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Abstract
Before 1980, strong demand existed in Australia for the economics degree. Since then, competition from programs in business and management has increased. Student preferences have shifted from university and secondary economics. Economics enrollments have declined in both sectors. The authors analyze these trends and assess economic education publications by Australian economists.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Bernhard Lobmayr, Kerrie Round, and Minya Scace for research assistance; their colleagues George Bredon, Bernadetta Chaustowski, Ron McIver, and Neil Webster for useful feedback on earlier drafts of the article; the invited participants for their comments at the Symposium on International Economic Education sponsored by the Committee on Economic Education of the American Economic Association, the Journal of Economic Education, and the Council for Economic Education, held in San Francisco on January 6, 2009; and John Siegfried, who provided the commentary on the article at the symposium.
Notes
1. This is a phenomenon that was explored by CitationRound and Siegfried (1994).
2. A more detailed lament on the rise of business studies at the expense of economics may be found in CitationMillmow's (1997) work.
3. By contrast, CitationGuest and Duhs (2002) found many shortcomings in the pedagogy of teaching economics in two Queensland Universities (teach too much; teach material that is too theoretical; focus on difficult issues rather than more fundamental issues; inappropriate assessment methods; need for more knowledge of subject material, better oral communication, and greater teacher enthusiasm). Those researchers also noted that the Australian academic reward structure encourages professors to spend time at the margin on research rather than on teaching.
4. He also reported that in 2000 there were 37 “identifiable” departments of economics, whereas by 2008 there were only 27, through either disbandment or through being folded into business schools.
5. In contrast to the standard explanations, CitationDavidson (2001) suggested the decline in economics resulted from the general impact of postmodern educational analysis that moves students away from rigor and toward the analysis of motive; the lack of discussion about institutional factors in first-year courses; and poor university teaching.
6. Alternatively, it may be argued that economists have been too successful in convincing others as to the centrality of economics. Most business, finance, management, marketing, and other courses now include one economics subject in their programs, as well as economic concepts in their curricula. The decline of economics as a single degree may really be the result of the decline in its academic monopoly and the transfer of its ideas and concepts into multiple disciplines.
7. The data for all enrolled students and graduating students exhibit very similar trends and are not provided here. They are discussed in a longer version of this article available from the authors.
8. The honors degree in economics in Australia includes a fourth year of advanced coursework, together with a thesis of around 15,000 words. To the best of our knowledge, there are no honors-year programs in Australia based on getting high grades or studying additional subjects through the three undergraduate years, as happens with some engineering and law honors degrees.
9. The data used in this section were sourced from the Australian Government at http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/statistics/selected_higher_education_statistics. We start our analysis from 2001, as the data from this year on have been recorded differently than were those from previous years, making direct comparisons with earlier years problematic, certainly in terms of absolute numbers, less so perhaps in percentage (relative to all enrollments) terms.
10. The national figures hide considerable discrepancies between the states. These figures may be obtained from the authors.
11. The corresponding figure for male economics enrollments as a percentage of all male commencing tertiary enrollments has also fallen, but from 1.44 percent to 1.39 percent.
12. The proportion of females undertaking honors degrees fluctuated considerably, the figures for each of the years 2001 to 2007 being, respectively, 40.7, 35.4, 42.1, 38.7, 36.9, 27.8, and 41.0 percent.
13. To some extent economics and law are complements, through the double degree programs offered by most universities now, but business, management, and accounting degrees are largely seen as substitutes by students.
14. We are grateful to John Siegfried for this observation.
15. Although there is some variation among the states, convergence over the years has been noticeable. For a typical set of year 12 syllabi, from South Australia, see http://www.ssabsa.sa.edu.au/cs-stage2.htm. URLs for the other states are available from the authors.
16. Data on year 12 results by subject are available from the Web sites of the various state matriculation assessment authorities. The URLs for the various Australasian Curriculum Assessment and Certification Authorities may be obtained from the authors.
17. Year 12 enrollments, both in total and in our four subjects of interest, are relatively small in the ACT (Canberra), the Northern Territory, and Tasmania. No data were available before 2001 for Victoria or before 2000 for Western Australia.
18. There also exist published proceedings of various conferences. These include the annual Australasian Teaching Economics Conference (generally published informally by the economics department that hosted the conference; e.g., the 13th and latest was held at the University of Western Sydney in September 2008); the Quantitative Analysis of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Business, Economics and Commerce Forum (proceedings available from University of Melbourne—to date there have been four conferences); and the proceedings of the annual conference of the Higher Education and Research and Development Society (which has an occasional paper series on economic education). See http://www.herdsa.org.au.
19. Becker also had four articles published in our journals of interest, but gets relegated to a footnote as a non-(albeit almost an honorary) Australian.
20. A brief mention should also be made of the journal formerly known as Economics, and now The EBE Journal. It is currently in its 44th volume, and is published quarterly by Economics and Business Educators New South Wales (the former Economics and Commercial Teachers’ Association of NSW). Formerly a journal that covered only economics, its cover now lists in nonalphabetical order commerce, business studies, economics, and legal studies, presumably indicating the hierarchy of its focus. Its goal is to provide secondary teachers with relevant articles that can be printed, edited, or amended to suit their teaching requirements. Contributions come from academics, secondary teachers, real-world economists, and policymakers.