Economics subject review

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A score of 21 points out of a possible 24 in this month's assessment of teaching by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) came as a disappointment to the Economics subject group. "I thought 22 was what we deserved," said Dr Barry Reilly, who has been Subject Chair since 1997.

The group, which has 14 teaching faculty, an average of 25 postgraduates and an undergraduate intake of 75-80 each year, took heart from the numerous positive features identified by the review team.

The assessors praised the subject group's effective use of diagnostic testing, leading to streaming for some first-year courses and the selective use of postgraduate teaching assistants.

"If students are taught within a pretty homogeneous group, they don't feel as intimidated," said Barry. "The monitoring procedures we have in place suggest that students favour this. They've felt it has enhanced their learning."

The review team described the teaching by postgraduate assistants as "excellent" and praised the subject group for its established peer observation scheme, which involves junior faculty observing senior faculty and vice versa.

The QAA team also commended the group's web provision and teaching materials, for which Shoshana Ormonde (the Subject Group Co-ordinator) is responsible. "As a teaching aid they're very important," said Barry. "We use them a lot in the first and second years, for core courses."

Barry said that the students themselves gave the assessors a very positive account of their learning experience. "At the end of the day, it's the students who'll make a judgement about us - and our students seem extremely happy: with the way we're teaching them, how we're teaching them and what they're learning."