Our students have really embraced independent learning this year and many students entered the Royal Economic Society essay writing competition. They had a choice of five very varied essay titles from development economics to behavioural economics. Many chose to answer the more contemporary topics covering issues such as UK manufacturing and the Euro crisis.
We were truly impressed by the standard work our students achieved. We sent the top seven entries to Professor Peter Swann from Nottingham University as part of our internal competition. Peter Swann then visited Trent 12th May 2012 where we had an award ceremony and lunch.
The professor was really impressed by the all the essays he read and admitted to the students that he found it hard to choose the top 3. However, he eventually settled on the Kate Sotheran 1st Place: with an essay on how to revitalise UK manufacturing, Anna Wilding 2nd place: with the same topic and Blaise Dowell 3rd place: on whether austerity was the answer to the debt crisis. He made the following comments.
1st Place: Kate Sotheran
A beautifully written essay that was very well organised and very clear. I thought that it offered a very good account of the various supply side measures that might help. Well researched and good use of evidence.
2nd Place: Anna Wilding
A very nice overview of whether 'manufacturing matters' from various different perspectives, with some good use of analysis. This answer provided a good account of the problems of over-dependence on one sector. Well researched and good use of evidence.
3rd Place: Blaise Dowell
In some ways this was the hardest of the questions, but this essay offered some quite sophisticated thinking and discussion of the problems of austerity. Again, it was well researched and there was a good use of evidence.
From Left: Kate Sotheran, Peter Swann, Anna Wilding, Blaise Dowell and Max Stevens