An Coiste Feabhais Acadúil
The Committee on Academic Quality Improvement
The Academic Quality Assurance Programme 2004 – 2005
REVIEW OF
THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
FINAL REPORT
26 July 2005
Department of Economics: Review Report 2004–05
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This report arises from a visit by a review team to the Department of Economics on 3rd – 4th
March 2005. The Department had already prepared and submitted a 'Self Assessment Report'
that, with other documentation, was made available to the review team well in advance of the
visit.
The review team 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.
General overview
Coming here as a review group has been enjoyable and informative. We appreciate the input
of all those who contributed to the review by speaking to us and preparing a comprehensive
Self-Assessment Report. The review group were on the whole very impressed by the
Department. It is a strong department academically, with staff highly motivated in their
teaching, research and community service activities. There is a good collegiate atmosphere
and high levels of cooperation between staff members. There is a willingness to promote a
variety of viewpoints in a context where everyone feels equally valued. There is an informal
coherence in the Department that was not immediately obvious from the Self-Assessment
Report. Within the University the Department is highly regarded for its contributions to the
Commerce and Arts Faculties, and across many other disciplines.
The review group recognizes that this is a period of significant change both within the
University and in the wider external environment. The Department has people with the ability
and skills to address those changes. However, the review group observed certain inadequacies
in strategic management, coordination, formal communication and responsiveness to student
requirements. There is also a need for careful balancing of resources and utilization of people,
with their individual strengths, to consolidate the overall output and progress of the
Department.
Aims, objectives and planning
While the balance between competing aims is at the moment well poised, we are not
convinced that the Department has identified a clear sense of direction for the future. The
Department is forward-looking but it needs to develop clearer Aims and Objectives that will
drive its planning. In fact, the current mission statement of the Department (page 3 of the
Self-Assessment Report) seems to reflect rather than drive the activities ongoing within the
Department. The new Head could use the timing of this review as an opportunity to initiate
more strategic thinking for the future direction of the Department.
The aims of the Department require serious recasting to be much clearer, more focussed and
strategic. They also need to be understood by everyone in the Department and indeed by the
Commerce and Arts Faculties as well as the wider range of decision-makers in the University.
While the aims must fit with the strategic view of the Commerce and Arts Faculties, clear aims
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could give added value to determining the entire direction of the educational status of the
Faculties.
For example, the review group felt that while the Department was very responsive to requests
to give courses in Arts and Commerce Faculties and requests to get involved in community
service activities, it was not clear how these activities fitted into the aims and objectives of the
Department. Also, the Department needs to develop a clear strategy of how to attract more
students from the Arts faculty, how it will cope with future changes such as changing student
demographics and changes to the B Comm or the funding environment for research.
The Department needs to seek to combine the autonomy of staff and their individual
specializations and strengths in a more co-ordinated (if diverse) way to fulfil clear objectives.
Recommendations
1. The list of Aims and Objectives should be few, distinct, and yet related. These should
cater both for Commerce and Arts students and for the input of the Department into
other academic streams. For example: ‘To achieve world class excellence in the
teaching of economics and research and to integrate fundamental economic principles
into other disciplines to enhance the overall educational standards of NUI Galway
graduates.’ The current mission statement should be replaced by a clear, simple
statement of mission in easily understood English/Irish.
2. Planning should become a central collective activity of the Department, with the use of
clusters or small groups (e.g. committees with defined terms of reference) that work in
consultation and dialogue with the entire Department.
3. Important planning issues are, for example:
•
recruiting more Arts students into 2nd year, improving the perception of
Economics as a discipline and an opportunity for students.
•
collectively supporting the efforts of those best placed to locate research
funding and redistributing work load to accommodate this activity.
•
fostering communication with and among students, researchers, research
students (especially those doing PhDs) and with the external community.
Organization and management
The Department has excellent informal communications that seems to work very well. There
is a very good relationship between staff members, and an atmosphere of cooperation in
teaching and research activities. People are generally well-motivated and committed. The
activities of the Department are supported by three well-motivated, cooperative administrators
who have a good interest in the efficient running of the Department and the welfare of the
students. If, as expected, the Department grows, additional administrative support will be
needed.
It was also evident that the Department has a good record of attendance at Faculty and other
University meetings. However, until recently there have not been regular Departmental
meetings with minutes. The review group thinks that regular Departmental meetings at
reasonably frequent intervals are a necessary forum through which the Department can effect
change and implement strategy.
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Recommendations
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
There is a complex offering of undergraduate courses to reach many constituencies. It is
evident that this complexity is well managed and that the offerings are, on the whole, both
appropriate and exciting. The review group noted the strong commitment of the academic staff
and part-time teaching assistants to undergraduate teaching and learning. There is a
willingness to promote understanding of a plurality of viewpoints in a context where
individuals with different strengths feel equally valued and are used to best effect.
Student feedback from meeting with students was generally very positive: they like the
lecturers and find them approachable and helpful, particularly at final year level. Students
find the Department is on a par with other Departments that they take courses with. Final year
students, in particular, seem to enjoy the material. The staff are innovative in their teaching
and a number of them have been active in using Blackboard. The staff are pro-active in
reviewing their courses and should continue to do so in dialogue with the students.
The major concerns expressed by students were in regard to the first year course. Students
with varied backgrounds in Economics take the same course, leaving those without prior
background feeling lost and somewhat intimidated. They felt that the lecture class sizes are too
big, that the course is pitched at too high a level, that the material is not interesting enough and
that they do not know who to contact if they are having difficulties. The tutorials are a very
important part of the first year teaching course. However, students feel that they are not held
frequently enough and that some time needs to be devoted to problems with the material
covered in lectures rather than dealing only with assignments.
The attraction of Arts students into second year Economics was recognized as an important
issue by the staff. There are two basic tensions concerning the first year Economics course:
first, between the desire to challenge students and to attract them (we know students can be
put off by challenge) and second, between a concept of the first year course as the gateway to
progression through a conventional Economics degree course, and a course explaining basic
principles in a way that demonstrates the connection between the subject and real life. These
tensions may be at least partly responsible for the loss of potential Arts students to Economics
and we feel that particular attention should be paid to the first three weeks of the course, when
the choice of subjects is still open.
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Department of Economics: Review Report 2004–05
Recommendations
1. We recognize 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.
2. While Commerce students could be considered a captive audience they cannot be
taken for granted.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. All course outlines should be accessible on the Departmental website.
8. 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
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Postgraduate teaching
At postgraduate level, again we are reassureed by the range of offerings. The Department are
open to commentary and discussion to improve and consolidate their programmes. They are
on a trajectory to develop innovative programmes that are distinctive from others in Ireland.
The MA is the flagship programme of the Department and is currently unique in Ireland in
having summer placements. This is recognized as a very strong feature that contributes
towards the development of the PhD programme and is highly valued by students.
However, there needs to be a clearer connection between the Higher Diploma and the MA
programme and between the MA and the MPhil/PhD programmes. Indeed, the process of
integrating the MAs, the MPhil and the PhD has already received much attention and is well
underway. Also, the perception of many of the MA students of the Semester I Micro theory
course is that it is unrelated to the rest of the programme. While this may not be the case, the
connection needs to be conveyed to the students. The MA students feel that they are
unprepared for the course in terms of the level of mathematics that is required of them, and it
is unclear to the review group whether this level of maths is necessary. Feedback from postgraduate students who obtained their undergraduate degrees in universities other than NUI
Galway indicates that they would appreciate an orientation session at the beginning of their
studies in NUI Galway. The PhD students expressed a sense of isolation within the
Department. The review group also felt that the researcher in the Department may be more
isolated than is ideal.
Recommendations
1. 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.
•
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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. With regard to the teaching of tutorials by the MA students we suggest:
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•
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.
5. The Department needs to raise its profile in terms of teaching programmes, and excellence
of teaching and research, by developing and maintaining its website.
6. 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
The review group was extremely impressed with the research activities of the Department. The
quality and number of publications demonstrates a strong commitment of the staff to research.
They have had an active involvement in many research initiatives: Spatial, resource and
environmental economics; Public and social policy; Theory, history of thought, and
methodology; Economic modelling; Innovation and structural change; Computable and
behavioural economics. All members of the Department engage in research and scholarship.
However, one of us who has looked at CVs of staff, observed that there are a number of staff
whose research and publication activity could be enhanced. The Department should consider
ways to encourage their greater research/scholarship activity without affecting researchers
who are already heavily engaged. This would greatly enhance the Department’s research
profile.
Research in the Department, while evolving, now represents a well-balanced combination of
individual and collaborative, funded efforts. While the dual approach of individual research
and funded research is appropriate, the latter will clearly grow. Two resource issues arise. The
Department will need to find a way to protect and encourage individual scholarship even if it
is not funded. And PhD student numbers can be expected to grow along with funded research.
This too will have some resource implications.
Synergies and visibility
The Department has a number of worldclass scholars who add considerable prestige to the
Department. More generally, the Department is in a transition period in terms of research.
Sources of funding are expanding and a number of research specialities are emerging. It has
been described as the ‘most eclectic Department of Economics in the country’. It is striving to
develop coherence and is aware of the need to devise a strategy that will facilitate future
funding and fit well into the priority areas of NUI Galway. Such areas include Innovation and
Structural Change, Rural Development and Environmental Change. Departmental members
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may have to make a strong case at the University level for other areas to be recognized. For
example, the areas of Public and Social Policy, Economic Modelling, and Theory-History of
Thought-Methodology are very important to building and maintaining the national and
international academic reputation of the Department. Hence the Department needs to support
and promote these areas and make a strong case to the University that these areas must be
recognized as a way to promote the national and international academic reputation of the
University.
The nature of academia is such that individuals can be quite modest about promoting wide
recognition beyond the University. Consequently, credit for and visibility of involvement in
research projects depends on the initiative of individuals and hence may be quite uneven.
Research is mainly reflected in the President’s Report, which is rather low-key in terms of
visibility. The involvement of Departmental members in emerging research centres such as
CISC, which are located outside the Department, can mean that the benefits and recognition
accruing to the department from such involvement may be rather tenuous.
When aggregated, the scale and volume of research activity in the Department is
considerable, but the Department is not exploiting sufficiently the critical mass of this
activity. This is partly related to the individualistic nature of interests and partly to the fact
that the overall activity takes place in separate centres which are linked with other University
Departments to some extent. Such interdisciplinary activity is very positive, but the
Department as such may not benefit as much as it might from full recognition of its activities.
Recommendations
1. The Department needs a strategy that will facilitate future funding and will fit into the
priority areas of NUI Galway, while protecting individual research.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
Synergies and Coherence
While there must be freedom for individualism in research activity, the Department needs to
reflect on how the Department as an entity can benefit in terms of developing a coherent
strategy for its future development. While historically it may be that sources of research
funding had a strong influence on determining the research agenda, increasingly diverse
sources of funding allow greater discretion in developing agendas that can be academically
critical and can contribute to Departmental coherence.
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The current profile of research activity and its linkages to postgraduate opportunities is quite
diverse. This results in clusters of postgraduates in areas connected with particular projects or
programmes. Some reflection is needed on how research activity and output contributes
towards Departmental identity and coherence, and to identifying which areas will be further
developed by means of new appointments. To some extent areas of priority have already been
identified by the University and the Department needs to work within this framework. The
Department is strong in research and it faces challenges in selection, prioritization and
coherence because of that success. For example, there is some element of fragmentation of
research activity within the Department with members finding it difficult to participate in the
growing number of seminar series.
The linkage between research and postgraduate training also needs careful consideration.
There already exists considerable experience of training students at the Masters level. With
the rapid growth in PhD numbers, challenges are emerging in terms of the provision of an
integrated programme for this diverse group of young researchers.
Recommendations
1. 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.
2. 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.
Community service
Individual staff members participate in a wide range of activities of benefit to the wider
community and the region. The Department makes an important contribution to policy debates
on a broad range of issues (both national and regional). The review group were pleased to note
their positive attitudes to requests to participate in largely pro bono activities.
However, some thought should be given to priorities in this regard that will be supported
collectively by the Department and make use of the valuable contacts that have been
developed by staff. Some issues that could be considered are regional issues such as economic
development of the region, including rural development, environmental and infrastructural
deficiencies in the catchment area of the University. There is also the contribution the
Department could make to 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 both employment in rural
communities and the natural environment. All of these offer opportunities to enhance the
standing of the Department within the University and with political decision-makers. This
could be critical when seeking extra resources for the Department.
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Recommendations
1. 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
Communication
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
Departmental library
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.
Post-graduate funding
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.
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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
recommendations are intended to be constructive and we hope that through our report we can
contribute something to your continued success.
Comments on The Methodology of the Review Process
1. The review group found that while the Self-Assessment Report was very detailed it was
relatively opaque to outsiders.
2. Material such as staff CVs could be sent to the evaluators by e-mail attachments a couple
of weeks prior to the arrival at Galway.
3. Historical data such as student numbers by module, year, and degree and teaching staff and
rank for the period since the last evaluation would be useful in obtaining an overall historical
picture of the department's activities.
Professor Victoria Chick (Chair)
Professor Fred Lee
Mr Des Geraghty
Dr Seamus Grimes
Dr Adrienne Gorman (Rapporteur)
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