Teaching Economics for a Greener Future

In collaboration with the Green Office, the MORSE launch week was concluded with a day to discuss pluralism and sustainability in the economic curriculum. The focus lay on possibilities for incorporating sustainability at SBE together with staff and students.

On this day, Friday the 29th of October, several events took place.

Ron Cövers kicked off with a lecture about sustainability in education, focusing on the efforts of Maastricht University. Where he mentioned the SUM2030 task force and the Maastricht sustainability institute, working together focusing on integrating sustainability in all courses across different faculties. To facilitate behavioural change, he stressed the importance of students developing cognitive competencies in critical thinking and the application of theory to real-life cases.

Irene van Staveren followed with presentations about the pluralistic approach to economics. After which Sam de Muijnck presented his book "Economy Studies – A Guide to Rethinking Economics in Education". In his book, he presents a framework and essential building blocks for the training of a modern-day economist while combining the traditional school of economics with pluralistic modules.

Following the lectures, two panel discussions were organized. The first one focused on the experience of alumni of UM from several faculties.

For instance, Carolin Matuschke (alumni of SBE) talked about SBE giving her a solid base in analytical and critical thinking, working in an international environment, as well as focusing on problem-based learning (PBL). However, she wished for more integration of sustainability, more interdisciplinary approaches, and more space for out-of-the-box thinking in classes. Constantijn van Aartsen (alumni of the law faculty) emphasised the importance of economics in law and he addressed the issue that many lawyers work with neoclassical assumptions copied from economists. Nevertheless, he also believes that there is a lack of critical contextualizing. Hence, he demands more time and space to dive further into fundamental assumptions discussed in a 7-8 week schedule.

Generally, the alumni stressed the positive influence of Maastricht University on their current jobs. Nevertheless, all wished for more discussions about climate change, social responsibility, and critical thinking.

The second panel discussed the need for pluralism in economics. During this panel, Wilco Letterie (the vice dean of education at SBE), as well as Mark Vluggen (director of the education institute at SBE) were invited to represent the staff and education body of SBE. Furthermore, Sam de Muijnk and representatives from Pluralism in Economics (PINE) in Maastricht, professors, and students were invited.

Madeleine Lauer (Green Office and student economics and business economics) moderated the debates.

Throughout the panel, Wilco Letterie and Mark Vluggen emphasised the challenges SBE has but the panel largely agreed on the need to find a more flexible curriculum, which requires a rethinking of the current education portfolio. Their closing statement was that they want to work more with students on changing the curriculum and working out a more pluralistic approach to preparing students at SBE and other faculties better for their future careers.

Click here for the full report.