Actively recruit

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Revision as of 15:19, 25 September 2011 by 130.58.196.151 (talk) (Actively recruit students who might be underprepared or unsure about the academic subject.)
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Actively recruit students who might be underprepared or unsure about the academic subject.

Economics departments can actively recruit underrepresented students into the field of economics by implementing departmental strategies focused on introductory economics courses. A study conducted by Norma R. Cloutier and Dennis A. Kaufman, both Professors of Economics as the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, demonstrated that by “(1) aggressively marketing the economics degree, and (2) allowing high achieving students to waive the macroeconomics principles requirements for an economics degree” a higher percentage of women decided to pursue an economics major. Their study demonstrated that the students that decided to waive the macroeconomics principles class were not disadvantaged for upper level courses, and that after the implementation the gender balance for the economics degree improved significantly. “In the period 1975-1994, 26.3% of economics graduates were female, but in the period 1995-2007 the percentage female among economics graduates increased to 40.5%” (The strategy was heavily publicized/implemented in 1991). The study can be found here.