Departmental news

Professor Dennis Novy has delivered a lecture on Economic Security and Geoeconomics to an audience of 100 senior military officers as a guest of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS).

RCDS was created in 1927 to help deliver Winston Churchill’s vision of promoting understanding between senior military officers, diplomats and the civil service.

Members of the armed forces and the civil service from the UK and overseas with the potential to reach the highest ranks are invited to attend RCDS and study political, diplomatic, security, social and economic issues at the strategic level.

Professor Novy delivered his lecture on 26 September, introducing the concepts of economic security and economic resilience and placing them in the context of the emerging field of geoeconomics.

He discussed Western sanctions against Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and their impact on the Russian economy. He also discussed various "China decoupling scenarios" whereby trade barriers might be erected between China and the West at some point in the future due to rising political and military tensions.

Professor Novy also discussed the importance of global supply chains and the UK macroeconomic backdrop, presenting some of his work on the economic impact of Brexit.

The lecture was followed by Q and A and a discussion over lunch. Allied nations represented in the audience included the USA, Ukraine, Estonia, Israel, Norway and Japan.

Lieutenant General Sir George Norton, Commandant of the RCDS, formally thanked Professor Novy for his lecture.

Professor Novy said “It was a great pleasure meeting military officers at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Although they have expertise in different areas, military officers and academic economists have in common that they search for facts and evidence, and both are used to interacting with politicians when it comes to formulating policy.”

26 September 2024

Warwick Medical School has been working with the ADHD Foundation to look at how we can raise awareness and understanding of neurodiversity.

The University of Warwick has further cemented its position as one of the UK’s best universities - after being shortlisted for University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.

TRANSFORM, led by Professor Swaran Singh at Warwick Medical School, has been showcased in a Community Engagement and Involvement pilot study run by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The Department of Economics is delighted to announce that for the third year running we have been ranked top of the specialist subject table for Economics in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.

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

We have achieved an overall score of 100 (with 93.3% 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 2024, 2023, 2020 and 2015.

Our recent achievements also include high positions in other important league tables: 23rd place in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2024 for Economics and Econometrics as well as 5th place in the Complete University Guide 2025 published in June 2024.

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

“This external recognition highlights our success in producing world class research and providing students with outstanding learning opportunities that support their graduate prospects. It also reflects the hard work and commitment of our staff and students in all areas of our work.”

Related items

The Times and Sunday Times UK University Rankings 2025: League table

University of Warwick shortlisted for University of the Year in 2025 Good University Guide

Professor Robin Clark, the Dean of WMG at The University of Warwick, discussed how placing people at the heart of the Government’s missions will be vital at a panel exploring the contribution of innovation and skills to growth, held at the Labour Party Conference.

Professor Clark was joined by the Minister of State for Skills, the Rt Hon Baroness Smith; Richard Parker, Mayor for the West Midlands; Helen Foord, Head of Global Governmental Affairs at McLaren Automotive Ltd; and The Rt Hon Jim Murphy.

The panel discussed how industry, educators and researchers can come together, locally and nationally, to deliver change on the ground using real-life success stories as examples of how progress can be made in equipping the nation.

Professor Clark said, “Supporting skilled, innovative people should be at the heart of delivering the national missions. We know at WMG that whether you’re a major manufacturer, an SME, or a start-up, you need innovative people with quality skills to deliver growth.

“No matter where you sit in the system – HE, FE, policy-maker, or employer - we should all be focussed on improving technical. and lifelong learning access and provision.  

 “With the start of Skills England and the forthcoming Industrial Strategy there’s a real opportunity for industry, education and government - regionally and nationally - to work together to make it easier to access technical education, simpler to progress as a learner and more straightforward to offer the right courses in the right places at the right time.”

Find out more about skills and innovation at WMG here: WMG : University of Warwick

Endometriosis negatively impacts the health-related quality of life of 190 million women worldwide. Novel advances in nonhormonal treatments for this debilitating condition are desperately needed. Macrophages play a vital role in the pathophysiology of endometriosis and represent a promising therapeutic target. In the current study, we revealed the full transcriptomic complexity of endometriosis-associated macrophage subpopulations using single-cell analyses in a preclinical mouse model of experimental endometriosis. We have identified two key lesion-resident populations that resemble i) tumor-associated macrophages (characterized by expression of Folr2, Mrc1, Gas6, and Ccl8+) that promoted expression of Col1a1 and Tgfb1 in human endometrial stromal cells and increased angiogenic meshes in human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and ii) scar-associated macrophages (Mmp12, Cd9, Spp1, Trem2+) that exhibited a phenotype associated with fibrosis and matrix remodeling. We also described a population of proresolving large peritoneal macrophages that align with a lipid-associated macrophage phenotype (Apoe, Saa3, Pid1) concomitant with altered lipid metabolism and cholesterol efflux. Gain of function experiments using an Apoe mimetic resulted in decreased lesion size and fibrosis, and modification of peritoneal macrophage populations in the preclinical model. Using cross-species analysis of mouse and human single-cell datasets, we determined the concordance of peritoneal and lesion-resident macrophage subpopulations, identifying key similarities and differences in transcriptomic phenotypes. Ultimately, we envisage that these findings will inform the design and use of specific macrophage-targeted therapies and open broad avenues for the treatment of endometriosis.
Read the paper here.Link opens in a new window

Between the 4th and 6th of September, the Astronomy & Astrophysics group held a meeting at the Faculty of Arts Building to celebrate 21 years of astronomy at Warwick and the scientific legacy of the late Prof. Tom Marsh, the group founder.

Tom Berrett has been announced as one of the recipients of the European Research Council Starting Grants in 2024.