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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:19:17 2006 |
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================= HES POSTING =================
At the University of Connecticut, we decided to continue to REQUIRE BOTH
economic history AND history of economic thought in our doctoral program.
Indeed, we made the diversity of economics available in the department a
central focus of our recruiting effort. Thus, while we insist on a very
thorough grounding in "mainstream neoclasscial analysis", we also insist
students have an understanding of the intellectual origins and evolution
of the field and of the actual, empirical, "hard data" of how economies
have functioned. Together with a careful restructuring of the overall
set of course sequences (we have a stand-alone MA program that is highly
successful) and vastly improved dissertation supervision (we cut average
time to completion from 9+ years to 5.6 years), this emphasis has permitted
us to recruit many top students in competition with "marque" programs
that have abandoned all interest in both history and history of thought.
I should add that we take teaching quite seriously as well, and try to
prepare our doctoral students to teach in a liberal arts environment--which
is where the vast majority of academic jobs are. While our ratings haven't
improved, both our input--quality of entering students--and our placement
has improved dramatically; I also think our level of satisfaction with what
we are doing as a faculty (who, even with quality attention to supervision
and teaching, manage to publish at nearly 3 articles per capita annually)
is much higher.
So our experience argues very strongly in support of Peter's strategic
suggestions for building a quality program.
Fred C.
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Prof. Fred V. Carstensen Office: (860) 486-0614
Department of Economics Dept: (860) 486-3022
341 Mansfield Road FAX: (860) 486-4463
University of Connecticut Home: (860) 242-6355
Storrs, CT 06269-1063 e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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