Economists face supervision struggle

Students in the economics faculty have been told to supervise themselves as demand for paper has surged.

adit Cambridge Cambridge University classes Economics public economics supervision toke adit

Students in the faculty of economics have been told to supervise themselves.

This shocking revelation comes as Cambridge University rises to Second Best University in the world, preceded only by Harvard University, according to the Times Higher Education’s list last week.

Part IIb students opting for Paper 7, a course on public economics, were told on Tuesday that only a fraction would receive supervision.

An outraged Johnian told The Tab: “Because there were so many of us, only 35 of the 55 of us would be supervised. They basically told the remaining 20 of us ‘Good Luck!’”

He added: “It transpires that those being supervised are actually in classes of either 10 or 15, and that all Trinity students are being supervised by the head lecturer in pairs. It doesn’t make sense, he’s not affiliated with Trinity.”

Rumour in the faculty had it that loaded Trinity have given Jesus College, to which course lecturer Toke Adit is attached, a grant to have their students supervised by the expert.

Another student said, “55 people managed to fit into the lecture hall to write their names down for central supervisions. Who knows how many were stuck outside? 30 of those were randomly chosen to receive supervisions in class groups and the others were told to go back to their directors of studies.

“At Newnham, we already have a PhD student to teach us, but it’s not his area of expertise.

"It’s outrageous that Cambridge was just named second best University in the world and then the economics department turn round and say, ‘you know what, we can’t teach you all, so go away!’"

 

Course organiser, Toke Adit, explained that supervision arrangements were "typically done as part of a complicated bargaining process where I do this for you and you do this for me.

"As for public economics this year, about 40 students had supervisions arranged by their DOS, 55 had not. But I managed to find supervisors for a total 35 of those (partly by convincing St Cathrine’s College to make a significant donation of their scare resources to the common good, partly by making maximum use of the one graduate student who is willing to supply supervisions, and by adding extra hours for myself and Dr Shvets)."

He added, "unfortunately, this was not sufficient to cover the gap. The inequalities ofthe general system are clearly illustrated by this situation. As a consequence, everyone will get taught but in different ways."

On the rumours that Trinity were receiving preferential treatment Adit commented: "I don’t know who is behind the the claim that the Trinity students are taught in groups of two. For Public Economics they are not."