Research
Our society has worked to produce research on that details the successes and shortcomings of our education. This research is a foundation for our campaigns. If you would like to contact us in relation to these reports, please email: post.crasheconomics@gmail.com.
Is Economics Education Fit for the 21st Century?
This report is the most comprehensive study of economics education at the University of Manchester, since the release of our previous report, Economics, Education and Unlearning, in 2014. We have worked with Rethinking Economics England and Wales to analyse our education in the context of some of the biggest socio-economic challenges we face today; asking is our education fit to train economists of the 21st Century?
Unfortunately not: only 2 of the 43 theory modules we graded discussed ecological sustainability, no economics modules discussed slavery or colonialism and real world economics is relegated to a limited number of elective modules. While there has been some positive change as a result of our campaigning, it has been slow progress in a fast-changing world. We are disappointed that our economics education is stuck in the same rut it was in 2014, dominated by neoclassical economics and inadequate to train the economists we need to solve the challenges of the 21st century.
Spurred on by frustration at our education, we have created a proposal for a new economics education at UoM; one where society, ecology and mathematics are rebalanced, such that all students will graduate with a critical understanding of the economy they live in. We are asking the department to reimagine the guiding principles of economics education, away from optimisation, efficiency and growth and towards an evidence-based, regenerative and pluralist approach to teaching economics that benefits people and the planet.
Economics Education and Unlearning
The report moves the story forward by making it easier for the press, policymakers and the public to understand the issue, as well as outlining proposals for change. It is a detailed, evidence-based argument outlining the shortcomings of economics education at the University of Manchester. However, its implications are far broader than a single university. The homogeneity of economics education on a global level is well documented and the widespread frustration with it is evidenced by the existence of similar student movements in countries from China to Chile, from India to North America and all over Europe. Students are in revolt. With fresh insights and perspective we, the children of the financial crisis, are determined that the economies that we create will do better. The future is in our hands and we refuse to repeat past mistakes.
Praise for Economics, Education and Unlearning
“This report addresses a real need, for a more pluralistic and varied approach to the economics curriculum at university level. The mainline of economics from Adam Smith onwards is diverse and often departs from the current mainstream and the way that the subject is taught needs to recognise this. I welcome this contribution to discussion about the way we should explore the living tradition of economic thought and the light it casts on the contemporary world.“
Dr Stephen Davies
Education Director, Institute of Economic Affairs
“This is a very important Report by the Post-Crash Economics Society. They explore the existing curriculum in careful detail, displaying the narrow theoretical monoculture which characterises not only Manchester’s curriculum but most economics degree courses in the UK and, indeed, the world. They outline what they think the curriculum should be: a programme geared to the problems of the actual economy through history, using the diversity of analyses that have developed through the years. The Report is a landmark: scrupulous, well-informed, passionate, it is required reading for every head of an economics department and highly recommended for everyone interested in the future of economics.
Prof Victoria Chick
Emeritus Professor of Economics at UCL and co-founder of the Post-Keynesian Economics Study Group