Bringing Econometrics to Life

Moatazbellah Farid describes the satisfaction he gets from teaching econometrics to our undergraduate cohort as we returned to In Person teaching after the pandemic.

‘My PhD is in applied economics, I use data science and machine learning approaches to perform policy analysis and economic and financial forecasting.

In the Autumn term of 2022 I had the opportunity to teach ECON5420 Econometrics I: Cross-sectional and Panel Data Approaches. This is a module that is available for students studying for a BSc Economics with Econometrics and students who achieved a minimum of 65% in Stage 2 Econometrics modules.  This is the most interesting module I taught over the last four years at University of Kent as it introduces students to applied econometrics methods using statistical software packages such as R or Stata. This module is very relevant to students doing a dissertation in Economics, students considering postgraduate study in economics and/or becoming professional economists. Although this was a module that was taught in the Autumn term, I remain in contact with the students, whenever they have questions related to applying econometrics methodologies in their dissertation.  Teaching this module is a mixture of using econometrics theory, application and a new programming language R. The use of R programming and real-life examples allowed me to bring the material to life and make it accessible to students with different backgrounds and learning styles.

“Moataz is great at explaining, what to me are very complicated concepts, in a straightforward and easily digestible manner.”

The opportunity to interact with the students and see their progress and engagement with the material was an incredible experience. The experience of teaching ECON5420 was exceptional as this was the first year of being teaching fully face to face since the pandemic. The students were very engaging and the attendance was always above 90%. I ensured that my relationship with the students extended beyond the classroom; we started this module by having a group coffee at the Sibson coffeeshop on the first day of term and finished off the module by having drinks at K-bar.

I have recently received the feedback from my students in the module evaluation and was extremely pleased by their responses. When asked to highlight any specific examples of excellent teaching on this module, I have got one student saying “This has been the most well organised and well taught module of my time at university so far. Concepts are explained clearly and effectively with clear examples to follow along. The use of example R coding in the lectures has been extremely helpful.”  While another student saying “Moataz is great at explaining, what to me are very complicated concepts, in a straightforward and easily digestible manner. Assessments, whilst difficult, were written in a way that actually made them fun to complete, all that while still being a very valuable learning tool.”

I am grateful for the positive feedback from the students, and it has given me a sense of pride in my work and passion for teaching. I look forward to continuing to build strong relationships with students and making a positive impact on their learning and academic journey.’ 

Moataz Farid is studied for his PhD at the School of Economics. More about Postgraduate Study can be found here

Details of the Economics with Econometrics BSc (Hons) can be found here.