Skip to content

Professor Rebecca Taylor

Staff photo

Dean and Professor of Economics

You can email Professor Rebecca Taylor directly; but for media enquiries please contact a member of The Open University's Media Relations team.

Staff profile

See below for Professor Rebecca Taylor's:

Biography

Professor Taylor holds a degree in Economics from Queen’s University, Canada, an MSc in Economics from the University of Toronto, Canada and a PhD in Economics from the University of Portsmouth, UK.

Rebecca started her career in financial services at the Toronto Dominion Bank. Following the completion of her PhD she spent several years lecturing in quantitative economics, international trade and economic development.

She joined the Open University in 2011 from the Nottingham Business School where she spent five years as the Head of Economics and a further year as Associate Dean.

Rebecca has always had a keen interest in the development of online learning materials that enable lecturers and students to engage effectively and creatively in the learning process. In 2003 she was awarded £250k to direct the highly successful METAL project (Mathematics for Economics: Enhancing Teaching and Learning). The team developed a range of resources to help students understand and apply key mathematical concepts relevant to the study of economics. The project was completed in 2008 and continues to attract international interest.

Following the METAL project Rebecca successfully gained funding for a project on Open Educational Resources in Economics, and in 2010 she was awarded further funding to develop and direct the statistics version of METAL, entitled DeStress – Depository of Statistical Resources in Social Sciences. The DeStress project resources are now being disseminated and have generated significant interest from across the sector.

Teaching interests

Rebecca is a highly experienced educator at undergraduate and post graduate level. She has taught a range of courses, including: Doctorate in business administration- survey based statistical research; economics of international trade; international trade policy; Britain and the international economy; statistics for economists; and fundamentals of quantitative economics.

External contributions

Rebecca is an Associate Director of the Economics Network at the University of Bristol, she is a member of the steering group for the Committee of Heads of University Departments of Economics and she regularly contributes to conferences and workshops related to developments and innovation in education. She has also worked with the Economic and Social Research Council and the Higher Education Academy on addressing the identified skills deficit in quantitative methods across Social Sciences.

Areas of expertise

  • quantitative economics
  • international trade
  • economic development