Professor Alison Wride

BA (Hons), Exon.

Deputy Director of School and Associate Professor in Economics

Telephone: (01392) 263207

Profile

Alison is Deputy Director of the University of Exeter Business School and an Associate Professor in Economics. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Director, she was Head of Undergraduate Studies within the School.

Her areas of interest include the student experience and the relationship between skills, employability and education. She is currently looking at the factors that influence student satisfaction, particularly relevant given the School’s position as number one business school in the UK for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Following the publication of the Leith Report Alison was invited to join the Skills for Business Higher Education working party, building on the work that she had been doing in this area particularly with e-skills.

In 2006 Alison was promoted to Associate Professor on the grounds of her management, leadership and entrepreneurship, working both within the School and across the University. She was the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 2007, in recognition of her role in leading on the transformation of the student experience in the Business School. Her work in this area has lead to requests for talks at a number of conferences and other events. In 2006 she received the Student Nominated Award for Teaching Excellence from the Economics Subject Centre of the HEA.

Alison has been involved in raising funds for a variety of projects. In 2006 the Business School, with the School of Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, were awarded £258,356 for the period Oct 06 to Sept 08, "to fund the incremental costs for the creation and running of the "e-skills UK" endorsed degree - BSc in Information Technology Management for Business". In 2008 the Business School are taking part in a project that was awarded over £110,000 to undertake the creation of three Foundation Degrees for Flybe. Alison is the School lead on this project which underpins the School’s commitment to working with business across a range of activities, both educational and consultative. In September 2008 the University of Exeter Business School and Educational Enhancement Unit were recipients of a JISC of award of just under £200,000 under the Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology strand, Alison will be a member of the steering group on this project

Alison’s external interests include work with the Treasury and Government Economic Service on economics training for non-economists working in Government; she is currently involved in a similar initiative with the Scottish Government. This work focuses on furnishing those at the cutting edge of developing policy with the tools and economic understanding to ensure that both the formulation of aims and the choice of methods, result in coherent strategies that enhance efficiency and equity.

Alison is the co-author with John Sloman of the UK’s best-selling undergraduate economics text book, Economics published by Pearsons. She came on board for the seventh edition, which is to be published in April 2009.

Taught Modules

Administrative Responsibilities

Deputy Director of School
Member of School Planning Group
Member of University Taught Programmes Admissions Policy Group
Member of University Business School Project Monitoring Group
Business School lead on Flybe Foundation Degree project
Academic Co-ordinator for University of Exeter accredited degree, BA Business Management, delivered by Exeter College

External Positions

Alison is currently delivering microeconomics training for HM Treasury. She is a member of the Skills for Business HE working group.