Economics Undergraduate Open Day

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Economics Undergraduate Open Day

• Ian Walker
• Professor of Economics
• Slides available at http//go.warwick.ac.uk/iwalk
  er

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Welcome to Warwick

• This meeting is for students thinking about
  applying for Economics here
• Parents, partners, teachers, etc.
• To tell you about Economics at Warwick
• So you know what to expect
• Chance to see if we might be a good match
• NOT a hard sell
• We only want students who will do well here
• Not sure about studying economics?
• See WhyStudyEconomics?

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Timetable

• 50-minute talk
• Note any queries you might have
• Check out links, chat later, or email me
• If you like what you see and hear today
• Apply to us
• If you get an offer, well invite you back
• Sometime Jan-May 2009
• Another talk, chat to students and staff, tour
• And come to our Economics Summit
• Usually every February

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My 50 mins

• Finance/Accommodation/Campus life
• Something about the programme
• Why its distinctive
• Something about our reputation
• Research and teaching
• Something about what our students go on to do
• careers
• Offers

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Accommodation

• Campus room for all 1st years
• 70 - 115 pw
• All have free broadband / wi-fi
• Price depends on facilities and cleaning
• All self-catered
• Campus supermarket, Tescos nearby
• Lots of campus dining options
• Post 1st year
• Warwick leased or private sector house

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Finances

• Warwicks current fees are 3145 p.a.
• Min living expenses 100pw including rent
• AimHigher for info about loans etc.
• WUAP scholarships 1800 / 1100 p.a
• for home full-time students (i.e. pay full
  fees)
• if family gross incomes lt 36k pa / 39k
• Plus 2k p.a. if on IS, JSA, HB, CTB
• Disabled?
• DSA and practical help
• Money is not a reason not to come

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Campus life

• Student Union
• Scheduled for renovation
• Sport, Health, Security, Arts Centre
• Library and Learning Grid
• Fully renovated
• Careers Service
• Economics is world class department
• So its a multicultural environment
• gt60 of Economics staff not UK born
• gt30 of undergrad students not from UK

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Economics at Warwick

• Warwick is top-5 in UK by every metric
• Times (4), Guardian (3), Good University (4)
• QAA teaching quality top marks (24/24) - BUT
• RAE (official research rating) was 5
• Along with LSE, UCL and Essex
• 4th in EUs Mapping of Excellence
• 34th in world (by publications)
• Oxford (31st), Cambridge (39th)
• Closer to Harvard (1st) than to Nottingham (80th)
• But LSE (12th)

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Why this matters for students

• Our reputation leverages a lot of cash
• Cross-subsidises our teaching
• More resources for learning
• Better library, computing facilities ..
• Staff
• Better staff, More of them
• More favourable SSR, Better class tutors, etc
• Greater visibility in the job market
• Warwick Economics is in the magic circle
• Get short-listed more often by best employers

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Research led teaching

• Warwick Economics is a research dept
• that also teaches
• We are researchers who lecture
• we have no teachers
• But faculty are enthusiasts for learning
• How well you learn depends on you!
• Warwick is for students who want to learn
• If you want to be taught go to .
• And if you dont want to work at learning
• Study ..

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Warwick BSc Econ programme

• A professional training in economics
• A specialised programme
• aims to make you think like an economist
• Flexibility is limited
• Only a little each year thats NOT economics
• no more than 25 of load can be non-economic
• E.g. finance, maths, a language, or ..
• Not sure that you want to specialise?
• Go to .

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Warwick BSc Econ programme

• This is an intensive 3 year programme
• We dont do sandwiches
• If you want a year in industry
• Go to
• We do provide an excellent springboard for
  careers especially in finance areas
• More on careers later
• And we do offer the possibility of a year of
  study abroad
• Erasmus and US

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Study abroad

• Between years 2 and 3 (so 4 years)
• Only at the BEST institutions
• EU
• Amsterdam , Carlos III , Munich, Sorbonne, Pompeu
  Fabra
• USA
• California
• Reserved for our good students
• Complements regular Warwick studies
• Some help with fees and expenses
• Check out Erasmus

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Course delivery

• Lectured by permanent full-time faculty
• We have no temps, no PTs, no TFs
• We are ALL heavily in engaged in research at all
  levels
• Supporting classes by PhD students
• Top researchers best research students
• We train them to provide support
• We pay them well for a few hours of work
• Excellent administrative support
• Helps faculty to help you

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Teaching

• We teach from first principles
• A-level Economics is NOT required
• No prior knowledge is assumed
• But if you think that you have done it before
• You probably havent understood what we said
• But we will assume that you are clever
• And not worried by a little maths
• So it moves very fast
• You have to work very hard to keep up
• But we have (almost) no dropouts

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The course structure

• Year 1
• Micro, Macro, Quant Tech, Econ Hist 1 Option
• Industrial Econ, Math Econ, Language, WBS ..
• Year 2
• Micro, Macro, Econometrics 1 Option
• Industrial, Public, , Language, WBS ..
• Year 3
• No rocket science
• Research Project 3 options
• Labour, Econometrics, Development,. Language,
  WBS..

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Year 3 research project

• Really important part of our programme
• Seriously difficult
• Its your idea
• Consolidates previous training
• Develops generic skills
• Bridge into world of work
• We provide a lot of expensive support
• We get some weird ideas
• And some great projects
• Best projects presented in Washington DC
• Some published in Reinvention
• Some fine tuned as MSc dissertations

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Warwicks other programmes

• We have a number of other degrees
• Industrial Economics
• Economics and Economic History
• PPE
• EPIS
• Maths and Economics
• MORSE
• These have more complicated structures
• See the Handbook on our website

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Time use

• Our courses (really) are full-time
• Contact time will be about 15 hrs per week
• The course moves fast
• Youll need to work hard to keep up
• The return to doing well is very high
• Most of our students become very successful
• We advise against a heavy (paid) workload
• A few hours a week is fine (possibly beneficial)
• If you need more money than this .
• Borrow!

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Difficult?

• Yes
• technically demanding, analytical approach
• Other places fudge this we dont
• But our drop-out rate is tiny
• On the other hand
• A small amount of maths goes a long way
• Basic algebra, calculus, a little stats
• We teach all this from first principles
• You will get many examples to work with to test
  your understanding
• important that you dont have a maths phobia

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Other training opportunities

• Warwick Skills Certificate
• Can be incorporated for credit
• Or just dip into it for career enhancement
• Recipes for success
• Study skills advisors
• E-Learning for skills development
• Language Centre
• Academic or leisure courses

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Pastoral support

• University has a range of support facilities
  focussed on UCS
• Economics Department
• Every student has a Personal Tutor
• See minimum 3 times a year
• Writes your references, advises/helps with your
  career planning, holds your hands
• Bails you out of jail
• Brings you flowers in hospital
• Smacks your wrists ..
• And we have (almost) no drop-outs

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Quality assurance

• SSLC
• Student led and organised
• Programmes are overseen by externals
• Assure standards, suggest improvements
• Criticise content and assessment procedures
• University has its own review processes
• Assures existing courses meet targets
• HEFCE also has QAA procedure
• But we know we produce quality

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A few exemplars

• Gus ODonnell
• Class of 73
• MPhil Nuffield, Oxford 75
• Economist at HMT 1985
• HMTs Humphrey, 2002
• Cabinet Secretary 2005
• Head of Civil Service, KCB
• Salary 280k
• Referred to in No. 10 as GOD

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A few exemplars

• Katie Hobbs
• BSc Ind Econ, 1st, 2004
• Goldman Sachs
• Equity markets team

• Ali Browning
• BSc EPIS, 2.1, 2006
• Goldman Sachs
• Investment analyst

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A few exemplars

• Leena Sukhram
• BSc Econ, 2.1, 2005 MSc 2006
• DWP Economist
• Working on child support reform

• Jeremy Franklin
• BSc Econ, 1st, 2006
• Home Office, Economist
• Working on crime and immigrants

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A few exemplars

• Paolo Caruso
• BSc Econ, 2.1, 2006
• Research Assistant to an MP (no relation)

• Meera Shah
• BSc EPIS, 2.1, 2006
• Erasmus year at the Sorbonne
• Management trainee at Shell

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Whats an economics degree worth?Estimates from
the LFS 1993-2007

• About 40 (men) and 67 (women) extra for 40
  years
• 400k (men)
• 500k (women)
• These are national averages
• Warwick students much better than average

Source Walker and Zhu, ScanJE 2008
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How do you get in?

• We are overwhelmed with applicants
• conditional offers only to students expected to
  get straight As
• Standard L100 (plain vanilla BSc Econ course)
  offer is
• AAB at A2 (incl Maths) plus a B at A/S level
• Or IB 38 points
• Our other courses are a bit less demanding
• HINT if you want to come and dont have Maths
  A-level, apply for BSc Industrial Economics

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We dont do strategy

• We dont discriminate in favour of non-EUs
• We have lots of non-UK students
• Everyone here, is here on their merits
• Our admission mechanism is needs blind
• But if you dont achieve the offer
• you are very unlikely to get in.
• Sorry
• We dont negotiate and never use Clearing
• we are (a bit) flexible only with IB students
• We are usually happy to defer entry
• And if you change you mind
• and decide to go elsewhere - we wont mind

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Apply to Warwick Economics if.

• Your referee will say that youre a youre a
  straight As student
• Youre sure you want to specialise in Economics
• You want a professional, vocational training
• You want a fast pace
• You are prepared to be challenged
• Work things out for yourself
• Seek help when youre stuck
• You want to be very successful

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If not Warwick, where else?

• We are similar to UCL and LSE
• but have some advantages over them
• And similar to Soton, Bristol, Notts
• but quite different from Durham, Bath,
  Manchester, Glasgow, Exeter, Sheffield,..
• Good places you might not have considered
• Leicester, Edinburgh, Essex
• Our training is probably more reliable than
  Oxford and Cambridge
• But perhaps they have other advantages???

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Somewhere else?

• Warwick is pretty good at
• Macro, Micro, Econometrics
• Finance, Labour, Education, Development,
  Industrial, Public Economics
• But we dont really do
• Health (York, Bristol)
• Environment (UEA, York)
• Want a good course, but wont get 3 As?
• Try Essex, Leicester, Edinburgh .
• Dont want a specialised course try
• Manchester, Bath

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Made up your mind?

• If you havent been put off..
• Apply to Warwick ..
• Get those A-grades
• Get to know what economists do with their time
• Subscribe to The Economist (166 for 3-yrs)
• Read about what interests economists
• Steve Levitts Freakonomics
• John Kays The truth about markets
• But if I have put you off .
• Good luck, wherever you go