Students challenge traditional economics education after 2008 financial crisis, demand focus on environmental and social impact

A growing movement to transform economics education is gaining momentum, sparked by student protests that began during the 2008 global financial crisis. What started as classroom walkouts has evolved into a worldwide campaign to make economic teaching more relevant to today’s environmental and social challenges.

The movement traces its origins to dramatic student actions at prestigious universities. At Harvard University, frustrated students abandoned their introductory economics class, criticizing professors for promoting a “specific and limited view” that reinforced “a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality.” Meanwhile, economics students at Manchester University in the UK established a “post-crash economics society,” arguing that the rigid mathematical formulas dominating their coursework failed to explain or address the real-world economic turmoil unfolding around them.

These early protests have since coalesced into Rethinking Economics, an international organization working to reshape how economics is taught in universities worldwide. The group advocates for curricula that incorporate environmental sustainability, social justice, and alternative economic models beyond traditional free-market theories. Their efforts reflect growing recognition that conventional economic thinking has contributed to climate change, inequality, and financial instability.

The movement’s influence is spreading as educators and institutions begin questioning whether economics courses adequately prepare students to tackle 21st-century challenges like the climate crisis and resource scarcity. By pushing for more diverse, holistic economic education, these student-led initiatives are working to ensure future economists consider environmental and social impacts alongside traditional financial metrics.