In a leafy Georgian Square in Bristol, with the sun shining and a gentle breeze, the Economics Network team feverishly work away. Under piles of paper, ringing telephones, urgent emails and constant organisation, the team strive to promote high quality learning and teaching in the Higher Education economics community. The dynamic team incorporates a range of individuals, each endeavouring to do all they can for Economics.
I hear you asking ‘What little gem have I stumbled upon?' but, the Economics Network is one of 24 such Subject Centres. Each Subject Centre (SC), be it BMAF (Business, Management, Accounting and Finance) or Law have similar goals but each specialising within their respective subject.
Everyone knows that you can't make something out of nothing, so where did we all come from? Much further North than the leafy parts of Bristol lies a well insulated office where a bustle of people strive to provide the best possible learning experience for students. In York lies the Higher Education Academy, some may say the Daddy of the Subject Centres, but certainly the HQ. Here, the operations of the nationally placed SC's is analysed as well as numerous operations to improve learning and teaching across all subjects.
And of course there's the question of money. This site was funded by the Royal Economic Society, one of the oldest economic associations in the world. Now in its second century, it currently has over 3,300 individual members. One of its aims is the promotion and encouragement of the study of economic science in academic life, government service, banking, industry and public affairs. Together we were an obvious fit to make this website.
The Economics Network is lucky. Not only does it have a fantastic office, a wonderful community and a sense of worth, but we also happen to reside in a lively Institute. Although all SC's are national, they are based in Universities nationwide (Materials are at the University of Liverpool, Computing and Information at Ulster University etc) we are at the University of Bristol. Based in the Institute of Learning and Research Technology (ILRT), the Economics Network is often at the sharp edge of the technology knife, often allowing us to offer our community the starter before others have even looked at the menu.
The lovely site you have just spent a few minutes perusing through aims to encourage you to study economics. Here in the office we struggle to see why anyone wouldn't want to study economics, (our blinkered eyes expressing an interest in anything to do with exchange rates, commodities, oil prices, the FTSE, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, t tables, the budget...the list is endless) but we want to be like margarine. We want to spread our passion and to make you excited whenever you hear the word ‘economics'.
With this in mind, have another little look through our site and you will find a wonderful story, a story of your economics experience, from first year module choices, through to your dissertation and perhaps, even to further study. As you look through our site and discover the help, tips and advice we offer, we hope it is useful, we hope you enjoy economics as we do, we hope you feel invigorated by you degree - who knows, one day you may just end up in a busy office in a leafy part of Bristol.