Paul Riethmuller
University of Queensland
and Jessica Thomson
The Economics Network
The purpose of this census is to report on various aspects of economics degrees in the UK (both single and joint honours). It examines the structure of the academic year, teaching methods, the types of classes, class contact, the amount and type of assessment, the use of textbooks and the composition of the lecturing team delivering specific modules.
The study focused on core subjects studied on virtually all economics degrees. These include first-year modules in microeconomics and macroeconomics, both where these are taught separately and as a combined module, first-year quantitative methods, intermediate microeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics.
The census is designed to provide information, not currently available from a single source, that is useful for programme and module planning. The reports from the census are descriptive and not evaluative. They present the aggregate results and no individual institution is named. A key reason for this is to avoid the data being used for league tables.
