Borderless Hackonomics: Semester 2, 2025

Problem

The enrolments in economics programs and courses at universities highlight the challenges with attracting:

• school and university students to study the discipline
• diverse gender and ethnic groups to consider economics as a future career.

In Australia, economics enrolments have fallen steadily over the past three decades, driven by a shrinking pipeline of Year 12 students studying economics (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2024). Gender imbalance has widened significantly: while male and female students were equally represented in the early 1990s, male students now outnumber female students two to one (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2024).

The UK shows similar trends, with diversity issues extending beyond gender to socio-economic representation, raising concerns for the future of the profession and policy development (Bank of England, 2025; Griffith, Smith & Advani, 2019). These patterns highlight the urgent need to attract a broader, more diverse cohort to economics programs.

Task

Students were challenged to promote economics to future learners and encourage them to:

• study economics in senior school (Years 11–12 in Australia, Sixth Form in the UK, Senior High School in Taiwan, Tenth Grade in Vietnam)
• consider enrolling in an economics degree at university.

To achieve this, each team produced:

• a 3-minute promotional video designed to appeal to diverse high school students that explains what economics is, why it matters in everyday life and how it solves real-world problems
• a 2-minute pitch video outlining the concept, approach, and why their promotional video should be used for university marketing.