Philip Hedges & Peter Urwin,Department of Economics & Quantitative Methods

Westminster Business School, UK09/09/09

email:hedgesp@westminster.ac.ukurwinp@westminster.ac.uk

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ECONOMICS EDUCATION CONFERENCE

Designing a new Masters in Applied Economics

Aims• To consider the factors taken into account during

the design process for a new PG qualification in Applied Economics within a post 92 university

1. Briefly set out some of the key factors driving the setting up of the new course

2. Flag up key issues of debate during the process of validation – for exploration with today’s participants

3. Consider ideas for curriculum content & design

Drivers of the design process

• A Market Opportunity?– Employability in Professional Practice– Employability in Academic Practice

• Internal Process– School and Department– University Validation and Review Process

• Subject Benchmarks, the GES & the Economics Network

• Marketing, Recruitment & Brand

A Market Opportunity?

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1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Economics (L1) Accountancy (N4)

Business management (N1) Financial management (N3)

Marketing and market research (N5)

Accountancy & BusinessStudiesFalling popularity? Economics

More applicants than accepts

Financial ManagementFewer applicants than acceptsFilled through clearing

Buscha, Latreille and Urwin, 2007

A Market Opportunity?

• Colander (2004) and O’Doherty, Street and Webber (2007) highlight qualitative evidence of skills gap in the typical Economics graduate

• Shortage of application & communication skills

• However this is reflection of wider mismatch– Application and Appraisal in Professional practice– Econometric Evaluation in Academic careers

• For example, Business Studies takes Appraisal (Strategy) and is able to recruit students with less technical ability

• RAE drives recruitment in Economics departments

Internal Process & ConstraintsDepartment and School• Wholly new programmes a rarity - University modular

system (8 modules full-time) allows courses to be launched with less risk – but also downside to this

• MSc App Econ - 2 Economics Dept.; 2 School-wide and 4 new modules

• Economics staff interest, experience & availability

University Validation System• “First Filter” 18 to 24 months in advance• Curriculum Enhancement Workshop & Action Plan event• Then Validation Documents for Validation Panel:

– Programme Specification– Course Handbook– Course Diagram, Module Specifications, Assessment

Regimes etc.

Marketing & Recruitment• Economics social networking site used from

Feb 2009 Economics Forum & Jobs• Open evenings on campus• Respond to email enquiries• Advertise in The Guardian (PG Course

Listings)?• Entry Points (Oct & Jan FT & PT)• Potential students

– BA Business Studies graduates who want less technical & mathematical Economics

– Eastern European students– GES staff for particular modules– Practising consultants with only a first degree

Issues for Consideration

• Is there a market opportunity in the way we perceive? More of a focus on Evaluation at the expense of Application and Appraisal

• A&A module able to tackle cross cutting issues (decisions at the margin), without Macro/Micro distinction?

• How do we teach this? Assumed knowledge of new students and tapping into other modules; Inductive/deductive? Communication (assessment by Viva and tech briefing)

• Examples of Application and Appraisal

Application

• Use of scenarios in problem based learning setting of A and A:– Public smoking ban– Congestion charging– Handheld mobiles & driving– Low emissions vehicles & govt’s role– Should the company sell <insert

product/service> in <insert country/region>?

– Imposing regulation on food standards