Do students like CORE?

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Hi, I’m Carlos Cortinhas, a professor of economics at the University of Exeter and one of the contributors to the CORE project. 

CORE works because it’s relevant.

Every year since the start of the project, we have tried an experiment in classrooms around the world. On the first day of their first class in economics, we ask students: ‘What is the most pressing problem that economists should address?’ The resulting word clouds show the student’s responses. 

Over the years, the results have been consistent - for over 8,000 students at 40 universities from 18 countries inequality has been consistently the most pressing issue - in 2016, 2018
and 2020 - together with climate change, unemployment, sustainability, poverty and, most recently, Covid-19.

At the same time, students in economics all over the world were asking: ‘Why has the subject of economics become detached from our experience of real life?’

CORE aligns economics teaching with topics that are relevant to our experience of real life today and to students’ interests: inequality, financial instability, the climate crisis and environmental degradation, wealth creation, the future of work and innovation.

Students tell us this matters to them. 

CORE also works because it’s engaging.

From student surveys and instructors’ reports we learned that students are more engaged with CORE material as it addresses the questions that motivated them to take up economics in the first place.

In my own course, I teach by first using examples drawn from real life, and then applying theory and models to make sense of it - as a result, students now have a course in which they take part in discussions using this method. 

CORE’s pedagogy is oriented towards actively engaging students:  
By using interactive figures students learn the models at their own pace, 
Economist in Action videos provide a taste of the process of discovery that is part of economics research and the CORE approach,
At the end of sections, they can attempt questions with feedback to test their understanding

Here is one personal statement from a student that brings that message home.

Ultimately then, students value CORE because they know it prepares them for the world they are entering after their degree, to be able to debate the serious problems facing our societies, and to participate in the development of an informed climate of public opinion.