News from the Economics Network

We're pleased to announce that the booking for this year's Developments in Economics Education conference is now open! The conference will be at the University of Exeter's Business School on the 5th and 6th September, and includes a keynote address by John Kay, one of Britain's leading economists and a patron of the Economics Network. On Wednesday 4th September, the EN will be hosting a welcome drinks reception following a meeting for our interdepartmental research project; both these events are open to all conference delegates

Please visit our website to reserve your place.

This year we have added several new chapters to our online handbook. These guides are written and edited by practicing academics and are packed with specific examples, tips and case studies. Topics include "Assessment and Feedback", "Dealing with students' diverse skills in maths and stats", "Creative uses of in-class technology", "Assessment Design and Methods", "Curriculum design for the twenty-first century", "Designing ab initio postgraduate degrees", and "Supporting International Students of Economics in UK Higher Education".

Steve Cook of Swansea University Business School has shared a short case study, including a downloadable Excel spreadsheet, about demonstrating the diversification effect and related issues.

From Steve Cook of Swansea University, our latest case study "provides a discussion of time series decomposition along a data set and solutions illustrating its application using real world data, drawn from a classic article in applied econometrics." It comes with a downloadable spreadsheet containing the data, solutions and notes.

Two attendees at our Graduate Teaching Assistants' workshop have given us case studies. In "Teaching economics to social scientists: is current practice fit for purpose?" Eric Golson talks about firing up students' interest with real-world examples. In "Case Study from a GTA Workshop" Suparna Ray writes about the different skills a GTA has to develop, and how an Economics Network workshop helped.

The Festival of Economics is happening in Bristol over the next two days (Friday and Saturday). Organised by the Festival of Ideas and programmed by Diane Coyle, this includes four discussion events looking at the recent failures and future prospects for the subject. The Economics Network will have a stand, so please come and say hello. Follow @FestivalofIdeas on Twitter for updates.

Newly published on the Economics Network site is a case study from Gherardo Girardi of London Metropolitan University about prompting students to reflect on their own motivations for taking their course. This arose from a project funded by the Economics Network.

We are delighted to announce the individuals and organisations who have become patrons or partners of the Economics Network. See our site for the full list.