The UCL First Year Challenge is an award-winning multimedia assignment run by CTaLE, the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Economics. The Challenge has been running from since 2015 and been replicated in other universities such as the LSE, Bristol and St Andrews. It was designed to introduce first year economics undergraduates to independent research and academic collaboration at the earliest stage of their learning journey in economics, bringing into focus the research-based education they will receive throughout their degree The competition also provides an invaluable opportunity for our richly diverse student cohort to meet and bond socially, share ideas, and begin the formation of friendships and collegiate working relationships.
Small groups of students are assigned specific locations in Central London and then tasked with producing a two-minute multimedia clip which relates to both their meeting point, and the theme ‘Capitalism, Growth and Inequality’. This theme is explored in Unit 1 of ‘The Economy’, a free online textbook produced by CORE Econ, used in our first year mandatory Economics module. CORE Econ is a global UCL Department of Economics project led by Wendy Carlin which focuses on creating top quality open access teaching material in economics. The project aims to provide a new way of learning economics based on using the best research to address the world’s most critical problems, including inequality, climate change, innovation, and financial instability.
Professor Parama Chaudhury, co-founder of CTaLE and the Chalenge, notes:
Every year, my colleagues and I are amazed at the creativity and curiosity of our students, and this year is no different. Ranging from the Royal Academy of Art and the Dominion Theatre to Coals Drop Yard, our students have identified interesting insights about economics across London and enriched our understanding of the city around us.
Check out the winners and runners up of this year’s First Year Challenge below and enjoy their engaging presentation videos on YouTube.
Winners
TUTZ S1 (Winners)
- Vanya Savara
- Priya Chahar
- Phoenix Lewis
- Minnie Sangnukoolchai
- Elsa Jing
- Gateaux Kesornbuakhao
- Khadija Juzer
TUTY Group B (Runner-up)
- Doris (Chi) Yang
- Yiqian(Chelsea) Zhu
- Francesca Bianchessi
- Maanavi Bansal
- Maria Keyrouz
- Eshannika Mishra
- Aditi Pandey
- Joe Zhou
TUTF S1 (Runner-up)
- Sheralyn Tan
- Thomas Wang
- Rauf Eyvazov
- George (Mark) Frost
- Oliver Brown
- Joe Takashina
- Brandon Li
Links
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