2017.
Rebecca had previously been a policy manager with the Foreign Office’s Libya team and had been an Iraq research analyst. A pupil of Malvern Girls’ College and Rugby School, she went on to study Anthropology at the University of Manchester as an undergraduate.
Birkbeck is now considering ways in which Rebecca can be commemorated.