The
Faculty of Economics was established
at the beginning of the twentieth century on the initiative of Alfred Marshall.
It has been prominent in the development of economic thought ever since.
Eminent names from the past include Arthur Pigou, John Maynard Keynes,
Richard Kahn, Dennis Robertson, Piero Sraffa, Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor,
James Meade, Richard Stone, Frank Hahn and Sir James Mirrlees.
Prominent current members of the Faculty of Economics include Sir Partha
Dasgupta, who has been President of both the Royal Economic Society and
the European Economic Association and Professor David Newbery, who has
also been President of the European Economic Association. Other current
Faculty members are closely involved in a number of governmental and international
advisory panels and research groups.
The Faculty has major teaching programmes at both undergraduate and
postgraduate level and has one of largest group of research-active economists
of any British university. It has around 80 resident or visiting academic
staff and about 100 research students. Facilities include the Marshall
Library in the Austin Robinson Economics building and the University
Library nearby.
The Marshall Library is one
of the finest specialist libraries in the country devoted to economics
and related subjects, with over 70,000 monographs and working papers and
over 30,000 journal volumes. It also has extensive databases and bibliographic
searching tools including EconLit. The Faculty has extensive computing
facilities and two Computer Officers to advise graduate students. There
are about 50 workstations available for graduates, connected to a local
area network and to the internet. The colleges provide computing, copying
and printing services and the University
Computing Service also provides support.
The priority of the Faculty is to achieve and maintain international
standards of research excellence in economics. Research projects are encouraged
which not only contribute to knowledge but also provide research experience,
and create a pool of young, talented and energetic researchers to supply
teaching posts in the Faculty and the future needs of the profession at
large. Taken together, the academic community and its resources provide
a stimulating environment, highly conducive to research.
