Embedding Inclusivity in Economics Curriculum Development

The discipline of Economics in the UK has a significant diversity and inclusivity problem. Women, black students, and students from working class backgrounds are under-represented in higher education and academia. For example, in the UK, 1 in 29 British men study economics for their first degree, compared to 1 in 105 for women. Women are also under-represented in academia, making up just 20-30% of academic economists. Black students are less likely to go on to postgraduate study, and thus are not underrepresented in academia. A 2017 project by Runnymede Trust identified just 6 Black female professors in Economics in the UK.

The emerging literature on these issues is thin and tends to focus on challenges regarding progression and the attainment gap. A few explanations have been forwarded as to why there is a white male bias within economics, such as mainstream economics itself being implicitly ‘male’ by drawing on male norms and language. Further, mainstream economics is viewed to be euro/western centric, drawing primarily on the theories of (dead) white men, and downplays the importance of colonial histories and slavery.  

However, scholarship on these issues is scarce and focuses primarily on undergraduate students, with no literature focusing on these challenges at postgraduate level. Therefore, little is known about how these dynamics play out in the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate economics education. 

The economics discipline is developing a new MSc in Economics. We aim to explore these issues with our current undergraduate student population and recent alumni to ensure that the MSc curriculum is developed to foster inclusivity with respect to gender, race, and class.