An Coiste Feabhais Acadúil
The Committee on Academic Quality Improvement
The Academic Quality Assurance Programme 2004-2005
Report to Údarás na hOllscoile
Review of
Department of Economics
Self-Assessment
Review Group Visit
Follow Up Meeting
Sept 2004 to Jan 2005
3rd & 4th March, 2005
14th October 2005
This Report was compiled for members of Údarás na hOllscoile, NUI Galway and its
committees as a readily accessible but comprehensive source of information on the above
review, its context and its outcomes.
Professor Jim Gosling, Director of Quality, February 2006
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Report to Údarás – Review of Department of Economics 2004–2005
1. Overview of Department
1.1 Aims an Objectives of the Department
• To prepare and deliver quality programmes and courses to undergraduate, graduate and
part-time students
• To carry out research in areas of expertise of staff members and to address issues of
relevance to the society and community in which we live.
1.2 Background
The Department’s present head (Mr Brendan Kennelly) took up his position ‘in rotation’ for
three years in March 2005.
1.3 Student numbers
The number of fulltime equivalent (FTE) students in the Department was 529 in the year
2003/04, representing an increase of 39% in the five years since 1998–99.
1.4 Staff to Student ratio
In 2003–04, the number of fulltime equivalent (FTE) academic staff in the Department was
18.8, giving a student: staff ratio of 28 in year ending 2004. This ratio was 21 in 1998–99.
1.5 Accommodation and Facilities
The Department is located in St Anthony’s college on the North Campus. At the time of the
review visit some staff members had offices in Ros Riala, about 150 m further away from the
Quadrangle on Newcastle Road. By the end of 2006, the whole Department will be
consolidated in St Anthony’s.
2. Review Group Visit and Report
The Review Group consisted of: Professor Victoria Chick, Remax House, University College
London (Chairman); Professor Fred Lee, Department of Economics, University of MissouriKansas City; Mr Des Geraghty, Blackrock, Dublin and Dr Seamus Grimes, Department of
Geography, NUI Galway; and Dr Adrienne Gorman, Department of Biochemistry, NUI Galway
acting as Rapporteur. The Department prepared a 'Self Assessment Report' that, with other
documentation, was made available to the review team in advance of their visit.
2.1 Concluding Remarks and Recommendations from Report
Concluding remarks
We have been generally very impressed by the Department. The staff are very committed to
teaching, research and community service and carry out all of these activities to an extremely
high standard. We note that the process of writing the Self-Assessment report has already been
helpful to you and your new Head of Department, and are aware that some of our
recommendations were already under way prior to our visit. Our comments and
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recommendations are intended to be constructive and we hope that through our report we can
contribute something to your continued success.
Recommendations
Organization and management
1.
We recommend more frequent Departmental meetings with minutes that are disseminated to the Department.
2.
Smaller groups with a natural linkage could also usefully meet and feed their deliberations into the wider
Departmental meetings. Minutes should also be kept of these meetings.
3.
More formal means of communication should be used, alongside present informal methods.
Programmes and instruction
Undergraduate teaching
4.
We recognise that staff have given the first-year course a great deal of thought. Nevertheless we feel that it
can be developed further to stimulate the involvement and interest of all first year students (including first
year Arts and Commerce students). The content should reflect the fact that many students may only take one
year but should carry with them an appreciation of fundamental economic principles to enhance their general
education. To achieve that objective may require some significant recasting of existing material.
5.
While Commerce students could be considered a captive audience they cannot be taken for granted.
6.
The Arts students pose a different challenge. As potential second and third year economics students they
require greater encouragement, stimulation and challenges. Some strategies to consider:
•
better presentation and promotion of Economics as an option in the entry weeks of students. This
might be done in consultation with CELT.
•
putting more interesting material from later years into first year course. Some suggestions to
consider: perhaps start with examples from life, or current economic events/problems, or situate
the subject in its history, or orientate material around questions such as what is the nature of
economic problems, how do policy makers deal with them, why is it a separate subject?
•
covering material to show that Economics includes a plurality of approaches as well as a
historical understanding of the discipline.
•
providing more help to overcome deficiencies in mathematical skills..
•
the Department could consider using the expertise of CELT in analysing why students choose to
continue with or drop Economics in 2nd year.
7.
We recommend that there should be student representatives for each individual module, in sufficient
number to represent the whole mix of students that are in that class. This is particularly important for large
classes.
8.
It may be helpful to have more tutorials (one per week rather than one per fortnight was suggested by some
students) and for problems arising from lecture material to be included.
9.
There is also a case for considering a reduction in ‘large class lecturing with hundreds of students’ in
favour of fewer lectures (maybe with smaller numbers) and more tutorials; as well as more student
contact in seminars, discussions or reviews of deficiencies in their previous education (i.e., maths,
economics or computer literacy, etc.) in the early months of 1st year.
10. All course outlines should be accessible on the Departmental website.
11. The Department might find it helpful to monitor for a time the results of students with and without prior
study in Economics and with strong and weak mathematics backgrounds
Postgraduate teaching
12. With regard to organisation of the courses we would like to suggest the following:
•
We recommend the Department set out in a handbook (and on their website) the seamless progression
between the Higher Diploma and the MA programme and between the MA and the MPhil/PhD
programme.
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•
The connection between the Semester I theory course and the rest of the MA programme should be
better conveyed to the students.
•
The maths content of MA teaching needs to be evaluated, with particular reference to Masters students
who will or will not continue to the PhD programme. A formal introductory course at the beginning of
the programme may be appropriate.
•
The MA programme would benefit from exposure of the students to a broader range of theoretical
perspectives that would contribute to a wider range of economic policy and planning.
•
The quantitative research methodology in the postgraduate programmes may be too limited for the
kind of research the postgraduate students may be engaged in; therefore the Department should
consider broadening it to include qualitative methods.
13. The Department could do more to attract non-Galway PhD students. An orientation day for non-NUI
Galway graduates who do postgraduate courses would facilitate their rapid integration into the programme
and the University.
14. Researchers and PhDs should be strongly encouraged to present their work in seminars. Attendance at
conferences should be encouraged even if the student is not presenting.
15. With regard to the teaching of tutorials by the MA students we suggest:
•
these part-time teaching assistants would benefit from some kind of formal training in teaching,
possibly leading to a certificate (this could be done in conjunction with CELT).
•
the quality of the tutorials may benefit from the tutors attending the lectures. This is especially
important if the Department takes up the earlier suggestion to deal with lecture material in tutorials.
16. The Department needs to raise its profile in terms of teaching programmes, and excellence of teaching and
research, by developing and maintaining its website.
17. Where the range of resources for MPhil course work is limited, we recommend using the full resources of
the umbrella organisation of the National University of Ireland (NUI). The NUI can also serve as a source
of second supervisors and even internal examiners. This is done routinely in the University of London, a
federal University like the NUI, and it is being pursued by the universities participating in the Scottish
Doctoral Programme even though those universities are independent. It might be worth finding out if the
University of Wales also provides a precedent. It is worth determining whether changes in regulations
would be required.
Scholarship and Research
18. The Department needs a strategy that will facilitate future funding and will fit into the priority areas of
NUI Galway, while protecting individual research. Greater involvement of staff in the communications
media might be encouraged to give more visibility to the type of research work being carried on in NUI
Galway.
19. The website needs to be developed considerably for many reasons: an important one is to raise the image
of the Department internationally, and to increase potential postgraduate students’ awareness of the
strengths of the Department.
20. Conference participation should be strongly encouraged. The Discussion Paper series can be revived
comparatively cheaply on the web. Libraries within Ireland and selected libraries abroad should be made
aware of this initiative and care should be taken to ensure that Papers are retrievable by search engines.
21. The Department needs to develop a coherent strategy for the future development of its research. This
should include:
•
reflection on how research activity and output contributes towards Departmental identity and
coherence.
•
Identification of areas to be further developed by means of new appointments.
•
development of a strategy to enhance the research capabilities of those with a comparatively low
research profile.
22. The lack of funding for PhD students to travel to conferences and to visit other universities for courses
and modules should be addressed. The Department should actively seek sources for this necessary funding
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Community service
23. The Department should reflect on priorities in regard to their community service activites. Some suggested
areas could be:
•
regional issues such as economic development of the region, rural development, environmental and
infrastructural deficiencies in the catchment area of the University
•
the debate on the allocation of regional funding from the EU and the dichotomy between the excessive
growth rates and over-concentration in the Eastern part of the country, and the needs of the Western
region to sustain employment in rural communities and the natural environment.
Other issues:
24. The review group felt that the Department is underselling itself to the undergraduate community of
students and to the University. It also needs to improve its interface with the outside world by developing
the website, encouraging participation in conferences etc. Most urgently, the website needs to be updated
and improved to:
•
include outlines of all the undergraduate and postgraduate courses
•
advertise work being done by the Department and individual staff members
•
advertise research vacancies
25. There is a generally positive view of the University library service. However, the Department could make
better use of space in the Departmental library:
•
Stock hard-to-get publications (such as journals, government documents, and working papers) that
cannot be found in the University library
•
Improve the physical environment of the library so that the postgraduate students find it a congenial
place to read journals, work on research papers, and engage in conversations about their research.
26. The Department can contribute to the funding of post-graduate students (especially MA students) by using
their PTA funds to hire them. This may make students members of University’s staff and therefore make
them eligible for a reduction of fees.
3. Action Plans
Follow up Meeting Friday 14th October 2005, 2.00 pm.
in SAC Meeting Room, St. Anthony’s.
Present: Professor J Browne – Registrar, Professor J Gosling – Director of Quality (Chair), Dr Seamus Grimes –
Review Group Cognate, Professor Michael Keane – Dean of Commerce Faculty, Mr Declan Ashe – Arts Faculty
Representative, Dr Iain MacLabhrainn – Director of CELT, Professor Roy Green – Research Office
Representative, Mr. Brendan Kennelly - Head of Department, Mr Eoghan Garvey, Dr Ruvin Geeker, Dr Aidan
Kane, Dr Terrance McDonough, Ms Claire Noone, Professor Eamon O’Shea, Dr. Lorna Ryan, Dr Gerard Turley ,
Mr Cian Twomey, Dr Thomas van Rensburg, Professor Vela Velupillai, Dr S Raghvendra, Ms Geraldine Lyons (in
attendance).
3.1 Action Plan for the Department:
1. The Department has redefined its Aims & Objectives in accord with the recommendation in
the Review Report and will revise its current mission statement by April 2006.
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2. The Department will have bi-monthly meetings during each academic year, chaired by the
Head of Department. Minutes will be distributed promptly and, as necessary sub-committees
and working groups will be established to look at specific issues.
3. The Department will hold a one-day off-campus meeting for all staff to review strategies
and progress, and explore new initiatives in the spring of 2006, as the first of an annual
series.
4. The Department is embarked on a number of initiatives to reinvigorate its undergraduate
academic programmes in both Arts and Commerce;
•
Measures to reduce class sizes have been introduced:
i. Class sizes in core courses have been reduced by splitting classes in two and
doubling the number of times lectures are given.
ii. The number of tutorials in 1st and 2nd year has been increased and in 1st year
they are now weekly rather than biweekly.
•
The Department will review its first year course with a view to expanding the
number and quality of students who choose Economics in 1st year, particularly in the
Arts Faculty. Consideration will be given to streaming students depending on their
background in economics and/or mathematics.
•
The Department will make a greater effort to persuade more Commerce students to
take the economics stream in their third (final) year. Two or more streams will be
offered to final year Commerce students.
•
The possibility of establishing a single subject degree in economics in the Arts
Faculty will be explored.
5. The Department will review its postgraduate programmes with a number of objectives:
•
To redesign the Masters in Rural Development programme so that it is more
attractive to key actors in the region.
•
To attract more international students.
•
To develop new programmes in areas related to a particular existing expertise (e.g.
computational finance, environmental economics).
•
To explore the possibility of developing new short professional courses in
appropriate areas of expertise such as financial modelling, social gerontology and
rural development.
6. The Department has a newly redesigned website up and running and training will be
provided to administration staff in-order to maintain the site. Current content includes:
•
Detailed information regarding the progression from the undergraduate programmes
to postgraduate study.
•
Downloadable working papers
• Information on upcoming internal seminars/workshops and relevant conferences.
7. The Department is committed to developing its individual, team-based and cooperative
research programmes. Its objectives include:
•
Consolidation and expansion of research expertise in the areas already identified,
•
Maintenance and growth of the recent rates of research funding obtained from
external sources, including PRTLI, SFI, IRCHSS and the EU, as well as agencies
with interests in particular areas of public policy such as health, environment, rural
development and social care.
•
Facilitation of individuals and research groups in meeting targets with respect to
research output.
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•
Consolidation and expansion of established close links with other universities and
research institutes.
•
Organising more conferences and workshops.
•
Preparing to take advantage of relevant national initiatives such as proposals for
nationally coordinated graduate schools.
8. The Department will designate individual members of academic staff to work with
University service and support units so as to consolidate and improve available facilities and
resources, including:
•
The James Hardiman Library to achieve increased access to on-line databases such
as the ‘OECD suite’, and Ecowin, an economic and financial database.
•
The Buildings Office to facilitate the improvement of accommodation and to
establish a more visible presence for the Department in St. Anthony’s.
•
Staff Training and Development to facilitate volunteering staff members having a
more prominent public profile in the national and local media.
3.2 Action Plan for University Management:
1. The Registrar will try to support initiatives by the Department (or in which the Department
participates) to promote and facilitate greater intellectual engagement by first year students.
2. The Librarian and relevant subject librarians will meet with the Department to discuss its
needs, including access to the OECD suite of databases and Ecowin (Economic & Financial
Database).
3. The Director of Physical Resources and relevant mangers in the Buildings Office will meet
with the Department to review the Department’s needs, including:
•
Signage
•
Space for research staff.
Approved by: Head of Department, Mr B Kennelly, 15 December 2005
Approved by: Dean of Commerce Faculty, Professor M Keane, 19 December 2005
Approved by: Dean of Arts, Professor John Marshall, 18 January 2006
Approved by: Registrar, Professor J Browne, 22 December 2005
Approved by: Vice President for Research, Professor N Canny, 20 December 2005
Approved by: Director of CELT, Dr I MacLabhrainn, 1 February 2006
Finalised: 1 February 2006, Jim Gosling, Director of Quality
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