A History of Economics and the Development of Commerce Degrees at the University Of Otago 1871–2009

Abstract

This history begins with the origins and history of Economics teaching at the University of Otago which followed the Scottish system, with which the early settlers were familiar. The University of Otago therefore included the teaching of Political Economy in its only degree, the Bachelor of Arts (BA), in 1871. For 35 years the subject content, taught first as Political Economy then later as Economics, changed only slowly. In the first years of the 20th century there was a perceived need to make tertiary education available to people engaged in commerce. This led to the introduction of the Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree in 1906 which was seen by some as, by academic standards, a mini-revolution. It brought about important changes in the Economics syllabus and resulted in the appointment of full-time Economics teachers and introduced the teaching of Accounting and related Law subjects. Accountancy as this later group of subjects became known, was, as Economics had been, initially taught by part-timers. It was another 55 years before the first fulltime teacher of Accounting was appointed. The year 1961 was: - The year that the University of New Zealand was dissolved and the University of Otago became once again an independent university as it had been prior to 1874. - The first full year of the Department of Accountancy’s existence and marked the promotion to professor of its first fulltime member of staff who had been appointed only a year earlier. - The first year that “Business Organisation and Management “appeared in the calendar. By 1964 the first lecturer in Management had been appointed and the subjects taught extended to: - Concepts in Management - Mathematics and Statistics for Management - Quantitative Analysis - Human Organisation - Production Management - Marketing Management - Business Policy. The period of 48 years to 2009, saw the topics of Information Science, Finance and Tourism, which like Management and Marketing, had also become departments. The annual number of graduates of Commerce departments increased from 20 in 1961-1962, to over 800 per year from 1999-2009 and the teaching staff increased from 3 to 150.