The United Kingdom has been recognised for years as one of the most popular destinations for postgraduate education. The international reputation of British education, the diversity of culture and the connections to other European countries have made the UK one of the favorite destinations for students.

Now we're over the hump of winter and looking ahead to sunnier days, the time has come to start considering academic activities for the summer break. Summer schools run by top universities give you the chance to attend lectures and courses conducted by top researchers in your field, to practise skills in small groups or seminars, and to get to know students from other institutions. As well as social activities and the opportunity for travel, you can benefit from making new professional contacts, hearing about the latest research, and building your CV.

The beautiful Austrian city of Salzburg is renowned for its cultural history. Currently, there are a total of six universities in the city, the University of Salzburg being the largest one.

Microeconomics is one of the most prominent subfields of economics and is one which many people studying economics find themselves drawn to. But if you are studying economics now and you decide to specialise in microeconomics, what kind of career options would be open to you? To assist you in planning your career, we're listing some of the top career paths for different economics specialisations, and today we're looking at the top career paths for specialists in microeconomics. 

The literature research students need to rely on throughout all of their thesis writing is diverse. Broadly categorized there are three types of literature useful for PhD students: research/topic literature, methods literature, and ‘how to do your PhD’ literature. A somewhat similar classification of PhD materials can, for example, be found in Chris Hart’s Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences (2010, Sage, p.2), which I recommend immensely.

Following the entry on this blog last month about countries with the most top 100 economics departments according to REPEC data, I thought it a worthwhile pursuit to look a little more into these rankings, and to seek out some alternatives to that offered by REPEC.

It's early to start planning for the summer – but if you want to make the most of your time as a student, you need to look ahead! If you have time off between semesters in your undergraduate or masters degree, you can use that time to attend a summer school. These residential courses typically run from between one week and three weeks, and involve teaching on specialist topics, and group workshops too. Plus, they are are great opportunity to network with fellow students and researchers in your field.

With the summer behind us (at least for those in the northern hemisphere), now is the best time to start planning your academic calendar for the coming year. However, the number of conferences and workshops taking place in the next twelve months is enormous and may be overwhelming when it comes to choosing the best one(s) for you. In order to help you with this endeavour, we have put together a selection of conferences and workshops organized by national and international organizations, covering a wide range of topics in social sciences.

Following our earlier post from November about Economics Conferences in 2013, we have now published a (chronological) list of Conferences in Economics and Statistics taking place in the Asia-Pacific Region. If you know of other interesting, economics-related events in the region, please share these with us in the comments at the end of this post.

It's early to start planning for the summer – but if you want to make the most of your time as a student, you need to look ahead! If you have time off between semesters in your undergraduate or masters degree, you can use that time to attend a summer school. These residential courses typically run from between one week and three weeks, and involve teaching on specialist topics, and group workshops too. Plus, they are are great opportunity to network with fellow students and researchers in your field.

Many people who are already years or decades into their careers find themselves wanting to build upon their skillsets and expand their professional qualifications. Perhaps they want to make a career change, feel stuck in a mid-level position but lack the qualifications necessary for advancement, or perhaps they are just interested in gaining new knowledge but don’t have the time or means to head back to school. In the past, people in such situations could enroll in evening or weekend courses at community centers or continuing education departments at local universities.

Been meaning to brush up on your econometric skills, not got round to it, and now worried you won't be able to due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic? No fear - there's plenty of studying you can do from the comfort of your own home online. While nothing beats face-to-face interaction between student and teacher, online courses have other advantages, not least being that you can study when you want and at your own pace.

With ice on the ground and a chill in the air (at least for those living in northern climes), it is nice to think about the summer and all of the welcome things it brings: warmth, flowers, and, of course, new career and training opportunities.