Core content modules at Leeds Metropolitan University

As part of Leeds Metropolitan University’s review of the postgraduate curriculum in 2012–13, Libraries and Learning Innovation (LLI) was asked to lead a project group to create two core content modules for use at Level 7 (Masters level) in Research Practice and Project Management. The rationale for choosing these two areas was the sheer number of modules in these subjects taught across a wide range of disciplines, each of which is currently designed and populated by individual course teams. The group consisted of representatives from the University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning, academic staff, learning technologists and academic librarians, and was chaired by the Associate Director of LLI, Wendy Luker

Collaborating to create re-usable core content modules

The rationale for creating Core Content modules in subject areas very commonly taught across the curriculum was to free up staff time from content creation, allowing them to concentrate on curriculum design and delivery. The modules may be used in their entirety, or in part, and are deliberately generic, so that they may be contextualised to suit a range of subject disciplines. Core content modules in Research Practice and Project Management have already been created, and will be followed next by Introduction to Marketing, and Introduction to Strategic Management

On the Effect of Business and Economic University Education on Political Ideology: An Empirical Note

We empirically test the hypothesis that a major in economics, management, business administration or accounting (for simplicity referred to as business/economics) leads to more-conservative (right-wing) political views. We use a panel dataset of individuals (repeated observations for the same individuals over time) living in the Netherlands, drawing data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences from 2008 through 2013. Our results show that when using a simple fixed effects model, which fully controls for individuals’ time-invariant traits, any statistically and quantitatively significant effect of a major in business/economics on the political ideology of these individuals disappears. We posit that, at least in our sample, there is no evidence for a causal effect of a major in business/economics on individuals’ political ideology