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Knowledge and Understanding

To enable students to obtain knowledge and understanding of economics as defined above.

Cognitive Skills

(a) perception – to improve knowledge of economic phenomena and processes
(b) intuition – to encourage ‘economic awareness’ in the appreciation of social phenomena. Students should appreciate arguments about the costs and benefits of economic activity; and the concept of opportunity cost (and understand its paradoxical nature). They should understand the nature of probabilistic thinking. This is not necessarily taught in courses on statistics, but by its nature relies on an intuitive understanding of the uncertain character of the world.
(c) reasoning – we aim to enable the students to think like economists – i.e. to reason rigorously in terms of cause and effect and to use both the methods of induction and deduction. Students should learn that economic thinking involves both simplification (e.g. thinking in terms of models, and utilising the ceteris paribus principle) and rigour.

Practical/Transferable Skills

Students should be able to justify an intellectual position within a group context, and argue that position against the criticisms of other students and members of staff. In many courses, students are required to introduce a tutorial subject, for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes, and defend their position.

Practical skills:
The distinction between ‘practical’ and other skills is not wholly applicable in an academic degree programme of this sort. In this section we mention that students should acquire many of the numerical skills needed by the economist, including quantitative and statistical methods. Some courses, such as Microeconomic Theory, adopt a problem-centred approach in order to reinforce the more theoretical material presented by lecturers. Students are expected to be computer competent – to be able to use programs such as Office and so on. We also encourage students to learn an additional foreign language while at ³Ô¹ÏÍø.

The examinations enable us to evaluate the ability of students to sustain an intellectual argument and to marshal evidence. Performance in tutorials is also indicative of these skills.

Some examinations emphasise use of problem solving skills. Use of problem solving sheets in tutorials? A special computer course is arranged in the first year which all students are required to pass. Languages are taught through language laboratory work.