The course will be taught through distance learning.

The course introduces key societal challenges and the specific research approach to analyse them applied in SEEP. Furthermore, the course offers an overview of writing and reading skills along with hands-on practical exercises.

The first part of the course introduces key debates within contemporary economics. In particular, it gives an overview of different perspectives on economic relations and processes and discusses their strengths and shortcomings. Along with addressing core conceptual issues in defining different economic approaches, the following schools of thought will be introduced and discussed: (Post-)Keynesian Economics, Marxian Economics, Ecological Economics, Feminist Economics, Institutional Economics, Neoclassical Economics and Mainstream Economics. Apart from the conceptual level, this part will also draw on different methodological approaches and tradition to the study of economic relations.

Part two will explore how to design a research project, delving more particularly on the process of transforming an interest in a topic into a research problem, on how to best to formulate appropriate research questions with wider significance and how to structure an academic paper. This part will also explain how to conduct a prominent part of a research project, the literature review, and will impart skills related to reading with a purpose. Finally, it will provide some focused knowledge on academic writing.

The third part of the course will provide theoretical and empirical input on recent migration research and migration policy. Students will be introduced to the dynamics, trends and forecasts of global migration flows and familiarised with the most important statistics and survey data. A particular focus will be placed on forced migration: We will explore the developments leading to the “great summer of migration” in 2015 and its consequences for European host societies in terms of economic integration and social cohesion. Contemporary political debates such as one surrounding the EU’s new pact on migration and asylum will be addressed in the course where appropriate.

The course closes with sessions dedicated to the training of writing skills, particularly written forms for non-academic audience. These sessions will take place in a workshop format, where we will look into two types of texts: policy briefs and op-eds. Building mainly on the course content introduced in part three & part one, the time in-class will be used for structuring the texts and discussing the outlines, followed by individual writing of the two assignments outside of the class. 

After completion of this course, students will:

- be aware of key global policy challenges and their interactions;

- be able to distinguish different perspective on economic relations and processes and are familiar with their strengths and shortcomings, and provide a pluralist understanding of economics.

- be familiar with current pathways in migration research and the dynamics of global migration movements (in particular forced migration and refugees)

- be able to understand, critique and contribute to current debates in migration policy on the local, national and EU-level as well as globally

-  know how to design a research project, and how to conduct a literature review

- be familiar with the essential writing for academic as well as non-academic audiences, and be able to plan, structure and write short op-eds, policy briefs and an academic paper.    

This being a ‘Course with continuous Assessment (PI)’, the university requires students to attend at least 80% of all classes for completing the course successfully. This means that you can miss a maximum of 2 sessions, missing a third sessions means you will fail the course. Ideally you don’t miss any sessions.

The course gives an introduction to contemporary policy challenges as well as to reading and writing skills which are fundamental to the SEEP-program.

The course is based on:

- input and presentations by instructors

- classroom discussion and interaction (if necessary online)

- individual and group assignments

- (small) group debates

The course is based on several modes of assessment:

1st part/individual assignment (Hendrik) – 22%
2nd part/group assignment (Viviana) – 22%
3rd part/quizzes, individual & group assignment (Judith & Kasia) – 44%
Participation – 12%

Prerequisites for Incoming Exchange Students nominated by WU partner universities:

Minimum requirements to attend this course:

•    Economics (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits) OR

•    Social sciences (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits) OR

•    Mathematics / statistics / quantitative methods (accumulated minimum of 16 ECTS credits)

Proficiency in English is required. If you do not meet this requirement, we reserve the right to withdraw students from the course.