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Economic Society (economic + society)
Selected AbstractsEconomic Society of Australia's Distinguished Fellow for 2009 Acceptance Speech,ECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2009Ross Garnaut [source] SURVEYING UNIVERSITY STUDENT STANDARDS IN ECONOMICSECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 2 2005Peter Abelson In late 2003 and early 2004 the Economic Society of Australia surveyed the Heads of Economics Departments in Australia to determine their views on three main issues: student standards; major factors affecting these standards; and policy implications. This paper describes the main results of the survey, reviews the conduct and value of this kind of survey, and discusses policy implications for economics in universities. Most respondents considered that student standards have declined and that the main causes include lower entry standards, high student/staff ratios, and a declining culture of study. However, some respondents argued that standards are multi-dimensional and that people may properly attach different weights to different attributes. Strong precautions assuring anonymity to respondents minimised strategic responses, but may not have eliminated them entirely. However, the respondents' views were based largely on experience rather than evidence and a major finding of this paper is the need for more evidence on standards and on the factors that influence them. Most respondents favoured a decentralised university-based approach to dealing with these issues, contending that centralised accreditation is inappropriate and that market forces would promote quality issues. In the writer's view, externally set and assessed exams as part of university examination procedures would lift standards and send out improved market signals. [source] The Econometrics Journal of the Royal Economic SocietyTHE ECONOMETRICS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2008Richard J. Smith Managing Editor No abstract is available for this article. [source] Australian Conference of Economists 2007 (ACE07) Best Student Paper Prize Sponsored by Blackwell-Wiley and the Tasmanian Branch of the Economic Society of AustraliaTHE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 2008Article first published online: 28 AUG 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] |