Revise the University of Manchester's Economic Syllabus

This is very welcome but hugely overdue. I learned my Economics as part of a first degree that encompassed Economics, Philosophy and Sociology. Little did I realise at the time how critical Economics was during the New Deal period. You need to dismantle the entire framework of curricular controls otherwise your efforts to recover a critical Economics will fall at the first hurdle. This is a very good start coming as it does from the students themselves.

This is very welcome but hugely overdue. I learned my Economics as part of a first degree that encompassed Economics, Philosophy and Sociology. Little did I realise at the time how critical Economics was during the New Deal period. You need to dismantle the entire framework of curricular controls otherwise your efforts to recover a critical Economics will fall at the first hurdle. This is a very good start coming as it does from the students themselves.

I hope University of Manchester can take the lead to initiate a change in the economics syllabus such that other universities in England or around the globe can follow.

Realistic views of the current economic world need to be taken into account at not just the University of Manchester, but in Universities all over the world.

I entirely support your timely initiative. I am undertaking postgraduate work at Cambridge University, including political economy.

I am a farmer who lectured at Leeds University until 1990. I currently lead an economics group for Cupar U3a. Our studies are based on the classical work of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Henry George and we evaluate the mainstream economics as delivered by media pundits, politicians and officials of the Bank of England by comparison with the theory of the classical political economists. We have concluded that economics is a subject which, when stripped of meaningless jargon, is an enjoyable subject which can be made easily understandable by all interested people who are of above average intelligence.j

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/paul-seabright-criticizes-the-poverty-of-the-undergraduate-microeconomics-curriculum

I agree economics needs some rethinking. One of my essays on Sustainable Cities talks about Low Profit Corporations. Read and send me a tweet. ttp://bit.ly/17vMea3

Good for you! Manchester has always been a breeding ground, not so much of dissent (which by itself simply leads to a sterile way of thinking) but at least an alternative way of thinking. It has been quite successful in that (but Edinburgh did a better job, with Adam Smith et al. ...) My way of thinking is this: economists should learn the disipline of thermodynamics!! There is no such thing as a perfect gas, any more that there is any such thing as a perfect market. Molecules interact (mutually). So it is with the actors in the market. There is no simple "Boyle's law" in economics any more than there is in thermodynamics. There are interactions (/conflicts) between the "molecules". As I say: learn from thermodynamics. Contact me by email if you want to know more.

I have studied the high-growth economics being practised in Asia for over 42 years, and have published four books (two co-authored with Joh Carrington, two on my own) on "Financing Industrial Investment", "Revesing Economic Decline", "How Economic Growth and Inflation Happens" and "The Role of Banks in Economioc Development - the Economics of Industrial Resurgence." My 2013 writings can be seen at http://londonprogressivejournal.com/user/view/2285 (24 articles, soon to be 26). See in particular the articles headed "Another Keynes was Born and Lived and Died in Japan and The West Didn’t Notice" and "Shimomuran Economics is the Most Significant Advance Ever Made in Economic Understanding and the West Still Doesn't Get It" and "Currently Mistaken Ideas in Western Economics and Their Suggested Corrections (preferably soon)" Parts 1 and 2 and "The Master Economist Dr Osamu Shimomura - Probably the Greatest Economist of the 20th Century After John Maynard Keynes" and the other 20 articles.

I attended Manchester Business School in 1982. I am a graduate in History of Cardiff University (MA) and Swansea University (PhD)

YES! Keep going. There is nothing that will change our society for the better more than good education about economics and the unquestioned "gospel" of what is currently being taught.

i want a change!!! i

God speed!

I'm no economist, but I'm very much in favour of a plurality of views and perspectives made available to students so they are more capable of dealing with problems that arise in the future. It seems to me that neoclassical economics has been proved an inadequate perspective so often that this is a very serious and much needed change. I commend these students for their bravery and independent thinking.

Thankfully my tutor is specialised in Politics and helps giving a broader perspective to economic models. But the syllabus must definitely change.

I'm one hundred percent behind this. With each new course I take I can expect to be inundated with the same pedantic perspective on consumer theory and utility maximization (a la review session). My professors admit to the possibility of divergence from the Neoclassical, but never explicitly treat us with those abstractions. Aside from a cursory look at decision-making under uncertainty and some of Akerloff's work, not much attention is paid to anything outside the mainstream. I'm run a blog and social network at www.econstreams.com/ where I encourage students to write essays on the a-Platonic, historical, and far fringe of the economics spectrum. I like what you're doing. Please bring this to the University of Victoria!

Well done and it’s about time that the students started to shape future, rather than being indoctrinated into the ‘flat earth society’ know as neo-classical economics. I am no economist but post credit crunch heard about Steve Keen and read his fascinating book. I have also read work by Michael Hudson. Both have made significant progress in understanding the flaws of conventional thinking (there are of course other economists). Conventional thinking and theory must constantly be challenged. The whole system is set up to prevent challenge right from the outset. Even if the economic establishment refuses to change, the real world of business and finance will be willing to listen to alternative theories simply because it will give them an economic advantage. This will mean ultimately that conventional theory becomes redundant, and universities will be forced to change as a response. Keep up the good work.

This is a long-overdue request/campaign. The rate of destruction of our biosphere has been increasing --despite humans now knowing how the biosphere works and, thus, how any human activity ought to work within it. The unconscious era of human activity in spite of nature is over!

I'm not linked to the University at all but share the wider societal concern that economics graduates are not fit for purpose, judging by the so-called experts that get wheeled in by the BBC etc. Sort this shit out!