2021-2 MSc Economics and Public Policy Programme Design Document

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1	1. Admissions/ Management Information
2	Title of the programme – including any lower awards Please provide the titles used for all awards relating to this programme. Note: all programmes are required to have at least a Postgraduate Certificate exit award.
3	Masters				MSc in Economics and Public Policy
4	Postgraduate Diploma				N/A																									Please indicate if the Postgraduate Diploma is available as an entry point, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.																N/A
5	Postgraduate Certificate				PGCert Economics and Public Policy																									Please indicate if the Postgraduate Certificate is available as an entry points, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.																Exit
6	Level of qualification				Level 7
7	This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:															2021
8	Awarding institution																							Teaching institution
9	Unviersity of York																							University of York
10	Department(s): Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department																							Board of Studies
11	Lead Department		Economics and Related Studies																					GSB in Economics
12	Other contributing Departments:																							GSB in Economics
13	Route code (existing programmes only)															PMECOSPUB1
14	Admissions criteria
15	Minimum entry criterion is the equivalent of an upper second class degree primarily in Economics from a UK university.
16	Length and status of the programme(s) and mode(s) of study
17	Programme					Length (years/ months)				Status (full-time/ part-time) Please select				Start dates/months (if applicable – for programmes that have multiple intakes or start dates that differ from the usual academic year)										Mode
18
19																								Face-to-face, campus-based									Distance learning									Other
20	MSc in Economics and Public Policy					1 year				Full-time				N/A										Please select Y/N							Yes		Please select Y/N							No		For academic year 2021/22, the department will provide an online alternative to students who cannot attend due to travel restrictions, personal or medical reasons, or who may be required to isolate on a shorter-term basis due to COVID-19.
21	Language(s) of study
22	English
23	Language(s) of assessment
24	English
25	2. Programme accreditation by Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies (PSRB)
26	2.a. Is the programme recognised or accredited by a PSRB
27	Please Select Y/N:		No		if No move to section 3 if Yes complete the following questions
28	3. Additional Professional or Vocational Standards
29	Are there any additional requirements of accrediting bodies or PSRB or pre-requisite professional experience needed to study this programme?
30	Please Select Y/N:		No		if Yes, provide details
31	4. Programme leadership and programme team
32	4.a. Please name the programme leader for the year to which the programme design applies and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
33	William Jackson
34	5. Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
35	5.a. Statement of purpose for applicants to the Masters programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective masters student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
36	This programme explores the application of economic analysis to public policy, addressing major issues such as distributive justice, poverty relief, social insurance, taxation, education, health-care, retirement pensions and housing. It aims to equip you with the core theoretical and quantitative skills required for the economic analysis and appraisal of public policy by providing thorough training in microeconomics, public sector economics, quantitative methods and other aspects of applied economics relevant to policy issues. Compared with a standard MSc programme in economics, it places greater emphasis on applied skills and offers a wider range of policy-related modules. Alongside the core content of the programme, you can pursue specialised interests through a choice of optional modules in areas such as macroeconomics, labour economics and experimental economics. You undertake a dissertation, which improves your research skills through independent investigation of a topic of your own choice under the guidance of a dissertation supervisor. On graduating from the programme you will have a strong foundation for a career in government, the public sector, international organisations, research centres, consultancy firms or universities. The coursework and dissertation ensure that you are well qualified to proceed to doctoral study.
37	5.a.i Statement of purpose for applicants registering for the Postgraduate Diploma programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective diploma student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
38	N/A
39	5.b.i. Programme Learning Outcomes - Masters Please provide six to eight statements of what a graduate of the Masters programme will be able to do. If the document only covers a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma please specify four to six PLO statements in the sections 5.b.ii and 5.b.iii as appropriate. Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
40	PLO	On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
41	1	Understand the main economic techniques adopted for the analysis of public policy and explain to policy makers how these techniques can improve policy decisions. (Economic concepts and their application)
42	2	Locate, compile and present economic data on public policy matters, employing relevant software applications, and interpret such data critically. (Handling and interpretation of economic data)
43	3	Use econometrics and other quantitative methods in analysing complex data and undertaking formal empirical tests of economic models addressed to public policy questions. (Quantitative techniques)
44	4	Comprehend and utilise academic literature on the economics of public policy, with an ability to work independently, explain key ideas, and compare, contrast and synthesise different sources. (Use and evaluation of academic literature)
45	5	Apply the general principles of economic policy analysis to real policy issues, exercising independent judgement in the choice of appropriate techniques and using particular examples and case studies of policy decisions as a guide. (Economic analysis of policy)
46	6	Carry out rigorous, theoretically informed critical appraisal of current economic policies and policy proposals, with a capacity to assess alternative views and take account of the wider social, political and ethical context. (Critical appraisal of policy)
47	7	Plan and manage a project with minimal guidance informed by relevant and current knowledge, identifying an appropriate methodology that applies well-developed economic analysis skills to policy-related topics, and effectively communicate results. (Project planning and management)
48	5.c. Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
49	i) ... in what way will these PLOs result in an ambitious, challenging programme which stretches the students?
50	The PLOs reflect the ambitious aim of the programme, which is to equip students with the best skills available to undertake economic analysis of public policy. The programme and modules offered represent tuition of high quality that matches the standards of the best competitor programmes in the UK and around the world. The PLOs are designed to help students gain confidence through problem soving, essay wrting and discussion, and their learning is assessed through examinations and the writing of a 10,000 word dissertation.
51	ii) ... in what way will these PLOs produce a programme which is distinctive and advantageous to the student?
52	They give the students access to a set of analytical and quantitative skills to address public policy problems in the real world and to communicate their findings. By combining theory and empirical evidence, the programme offers advanced and comprehensive training which is valued by the wide range of employers of our graduates around the world as well as those recruiting into doctoral programmes.
53	iii) ... how the design of the programme enables students from diverse entry routes to transition successfully into the programme? For example, how does the organisation of the programme ensure solid foundations in disciplinary knowledge and understanding of conventions, language skills, mathematics and statistics skills, writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity
54	A special feature of the York graduate programme is the availability of the Summer Session for students who, in the opinion of the Graduate School, have the ability to successfully complete the one-year Masters programme, but whose background is not a first degree in economics or with a significant economics content. Such candidates may possess a relevant professional qualification, a degree in another social science, or a science or engineering degree with a high quantitative and analytical content. The Summer Session is also available as a free-standing course of instruction for any graduate interested in acquiring greater knowledge of economics and quantitative techniques. Some candidates have attending the Summer Session as a condition of their offer of a place on one of our MSc programmes. All MSc students have access to a mathematics and statistics review taught over a week before the programme starts to help reduce the impact of heterogeneity of background. An innovative element of the statistics review is the inclusion of a test that students can take before coming to York to help them identify areas they need to brush up on, a formative examination at the end of the review to serve as a diagnostic tool, and additional tutorial support for the first few weeks of the Autumn Term for those students who are likely to need the help. In addition, students are directed to the excellent service provided by the Maths Skills Centre to fill gaps in their mathematics and statistics background which they can access throughout their programme. We work with CELT to provide bespoke English language training. We provide an intensive pre-sessional language course followed up with lectures, concentrated in the first half of the term, and one-on-one drop-in sessions through the rest of the Autumn Term. In addition, we have in place a well-received provision in which each student receives a two hour session each week for eight weeks in the Summer Term to develop the language skills they need to write a dissertation.
55	iv) ... how the programme is designed to enable students to progress successfully - in a limited time frame - through to the end of the award? For example, the development of higher level research skills; enabling students to complete an independent study module; developing competence and confidence in practical skills/ professional skills. See QAA masters characteristics doument http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
56	The compulsory core of the programme develops the theoretical, quantitative and research skills that students will need to progress successfully to the end of the award. For those who do not have English as their first language additional support is offered through a term-long English writing course. The dissertation cultivates the ability to arrive at carefully reasoned conclusions. Time management skills, including efficient search and assessment of relevant literature, are an essential component of this process. The Department provides a suite of additional support for the module. There is a one hour “Introductory Lecture” delivered by the Dissertation Coordinator (or another senior member of academic staff) which provides guidance and a lot of detail, e.g. expectation of kind of output, looking for and choosing a topic, time line, bibliographic search, plagiarism, etc. In addition, a one hour lecture entitled “Data Resources and Econometric Software” is delivered in early February to each of three groups of students; these lectures provide information on data sources, econometric packages, mathematical packages, and word processing programmes---how to access them, search them, and use them---all of which are available through the University. There is also a one hour presentation by the Liaison Librarian for DERS later in February. The material for all three lectures is available on the module’s VLE site. Finally, there is a Dissertation Library on the VLE which is a useful source for dissertations submitted in the past which helps with topics and as a general guide. A matching process under the direction of the Dissertation Coordinator is used and it is expected that by mid-March most students will have found a supervisor and settled on a topic. The role of the supervisor is to help define the research task more precisely, to advise on relevant reading, data, if relevant, and what sort of econometric technique to use, or what model to use and what questions to use it to analyse. Work on the dissertation starts in earnest after the examinations with the supervisor expected to read and comment on a preliminary draft of the dissertation but to refrain from a lot of detailed supervision since that would defeat the purpose of learning to work independently.
57	v) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will develop students’ digital literacy skills and how technology-enhanced learning will be used to support active student learning through peer/tutor interaction, collaboration and formative (self) assessment opportunities (reference could be made to such as blogging, flipped classroooms, response 'clickers' in lectures, simulations, etc).
58	Students are taught a number of digital literacy skills through introduction to specific pieces of econometric and statistical software and how to collect data suitable for formal academic study. They are encouraged to make extensive use of the academic books and journal articles available in the library.
59	vi) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)? The programme's employablity objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
60	Students on this programme will leave with a training in economic and public policy analysis at a level which makes them very appealing to employers around the world. The skills that they have developed and the subject knowledge that they have acquired puts them in a strong position in the job market or to continue for further study.
61	viii) ... how learning and teaching on the programme are informed and led by research in the department/ Centre/ University?
62	All of the modules offered to students on this programme are informed by the current research of academic staff in the Department of Economics. Staff offer insights into their own published research in lectures and seminars, as well as providing advice in the dissertation process based on their own research experience.
63	5.d. Progression For masters programmes where students do not incrementally 'progress' on the completion of a discrete Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma, please summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of the PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of the set of modules or part thereof. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules and in circumstances where students registered on a higher award will exit early with a lower one. Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each masters PLO, but this can be done if preferred.
64	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate students will be able to: If the PG Cert is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the diploma/masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
65	To obtain the Postgraduate Certificate students need to complete at least 60 credits of taught modules. Any such combination of taught modules available as part of the MSc in Economics and Public Policy meets the PLOs for the Postgraduate Certificate. By the completion of the Certificate students will not have achieved PLO 7, but will have achieved the essential elements of PLOs 1 to 6, although their skills and depth of understanding of the material will be substantially lower as compared with students who complete the full MSc programme.
66	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma students will be able to: If the PG Diploma is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
67	NA
68	6. Reference points and programme regulations
69	6.a. Relevant Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement(s) and other relevant external reference points Please state relevant reference points consulted (e.g. Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, National Occupational Standards, Subject Benchmark Statements or the requirements of PSRBs): See also Taught Postgraduate Modular Scheme: Framework for Programme Design:
70	6.b. University award regulations
71	The University’s award and assessment regulations apply to all programmes: any exceptions that relate to this programme are approved by University Teaching Committee and are recorded at the end of this document.
72	7. Programme Structure
73	7.a. Module Structure and Summative Assessment Map Please complete the summary table below which shows the module structure and the pattern of summative assessment through the programme. IMPORTANT NOTE: If the structure of your programme does not fit the usual academic year (for instance students start at the beginning of September or in January) please contact your Academic Quality Team contact in the Academic Support Office for guidance on how to represent the structure in an alternative format. To clearly present the overall programme structure, include the name and details of each invidual CORE module in the rows below. For OPTION modules, ‘Option module’ or 'Option from list x' should be used in place of specifically including all named options. If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists by term of delivery or subject theme these lists should be provided in the next section (7.b). From the drop-down select 'S' to indicate the start of the module, 'A' to indicate the timing of each distinct summative assessment point (eg. essay submission/ exam), and 'E' to indicate the end of teaching delivery for the module (if the end of the module coincides with the summative assessment select 'EA'). It is not expected that each summative task will be listed where an overall module might be assessed cumulatively (for example weekly problem sheets). Summative assessment by exams should normally be scheduled in the spring week 1 and summer Common Assessment period (weeks 5-7). Where the summer CAP is used, a single ‘A’ can be used within the shaded cells as it is understood that you will not know in which week of the CAP the examination will take place. (NB: An additional resit assessment week is provided in week 10 of the summer term for postgraduate students. See Guide to Assessment, 5.4.a)
74	http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/registry-services/guide/ Please note that under University rules you may not study more than six modules simultaneously. The credit weight of the module does not matter for the purposes of this rule.
75	Full time structure
76	Credits	Module					Autumn Term										Spring Term										Summer Term										Summer Vacation
77		Code		Title			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
78	10	ECO00036M		Public Sector Economics													S									E					A
79	20	Various		Core List A			S																			E					A
80	20	Various		Core List B			S																			E					A
81	20	ECO00039M		Public Policy Analysis			S																			E					A
82	30	Various		Option Modules from List C			S																			E					A
83	80	ECO00012M		Dissertation																							S																						EA
84	Please indicate when any Progression Board and Exam board will be held and when any reassessments will be submitted. NB: You are required to provide at least three weeks notice to students of the need for them to resubmit any required assessments, in accordance with the Guide to Assessment section 4.9
85	Progression Board						01/06/2022
86	Reassessment						August CAP 2022
87	Exam Board						1 November 2022
88	Part time structures Please indicate the modules undertaken in each year of the part-time version of the programme. Please use the text box below should any further explanation be required regarding structure of part-time study routes.
89	7.b. Optional module lists If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists these lists should be provided below. If you need more space, use the toggles on the left to reveal ten further hidden rows. Options are based on staff research interests and the number and range of topics covered will vary from year to year depending on staff availability. Options for this cohort will be posted during the academic year for the following stage and can be viewed on the departmental websites listed below
90	Core List A										Core List B													Option List C													Option List D
91	10c Applied Microeconomics 1 AUT &										10c Econometrics 1 AUT &													10c Advanced Macroeconomics AUT													n/a
92	10c Applied Microeconomics 2 SPR										10c Applied Microeconometrics SPR & SUM WK 2													10c Applied Microeconometrics SPR & SUM WK 2
93	20c Advanced Microeconomics AUT & SPR										20c Econometrics 1 & 2 AUT & SPR													10c Design and Analysis of Mechanisms and Institutions SPR
94											20c Econometric Methods for Research AUT & SPR													10c Evaluation of Health Policy SPR
95											20c Statistics and Econometrics AUT & SPR													10c Health and Development SPR
96																								10c International Macroeconomics SPR & SUM WK 1
97																								10c Project AUT & SPR
98																								10c Applied Microeconomics 2
99	7.c. Explanation of the programme and assessment design The statements should be in a form that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). It should make clear to students why they are doing the key activities of the programme, in terms of reaching the PLOs.
100	i) Students’ independent study and formative work Please outline how independent study and student work has been designed to support the progressive achievement of the programme learning outcomes (for example, the use of online resources which incorporate formative feedback; opportunities for further learning from work-based placements).