HEA Economics Network Project: Students Magazine on Current Economic Affairs 2009 Willem Spanjers School of Economics Kingston University

HEA Economics Network

Project:

Students’ Magazine on Current Economic Affairs

2009

Willem Spanjers

School of Economics

Kingston University


Headline Investigate potential for

developing a teaching / learning / assessment vehicle

which

models aspects of the production of a current affairs magazine,

e.g.

The Economist.

Context• Some of KU’s existing UG and PG Economics

programmes are designed :

(i) to be less technically ambitious and

(ii) to give greater attention to the application of concepts and techniques;

• Their aim is also to develop skills in the writing of economic analysis and in the presentation and communication of its conclusions.


Broad Purpose • devising a student centered production of a small

magazine of economic analysis / commentary. • enhancing students’ engagement with their course.• where possible accommodating aspects of

assessment. • addressing employers’ opinion that Economics

graduates are under-prepared in communication skills.


ScopingThe developmental project will address, inter alia:• practical production issues (material expense,

space needs, staff time required)• skills and time required of staff and students• feasibility of attaching assessment elements• existence of similar projects and potential for

sharing good practice• potential for collaboration with our Faculty’s

Journalism courses.


Main activity of the project Internal benchmarking against the requirements of

the project of:• Resource availability;• Students’ skills;• Staff’s skills and availability;• Management capacity;• Course delivery;• Potential for cooperation with Journalism.


Main issue:Disappointing enrolment in BA Applied Economics • This was the group of students on which the

project was to be focussed.• Numbers in the MA courses in Economics could

not compensate for this.• The disappointing student numbers required a re-

think of the original approach to the project.• It soon emerged, that the skills as taught to the

students in our other UG courses fail to provide a sufficient basis for the project.


An alternative approach:1. Put more emphasis on improving the writing skills

of students in our BSc courses in Economics

- In part, this may run against the purpose of the BSc courses to emphasise technical aspects of theoretical and empirical Economics


2. Reducing the scope of the magazine to be a newsletter.

- Such newsletter could be based on short summaries of essays, reports and

dissertations, to appear 2 or 3 times per year.

- It would depend on students’ willingness to submit the necessary material.


3. Create incentives for students to submit material.

- Both a magazine and a newsletter crucially depend on students’ willingness to submit the necessary material.

- Creating appropriate incentive requires making such contributions part of the

assessment regime of modules.

- For BA and MA students this would be fine, but for BSc and MSc students less so.


Results of the Benchmarking:• Practical production issues, such as material

expense, space needs, staff time required for maintaining such an exercise;

- The magazine can be provided in an electronic format using standard software, which minimizes material expense.

- The requirements regarding space needs and staff time are expected to be within

reasonable limits, depending on the specifics of the project.


• Skills and time required of staff and students;

- Students would need to be offered more opportunity to develop their writing and communication skills to enable a

sufficiently large number of students to participate in the project.

- Current strains on management capacity restrict the available time of appropriately qualified staff.


• Feasibility of attaching assessment elements to the exercise;

It is possible to attach assessment elements, but this would require significant changes in the assessment strategy of a number of modules.

• Existence (or not) of similar innovations in other Economics programmes and potential for sharing good practice;

Communication skills are currently obtaining a stronger emphasis, creating opportunities for future sharing of good practice.


• Potential for collaborative working with our Faculty’s Journalism courses.

Staff at the Faculty’s Journalism courses are open for cooperation on developing an economics magazine in one form or another.


Conclusions:• The envisioned project is desirable and would fit

the aims and ambitions of the School of Economics.

• But given the disappointing recruitment numbers for the BA Applied Economics, the project would require a more substantial input of managerial capacity than the School can currently spare.


Documents

HEA Economics Network Project: Students Magazine on Current Economic Affairs 2009 Willem Spanjers School of Economics Kingston University