Centre for Research in Economics Education (CREEd)

The mission of the Centre for Research in Economics Education (CREEd) is to advance the vibrant research field of applied economics of education. The topics we work on include, but are not limited to, human capital accumulation, returns to investment in education, education policies and systems, and education methods and outcomes. We aim to produce research based on micro-level data and well-defined identification strategies.

Based on our applied research, we advance the way we teach economics and create, evaluate, implement and spread the impact of best-practice methods in teaching economics. We disseminate our research at top journals and field conferences, and aim to improve how economics is taught across economics departments both in the UK and abroad.

Strategic goal

Our overall strategic goal is to position CREEd among the top-5 research centres in the country in the field of economics of education. Having such centre at the RHUL Economics Department creates multiple advantages:

• It reinforces the existing strengths of the RHUL Economics Department in the nexus between evaluation economics and the economics of education.

• It spreads the word about Economics to prospective students who would otherwise not consider it as an appropriate professional field.

• It improves the teaching experience of students by making sure that staff members are use the most up-to-date methods to make our students better economists.

• It provides PhD and Early Career Researchers with support to develop their teaching of economics skills.

• It provides career advancement opportunities for teaching-focused faculty.

• It generates external funding for applied projects.

We work in 3 broad impact areas:

The Covid pandemic has transformed virtually every Economics department across the globe into a laboratory for innovative education. It is time the work done so far is evaluated for impact on student learning and job market outcomes. To this end:

• We acknowledge the rapidly changing industry we work in. The changes to the education sector are coming from three directions: (i) technological innovation; (ii) demographic restructuring, and (iii) government policy changes. Our work will advance the understanding of how changes coming from each of those directions affect learning outcomes, returns to investment in education and attainment gaps across the variety of key demographic groups College is working with.

• Our research focus is in two closely related fields: (i) the economics of higher education – a subfield of Labour Economics in which the Economics Department has a leading role in the UK, and (ii) economics education and pedagogical practices in Economics, in which the Department is gradually building a profile.

• We continuously examine and re-evaluate the curriculum work at the Department by introducing novel assessment practices and bridging the state-of-the-art academic research to the skills required by the labour market from our graduates.

• We apply for research grants in the field of economics education and teaching to be able to advance our work in the field.

• We work in fields closely tied with the strategic goals of the School of Law and Social Sciences (SLSS), and RHUL more broadly. For example, we plan to evaluate elements of the Department’s hybrid teaching model carrying the capacity to reduce attainment gaps across key demographic groups. In turn, this will create a knowledge exchange platform for scaling our insights and policy implications.

• We disseminate our research results on conferences and research seminars organised by CREEd.

• While our research work is distinct among social sciences, we will work closely with similar formal and informal groups of colleagues in the School of Law and Social Science and at the College level to explore synergies in research and scholarship.

• Our teaching-focused arm takes part in knowledge-exchange groups and events at the LSS level, most notably the School Teaching Innovation Group, as well as the College level, with the help of the Educational Development team.

• We build and take part in networks of teaching-focused staff around the UK (e.g. the Economics Network, CTALE, the CORE network).

• We focus on work done with students around assessment practices and inform College about those leading to the reduction in attainment gaps across key demographics. Thus, we contribute to the development of new, inclusive assessment and activities across College, which may position RHUL in a leadership role across the sector. RHUL has the advantage of serving a variety of demographic groups. In turn, this produces an excellent environment for an action plan and research agendas around inclusive, resilient, and sustainable assessment practices developed within CREEd.

• Based on our knowledge creation and exchange activities, we:

o     develop new pedagogical practices and methods in Economics education, lead their adoption in the Economics Department and, through our collaborative work with colleagues from other departments, across the SLSS and beyond

o     recognise the need to address ongoing and emerging issues with student satisfaction across the Department. To this end, CREEd provides a professional development platform for sharing best practices in teaching, so that both the Economics department and other SLSS departments streamline their student satisfaction activities.

• We guide and provide mentorship to colleagues into expanding their teaching portfolios in 3 areas: (i) education activities; (ii) core knowledge about how students learn; and (iii) implementing professional values, in line with the UK Professional Standards Framework. The work in these areas shortens the path of colleagues to achieving professional practice certificates, e.g. FHEA, SFHEA and PFHEA. By providing leadership in this area we help colleagues become certified along the HEA (Advance HE) Fellowship track, as well as other recognitions.

• We help young colleagues, notably PhD students and teaching fellows, in their work to improve their professional practice before they go on the labour market. This would improve their competitive standing among other job market candidates at the same level.

Here is the latest:

06/2023 Students from Royal Holloway are proposing ideas for assessment reforms in order to reduce attainment gaps in economics. The students will present their ideas and we will announce the winning proposals on the upcoming Assessment Codesign Cocreation Conference on 27/06/2023. 

06/2023 Petar Stankov is giving a keynote address at the International AHE Conference 2023 in Manchester, UK. His presentation is on Are Exams Authentic Assessment: The Case of Economics.

05/2023 Petar Stankov has become an Associate of the Economics Network – the largest network of education-minded economists in the world. As an associate, Petar will be working on a variety of projects to improve and promote economics education in the UK and around the world.

03/2023 Petar Stankov’s paper The Death of Exams? Student Satisfaction and Grade Inflation When Coursework Replaces Exams, has been accepted for presentation at the 93^rd Southern Economic Association annual meeting in November 2023. More to follow here.

11/2022 Petar Stankov is presenting his 'Revision Session Neutrality' work at the SEA Presidential Sessions, part of the SEA 92nd Annual Meeting, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

07/2022 Arnaud Chevalier is leading the outreach work among students from disadvantaged background who could consider economics as their professional choice. The work has been supported by a Royal Economic Society Discover Economics grant scheme. As part of the project, RHUL will raise interest in studying economics to groups currently under-represented in the student body: women, the socio-economically disadvantaged, and ethnic minorities. We will also highlight the role of in-demand data analytics skills to prospective students. We will use the chance to promote the great career opportunities an Economics degree gives to our students. As part of our promotion efforts, we will launch the latest undergraduate course offered by the RHUL Economics department: BSc Economics and Data Science.

06/2022 Petar Stankov is presenting his work on the 'Authenticity of Final Exams' at the annual TeachECONference2022 organised by the CTaLE, UK's leading centre for teaching and learning economics

06/2022 Jungyoon Lee and Petar Stankov took part in the RHUL Assessment Futures Symposium. They discussed ways to formulate course learning outcomes and the feasibility of matching course-level assessment.

06/2022 Jungyoon Lee and Petar Stankov took part in the RHUL Teaching and Learning Symposium. They discussed assessment strategies and outreach activities to smooth the transition of freshers into their new academic life.

05/2022 Petar Stankov presented his work on Attainment Gaps and Authenticity: Reforming Assessment in an Advanced UG Module at the RHUL Teaching and Learning Symposium

04/2022 Petar Stankov led the advisory work of RHUL Economics Department members who submitted applications for the annual College Excellence in Teaching Awards.

03/2022 Martin Enilov, a lecturer (TF) at RHUL Economics for the 2021/22 academic year, completed a report on attainment gaps across the UG courses offered by the RHUL Economics Department. Congrats to Martin who has accepted a position as a lecturer at the Univesity of Southampton!

03/2022 Arnaud Chevalier received a grant by the Royal Economic Society to enhance outreach activities of the RHUL Economics Department. Congratulations!

02/2022 Internal seminar on Education Matters

12/2021 Lena Hassani Nezhad, Dan Anderberg, Arnaud Chevalier, Melanie Lührmann and Ronni Pavan have just published their work on Higher Education Financing and the Educational Aspirations of Teenagers and their Parents in the Economics of Education Review, Vol. 85, 102175

12/2021 Upskilling workshops were held to step up preparations for the HEA (Advance HE) Fellowship and Senior Fellowships applications. RHUL's Education Development team was leading the work. Special thanks goes to Lynne Francis for investing her time to help colleagues with their portfolios.

12/2021 Joris Tieleman from Our New Economy, presented his new publication of Economy Studies: A Guide to Rethinking Economics Education.

11/2021 Stefania Paredes-Fuentes gave a talk on her newest experiment with economics assessment. Stefania is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, a Deputy Director of UG Studies for Economics, and a Deputy Chair of the Education Committee at their Faculty of Social Sciences. She is currently working in various research projects on Economic Education including how students engage with resources and how these resources contribute to their performance in assessments. She is also an editor for "Teaching Macroeconomics: A Modern and Inclusive Approach", which is to be published in 2022.

09/2021 Petar Stankov presented his work on Pedagogical Risk-Taking Under Uncertainty: The RHUL Flexible Teaching Model at the Teaching and Learning Symposium 2021 at University of East London.

Our team features well-published researchers in the field of economics education, as well as teaching-focused staff at the Economics Department:

• Prof. Arnaud Chevalier: A long-term head of RHUL Economics Department (up to 2020) with an active research profile in labour economics and economics education. Prof. Chevalier sits on the Teaching Excellence Framework board, and steers the work of the rest of the team. He has published work in the field of economics education in journals such as: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society; Research in Labour Economics; Manchester School; IZA Journal of Labour Economics; and the Economics of Education Review.

• Prof. Dan Anderberg: The active head of the RHUL Economics Department, with an impressive publication track in the fields of labour economics and education economics, and a successful research funding portfolio.

• Prof. Melanie Luhrmann: An active researcher in the field of economics education, with education economics articles published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society; the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy; the Journal of Banking and Finance, and most recently, the Economics of Education Review.

• Prof. Andrew Seltzer: An active researcher with contributions to the field of economics education published in Journal of Economic Education.

• Dr. Petar Stankov: A teaching-focused staff, Senior Fellow of HEA, with an active research agenda in the field of teaching economics and economics education. Petar Stankov led the team who adjusted the teaching model of the Department in line with the post-pandemic professional practice and economics education literature.

• Dr. Hui-Fai Shing: A member of the Economics Department teaching group, with significant administrative contribution to the work of the department.

• Dr. Vinay Nundlall: A member of the Economics Department teaching group, with significant administrative contribution to the work of the department.

• Dr. Pierre-Olivier Fortin: A member of the Economics Department teaching group running the Employability sequence of modules; responsible for establishing the links between the Department and the College Career office.

• Dr. Bjoern Hartig: An experimental laboratory officer, with vital contribution to the teaching practice of the Economics Department and the adoption of new teaching methods.