Departmental news

We are delighted to see Warwick Law School ranked 10th in two UK league tables: The Times Good University Guide 2024 and The Guardian University Guide 2024.

We look forward to welcoming our new students to the Department of Economics in September 2023.

We are delighted that you have chosen to study here and we look forward to welcoming you this academic year. Your first few weeks have been designed with a series of activities and events enabling you to settle in and adapt to student life at Warwick.

Claudia Rei, Deputy Head of Department in Teaching and Learning, has a welcome message for all incoming students:

"Welcome to the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. Please take some time to read the information about your Economics Programme below. There is a lot of information here so do not hesitate to contact your programme team if you have queries (economics.ugoffice@live.warwick.ac.uk or economics.pgoffice@warwick.ac.uk). I look forward to meeting you at various welcome events over the next few weeks!"

All the information you need to prepare is in the induction pages below for your specific cohort:

We look forward to meeting you in person at one of our departmental welcome events.

WMG at the University of Warwick’s Professor David Greenwood has been elected a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Greenwood is CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and Director for Industrial Engagement at WMG.

Professor Greenwood has been elected as part of a group of 73 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology to the fellowship.

The group consists of 60 Fellows, eight International Fellows and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own sector, pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high level advice to government, or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 28 November, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s overarching strategic goal to harness the power of engineering to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.

Professor Greenwood commented: "I am truly honoured to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The UK has tremendous capability in engineering and manufacturing and the work of the Royal Academy is pivotal in helping to achieve its full potential. I look forward to playing my part in that."

Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

“Engineering is everywhere, but nowhere the same, and our new Fellows represent the great breadth and diversity of engineers who are striving to address some of the world’s most complex challenges – benefiting society and the economy in the process. From next generation power networks and water systems to quantum computing and artificial intelligence, our new Fellows are shaping the future.

“We live in an era of rapid change across our communities, our country, and of course our planet. Today we welcome to our Fellowship an inspiring group of people who are harnessing their creativity, courage and commitment to drive positive change in the world around us and we look forward to their contribution to our work.”

View the full list of 2023 fellows here.

We are happy to announce that Dr Ayse Saliha Sunar has joined the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Fellow. She completed her Master's degree on Intelligent Tutoring Systems at Nagoya University and her PhD on Big Educational Data Analysis and Recommender Systems at the University of Southampton.

She then gained experience in teaching in Turkey and in research collaboration, including European project proposals in Slovenia on integrating cutting-edge technologies into educational and other social contexts. Her current research interests include technology-enhanced learning to improve teachers' and faculties' pedagogical skills, as well as applications of natural language processing in classrooms and hybrid teaching models.

We welcome her to the department!

The Department of Economics is proud to announce that for the second year running we have been ranked top of the specialist subject table for Economics in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.

The Good University Guide, published annually in September by the Times and Sunday Times, provides British university rankings based on five categories: teaching quality, student experience, research quality, entry points and graduate prospects.

We have achieved a high overall score (with 93.9% for graduate prospects) which puts us ahead of the LSE, Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews.

We have been ranked in the top 5 amongst UK's departments of Economics over the last few years, and reaching the top position four times previously: in the Good University Guides 2023, 2020 and 2015.

Our recent achievements also include high positions in other important league tables: 22nd place in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2023 for Economics and Econometrics as well as 4th place in the Complete University Guide 2024 published in June 2023.

Professor Ben Lockwood, Head of Department of Economics, said:

"I am delighted to hear we have retained the top position in this popular league table. This external recognition highlights the Department’s success in producing world class academic research and giving students excellent learning experience. It also reflects the hard work and commitment of our staff and students in all areas of our work."

Related items

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024Link opens in a new window

University of Warwick named in UKs Top 10 once again by the Times Good University GuideLink opens in a new window

Economics ranked 4th in the Complete University Guide 2024Link opens in a new window

Warwick Economics ranked 22nd in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2023Link opens in a new window

WMG, at the University of Warwick, has received a share of £19 million from the Faraday Institution - the UK’s flagship institute for electrochemical energy storage research.

The funding has been allocated to four key battery research projects aimed at delivering an impact for the UK. These existing projects across three different research areas — next generation cathode materials, electrode manufacturing and sodium-ion batteries — have been reshaped to focus on the areas with the greatest potential for success.

WMG is taking a key role in two of the four, reshaped projects entitled FutureCAT and Nextrode.

WMG’s Professor of Battery Innovation, Louis Piper, will now co-lead FutureCAT, a battery cathode research project, focusing on understanding novel redox processes as a route to stabilise both high capacity, high performance, nickel rich and emerging cathodes and scalable designer morphologies. The project will build on its success in developing reliable, scalable routes to deliver a longer lifetime, high-energy/power cathodes, essential for electric vehicles.

Whereas in Nextrode, a battery electrode project, WMG is one of six university partners, led by the University of Oxford, alongside six industry partners. Researchers at WMG will investigate ways to make electrodes for Li-ion batteries unlocking the electrochemical potential.

Professor Pam Thomas, CEO, Faraday Institution, commented: “The Faraday Institution remains steadfast in its commitment to identify and invest in battery research initiatives that hold the greatest potential for making significant societal, environmental, and commercial contributions. This announcement signals the completion of our latest round of project refocusing, enabling us to allocate even more effort towards those areas of research that offer maximum potential in delivering transformative impact.”

James Gaade, Research Programme Director commented: “We are pleased that the reshaping process has bolstered the capabilities and expertise of researchers on the four projects. The realignment includes a focus around research into sustainable manufacturing methods and materials, and the need to further develop and scale up manufacture of promising materials discovered in the first three years of the projects.”

Project information

FutureCat – High nickel content, high performance cathode materialsLink opens in a new window 

FutureCat, co-lead by WMG’s Professor Louis Piper, and the University of Sheffield’s Professor Serena Cussen is targeting step-changes in:

• Understanding novel redox processes as a route to stabilise both high capacity, high performance, nickel rich and emerging cathodes. The project continues its focus on doped and dual-doped lithium nickel oxides (LNO) (both polycrystalline and single crystals), including use of protective coatings. The team will also investigate the use of polyanionic cathodes, use modelling to inform the search for new candidate materials, and research designer electrolytes with the intention of stabilising the interphase layer.
• Scalable designer morphologies. The project will build on its success with doped-LNO in developing reliable, scalable routes to deliver a longer lifetime, high-energy/power cathodes through the use of gradient morphologies, co-doped cathodes (with the aim of delivering reversible discharge capacities exceeding 220 mAh/g), single crystal particles and thin coatings.
• Materials delivery: The scale up of the high nickel W-LNO material previously developed by FutureCat is being transferred to the Degradation project for testing in industry-relevant pouch cells. FutureCat will continue to investigate the manufacturing scale-up of other Ni-rich cathode materials, down-selecting promising active materials based on earth-abundant elements. Research includes the use of laser patterning to increase power densities, investigation of cracking as a failure mechanism to determine routes to resilient cathode manufacture, atomic layer deposition of coatings to improve electrode longevity, and optimisation of cycle life through the use of electrically conductive binders.

Nextrode – electrode manufacturingLink opens in a new window 

Nextrode is focused on researching, understanding and quantifying the potential of smart electrode manufacturing to reduce manufacturing costs and improve the performance of batteries. Benefits could be realised in both mature material systems already used commercially and in new emerging high performance battery systems. The project is developing new practical manufacturing innovations – including traditional slurry cast electrodes and novel low or no solvent electrodes – that could deliver the benefits of smart electrodes to the industrial scale and improve sustainability of processes.

The project is researching the underpinning manufacturing science that could alleviate constraints in electrode manufacturing through engineering particle design and improved understanding of the relationship between powder properties and deposition/calendering techniques. Nextrode is designing manufacturing process steps and using advanced in-line measurements to enable slurry casting to be brought under closed-loop control. Researchers are manufacturing new arrangements of anode and cathode materials, identifying conditions where benefits are maximised and developing cells that expand the energy-power-lifetime design space.

The new phase of research projects described will progress over the two years from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2025.

Find out more about WMG’s Electrochemical Engineering research here: Electrochemical Materials (warwick.ac.uk)

For more information on the Faraday Institution, visit www.faraday.ac.ukLink opens in a new window

Warwick Law School welcomes new Assistant Professor to our community.

Luminita Olteanu joins us from LSE Law School where she taught courses in intellectual property law.

Dr Farzana Meru has recently been appointed as a member of the University Gender Taskforce.

Farzana was invited by the Gender Taskforce (GTF) to become a member due to her knowledge and expertise on gender related issues.

The Gender Taskforce champions and oversees the advancement, implementation, and further development of gender equality at institutional level in line with the Gender Statement of Intent catalysed by the Women in Academia workshops and reports to the university social inclusion committee.

Farzana tells us about why she accepted the invitation to become a member:

“I have always been interested in gender issues within Physics and STEM. I have also personally experienced (negative) gender related issues as a female Physicist and have mentored others through their challenges too. I am keen to use my experience that I have gained – both lived and through operational activities that I have been part of – to enable positive gender-related initiatives at the university’s strategic level.”

Warwick Law School welcomes a new Leverhulme Early Career Fellow to our community.

Marina Velickovic joins us from Kent Law School where she was previously a Lecturer.