Dr Emma Gorman, Senior Research Fellow, wrote for the Times Higher Education magazine about how to allow and encourage wider access to economics degrees.
The article discusses how economics as a discipline has a diversity problem and outlines how widening access to the field would increase students’ social mobility, and why it is important that economic models are informed by diverse perspectives.
Dr Gorman, along with Amrit Amirapu and Amanda Gosling, Senior Lecturers in Economics at the University of Kent, offer five ways in which diversity in the field could be increased, including communicating what economists do, highlighting role models, lowering barriers to accessing economics degrees, introducing a common first year at universities, and increasing flexibility of provision.
Speaking about the importance of role models, the authors commented: “Student role models from widening participation initiatives, particularly those from underrepresented demographics (Black students and women, for example), can inspire the next generation. The benefits of this are borne out in the evidence: recent research shows that providing successful and charismatic role models can double the number of women who elect to study economics.”
Read the full article on Times Higher Education magazine’s website.
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