The Current State of Undergraduate Economics in the United Kingdom

report of the economics profession, and to the Royal Economic Society's analysis of the relation between economics and business studies.2 In particular the survey was designed to discover the desired and actual characteristics of student intake, especially the position of 'A' level economics as a potential prerequisite and influence on performance, and to elicit information on departments' philosophies of education. The intention was less to produce a detailed statistical description of the current situation, than to gain an impression of how departments themselves saw the evolving trends, and how they proposed to deal with them. Questionnaire replies were received from 57 of the 75 institutions which offer single or joint honours degrees, and cross-checks with UGC and DCP sources indicated a coverage of over two-thirds of university economics graduates, and over 90g0 of those from polytechnics. From I 983 to i 987 the numbers of both graduates and entrants rose substantially. The average university department reported an increase of over 20% in admissions; the average polytechnic department, over a 250% rise. This expansion has now stopped and for the period from i988 to 1992 the average expected increase across both sectors is only 400. The survey shows that central government funding and the institutions' central decision-making apparatuses were equally the most important constraints on the growth of the subject. Student demand was the least important limitation. The results indicate buoyant demand, but suggest the existence of institutional obstacles to the translation of that demand into places, even if the system as a whole is made more responsive to student wishes. Thirty-nine of the reporting institutions have both management and economics courses, and sixteen of the respondents felt that the management degrees inhibited the growth of the economics programmes. This response was more common where the economics and management departments were administratively linked. As there are moves, particularly in polytechnics, to

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• On the Relation Between Degree Function, Course Structure, and Entrant Qualifications in Economics 1

  Colin Lawson•Assessment & Evaluation in Higher…•1991

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• The Current State of the British Economics Profession

  Ruth Towse, Mark Blaug•The Economic Journal•1990

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