Philip Hedges

1
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ECONOMICS
EDUCATION CONFERENCEDesigning a new Masters in
Applied Economics

• Philip Hedges Peter Urwin,
• Department of Economics Quantitative Methods
• Westminster Business School, UK
• 09/09/09
• email
• hedgesp_at_westminster.ac.uk
• urwinp_at_westminster.ac.uk

2
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
• Briefly set out some of the key factors driving
  the setting up of the new course
• Flag up key issues of debate during the process
  of validation for exploration with todays
  participants
• Consider ideas for curriculum content design

3
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

4
A Market Opportunity?
Buscha, Latreille and Urwin, 2007
5
A Market Opportunity?

• Colander (2004) and ODoherty, 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

6
Internal Process Constraints

• Department 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.

7
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

8
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
• AA 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

9
Application

• Use of scenarios in problem based learning
  setting of A and A
• Public smoking ban
• Congestion charging
• Handheld mobiles driving
• Low emissions vehicles govts role
• Should the company sell ltinsert product/servicegt
  in ltinsert country/regiongt?
• Imposing regulation on food standards