Our Goal

To promote the love of learning and to make economics more accessible for all secondary and college students in the UK.

The Challenge

 

We find five hurdles for education and economics:

  1. There is severe inequality in education in general. In 2016, Durham University found that children at independent schools receive an "equivalent of two additional years of schooling by the age of 16" compared to children at state schools. Yet, 93% of English students go to state-aided schools.

  2. There exist barriers for state school pupils to study economics. Many state schools do not have economics or business departments. It follows that pupils at these schools often choose other A-Levels, even if they are interested in economics. When the time comes to apply for university, these pupils find themselves better equipped for a degree in engineering, say, rather than economics. For pupils interested in engineering, this is no problem at all. But what about the pupil who could be the next John Nash or Esther Duflo?

  3. There exists a general distrust towards economic research and economists post-financial crisis. The highly mathematical nature of professional economics, combined with the lack of exposure to economics at a pre-undergraduate level, and economists' failure to predict the financial crisis, translates into an understandably wary and weary public.

  4. Economics affects everyone. Keynes famously wrote that "practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." Whether a pupil goes on to study economics at university or not, policies advocated by their MP will most likely have far-reaching, often unintended, economic implications.

  5. The assumptions of economics are too often taken at face value. History has shown us that economics must maintain its openness to different fields and perspectives. Its original name, political economy, should give away its inherently political nature. In other words, it is not clear cut. From relatively recent work in psychology, which challenges the universal assumption of rationality (such as Kahneman & Tversky 1979, Simon 1955, and Thaler 1980) to the ethics of usury proposed by Aristotle in the 4th century BC, economics has always needed to consider a wide array of views.

The Opportunity

At an international level, the UK is comparatively fortunate to have literacy rates of 99% and enforceable mandatory education until GCSEs. Now that everyone is in school, we must focus on bringing about better learning in schools.

We are at the dawn of a new era. A new era where quality meets quantity. Khan Academy and Coursera have only appeared in the past dozen years. We hope to utilise today's unparalleled interconnectivity to bring about some small benefit to education and economics.

Our Strategy

 

We achieve our goal through the following three principles:

  1. We believe in maximising member participation. We encourage all our members to get involved in the varied events we provide. Getting involved may be in the form of attending or leading a guided learning session, publishing an economics book review on our website, or writing your own well-informed opinion articles. We provide plenty of opportunities to participate; find out more here, and get involved here.

  2. We believe in flexible leadership from our generation. Our leadership positions, including credit for founding roles, are meritocratic and continuously subject to review. All of our leadership team are drawn from our general student membership. Any general member may, for review, request access to our database of a team member's contributions. Though this system is by no means perfect, it allows us to achieve healthy competition (not rivalry) within the organisation, spurring us forward towards our goal of a quality economics education for all.
    Our unique student leadership also allows us to engage our target demographic like no other. We understand what it is like both to study economics at A-Level, and not to have the opportunity to do so. We also utilise our grasp on behaviour online to propel quality economics content through platforms such as Instagram. Please find out more by contacting us.

  3. We believe in partnership. There are undoubtedly many institutions and individuals far more knowledgeable about economics and education than we are. By combining our partners' expertise with our network and understanding, we can synergise and play into each other's strengths. To find out who we partner with, click here.