QE Economists ease through to next stage of competition

A group of Year 13 students have successfully negotiated their way through the first round of a highly prestigious Economics competition. It is only the second time that a team from QE has progressed to the second round of the Bank of England/The Times Target 2.0 competition in the 13 years that it has been running.

“The competition is acknowledged as one of the most rigorous and academically challenging in the country,” said Economics teacher Michael Feven. “It really tests students’ understanding of monetary policy and the issues facing the UK economy at present. It’s incredibly tough to secure a place in the competition and the boys have done very well to get through to the next stage.”

Within the team, five members undertook research and four prepared a presentation on the topic of the base rate of interest and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy. The QE team decided on a policy of no change – keeping the base rate at 0.5% and quantitative easing at £375bn.

Competing against six other schools from the South East region (Luton heat), the team then had to perform a 15-minute presentation of their recommendations to a panel of judges at the Putteridge Bury Conference Centre in Luton. This was followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

The group of ten boys all played their part in the team's success: the presenters were Rihen Dewan, Shane Mahen, Jeffrey Xiao and Neil Gujar; the researchers were Atif Jeelani, Alex Du, Cheuk Hei Au, Chandi Uduwawala and Ronak Shah; and Matthew Chew provided IT and technical support which ensured that the presentation contained appropriate graphics and animation of a very high standard (all boys are pictured above right). The team now progress to the area finals in February 2013. The format remains the same, although the team will need to consider changes in their presentation to reflect activity in the UK economy.