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Rethinking Undergraduate Economics Education
Worldwide, a concerted and systematic criticism of the way economics is taught began after the onslaught of the 2007 global financial crisis. In India, postgraduate economics education has received more attention than its undergraduate counterpart. After identifying some structural constraints of undergraduate education in India, a set of curricular and pedagogic recommendations to improve undergraduate economics education is explored.
We are grateful to G Omkarnath for valuable advice.
Since the 2007 global financial crisis, much has happened to the economics curriculum worldwide due to mobilisations by economics teachers and students. This is largely because of the dissatisfaction amongst teachers and students with the orthodox and instrumental nature of economics education. Over roughly the same period, the landscape of higher education in India has expanded with an increase in the number of public and private universities. This has led to a sharp increase in the number of economics programmes available to students.
Moreover, the economy has been drastically transforming in the last two decades, and it has brought along with it a growing demand for trained economists from diverse fields such as banking and finance, social sector, policy, and teaching. However, this has not led to any significant rethinking of our economics education (curriculum, pedagogy, resources, linkages) in the Indian educational system, be it schools, colleges, or universities. In fact, there has been a real dearth of economists dealing with the question of curriculum.
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