How Undergraduate Students Will Study Economics

Starting next academic year, a general course in Economics will be taught in all undergraduate  programmes where economics is not included as a major. Alexander Tarasov, Head of the Department of Theoretical Economics, spoke about this innovation.

Alexander Tarasov
Head of the Department of Theoretical Economics

The main idea of this general course in Economics is first of all to introduce students doing non-economic majors to an economic way of thinking, to provide them with the basics of economic literacy, and to show how this knowledge can be used in real life. In particular, this year we have restructured the general course in economics.

What will change in the new academic year

This will be a blended course based on the online course in Economics taught by Igor Kim on the National Open Education Platform. The course consists of two modules and is divided into two equal parts—microeconomics and macroeconomics. In addition to the online course, an online lecture on consumer theory will also be offered. It is not currently included in the course, but by September it will be incorporated either into the online Economics course or offered for viewing via the LMS.

What the course will be like

Given that next academic year, most undergraduate programmes will offer the general course in Economics, my colleagues and I have started planning how we will deliver this course for various degree programmes.

We offer two main course options, which include several configurations: a short course, where lectures will be held completely online, while the number of seminars will depend on the configuration, and an extended course, which involves weekly classroom lectures that complement and expand the online course. In the extended version, we are able to include additional topics at the request of the degree programme.

This approach helps to customize the discipline for each degree programme. For example, if we talk about natural sciences, students could potentially be interested in the mathematical component of the course topics – in this sense, the extended course enables students to discuss topics and issues that interest them from a mathematical perspective

July 09, 2020