Finally, students rebel against their economics courses

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/04/economics-students-overhaul-subject-teaching

This is a very positive step. Revolution is possible when people believe that they can affect their own destiny. Economics courses, including mine, are/were not fit for purpose and teach nothing of critical thinking nor engagement with the evolution of ideas, causes and consequences. Economics departments, in my experiences, tend to be bastions of the sort of failed neo-liberal dogma, backed by in-accessible, quantitative mumble jumble, that both turns people off economics, and in all honesty has meant that economics professors are so far up in their ivory towers, i'm not sure they really understand/care about real-world economics any more. They are more concerned with their quantitative models and defend current, neo-liberal economic orthodoxy.

[Red Economist]

Economics courses, including mine, are/were not fit for purpose and teach nothing of critical thinking nor engagement with the evolution of ideas, causes and consequences. Economics departments, in my experiences, tend to be bastions of the sort of failed neo-liberal dogma, backed by in-accessible, quantitative mumble jumble, that both turns people off economics, and in all honesty has meant that economics professors are so far up in their ivory towers, i'm not sure they really understand/care about real-world economics any more.

Same experience here. I was unlucky in that I studied economics in 07/08 and so left when the crash started and realized how rigid and out of touch the course materials were. I was reassured to see it happen in Manchester Universities 'Post-Crash Economics Society' but to hear that 41 protest groups from 19 different countries are trying to do the same thing is quite a 'revolt' of experience against dogma and gives me a great deal of satisfaction. :grin:

[cyu]

From http://www.revleft.com/vb/capitalist-science-self-t172025/index2.html

A foundation bankrolled by Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."

an advisory committee appointed by Koch decides which candidates should be considered. The foundation can also withdraw its funding if it's not happy with the faculty's choice or if the hires don't meet "objectives" set by Koch during annual evaluations.

During the first round of hiring in 2009, Koch rejected nearly 60 percent of the faculty's suggestions but ultimately agreed on two candidates.

Yale University once returned $20 million when the donor demanded veto power over appointments, saying such control was "unheard of."

"This is an egregious example of a public university being willing to sell itself for next to nothing."

rather than taking over entire academic departments, Koch is funding faculty who promote his agenda at universities where there are a variety of economic views. In addition to FSU, Koch has made similar arrangements at two other state schools, Clemson University in South Carolina and West Virginia University.

Bruce Benson, chairman of FSU's economics department, would fall into Koch's free-market camp.

A separate grant from BB&T funds a course on ethics and economics in which Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is required reading. The novel was recently made into a movie marketed to tea party members.

[exeexe]

I once had a course, and the teacher for this course was more than a teacher on this school, he had a higher position than other teachers, but for some reason he wanted to teach about economics. He didn't teach anything else. And the course was very rigid too with market fundamentalism and etc you get it.

Then I had an assignment once, it was the last one and the biggest one. It was about how do we get Denmark financially up and running.

First i dismantled the nationalist approach of the assignment. Then i argued that the working class should unite and get rid of capitalism, since it was capitalism that was the source of the problem in the first place.

It was funny. After he had read it he asked me if i had read Karl Marx Das Kapital, my answer was no. He was surprised to hear that, but then he told me he was adhering to the 2nd most leftist political party in Denmark. We have 8 political parties in our parliament. So being 2nd most leftist in Denmark is a thing.

It was so strange, with his high position in the school and then he insisted to teach about right wing economics. But i guess it just proves how much right wing economics has a good grab on the educational system.

[Markslenin]

I am very happy with this development. I remember taking my economics class arguing with the professor was nearly pointless. After several weeks of countering his arguments I eventually just started letting him talk and teach the class although anything besides neoliberal jargon was shot down immediately very frustrating.But like has already been said big corprate interest influence not only economics studies but also other departments.

[Pyronucleus]

I will be studying Economics at university soon. This is welcome news.