“You couldn’t wish for more from the project as a way of resetting the clock on the curriculum.” (Andy Haldane, former deputy governor of the Bank of England)
In 2008, the global financial crisis threatened to bring destroy the global economy. We were minutes away from the collapse of the global banking system.
And yet, in university lecture theatres around the world, it was like nothing had happened.
So, in 2013, a group of economists based at University College London set out to create economics curriculum that reflected the world around us: teaching students about topics like the environment, globalisation, inequality and innovation that the traditional curriculum either ignored or relegated to the back of the book. Today, CORE is taught in 200 countries, and many of the top economics universities including Oxford, Warwick, UCL, Columbia, Yale, Sciences Po, and the Toulouse School of Economics.
Since day one in 2013 I have been privileged to work with CORE, primarily as the editor of two text books: The Economy and Economy, Society, and Public Policy; but also as an editor, writer, project manager, and many other roles.
A new paradigm
In 1948, Paul Samuelson published Economics, the first of a new type of textbook that introduced students to modern economic thinking. Seven decades later, Seven decades later, economics teaching now has little to do with what economists do and has largely ignored the innovations in economics since then.
The CORE Project seeks to update economics teaching for the 21st century.
The Economy
CORE’s text for undergraduates is free and open access (as are all of CORE’s materials). If you think that economics ignores real-world problems, or doesn’t offer solutions, or thinks free markets solve all problems, this is the antidote.
“A bold revamp of how economics is taught at universities across the world is increasing students’ enthusiasm for their discipline as well as their grades.” (TLS)
Economy, Society, and Public Policy
Economics isn’t just for economists. We discovered that economics courses for non-specialists were unpopular with students, who found them boring, technical and abstract.
ESPP is a text that introduces CORE’s teaching to non-economics students in school university or business. It teaches data-handling techniques and emphasises policy options to solve some of society’s most important problems.
How CORE’s materials are created … and taught
The creation of ESPP
All CORE’s texts are a collaboration between academics, teachers, economists … and students. Listen to some of them talk about how they created the first version of ESPP.
Doing Economics
CORE’s third text is Doing Economics, a series of 12 empirical projects, using real-world data, which students can complete using either Excel or R. At the University of Bristol, the empirical projects have been incorporated into a groundbreaking interdisciplinary course.