1) Student Education Programme
A key part of our mission is educating and informing students and young people about free market ideas. We travel the length and breadth of the country talking about free market economics and distributing our publications. We rely entirely on donations to help support our student activities.
We now have the biggest student education programme of any UK think tank, directly reaching over 5000 sixth form and university students each year via our events, conferences and internship programmes.
Our student education programme currently has five main elements:
Internship Programme
Every year, we host over 200 sixth form and undergraduate students at our offices in Westminster for a packed programme of seminars, debates, lectures and research.
Secondary School Conferences
We host over 20 regional sixth form economics conferences throughout the year across the UK, from Edinburgh to Devon, reaching over 3000 sixth form students per year, with an average of 150 students at each conference. The main objective of the conferences is to provide an introduction to free market economics that supports A-Level Economics & Business Studies students (aged 16-18) in their studies.
National Student Conference – THINK
Every summer, we bring together hundreds of students and young people from across the UK for a one-day national economics conference to hear from top economists and entrepreneurs.
Freedom Week
Freedom Week is an annual, one-week seminar which teaches students about classical liberalism and free market economics. It is open to over-18s who are currently attending or about to start university.
EA magazine
EA is the UK’s first ever free market economics magazine specifically aimed at A-level and university students. It is published twice a year. The magazine aims to introduce free market ideas in an accessible manner to a younger audience. We currently distribute around 50,000 copies of the magazine to every secondary school in the UK which teaches economics and business – over 1100 school – in addition to a number of universities.
For more information on our student education programme, please click here. If you would like to make a donation towards our student activities, please click here.
2) The Paragon Initiative
The UK’s current model of government is failing and unsustainable.
Over the past 150 years, politicians have taken over many aspects of our lives that were previously the responsibility of families, civil society and local government, and centralised them in the hands of a small number of ministers and civil servants.
This huge growth in government has been associated with demonstrably poor outcomes and public services:
- Britain has a colossal debt burden, with the official public debt now at £1.5 trillion.
- The NHS is revered, yet the UK ranks 20th out of 24 OECD countries on cancer survival rates.
- The past 60 years has seen an explosion in welfare spending with six million people living in workless households.
- 20% of teenagers leaving state schools are functionally illiterate, while 40% of pupils fail to reach accepted standards in English and Maths by age 16.
- Regulations on land use are suffocating development – and driving up housing costs by up to 40%
The Paragon Initiative, launched in 2015, will provide a fundamental reassessment of what the UK government should – and shouldn’t – do. The five year programme will cover dozens of policy areas as diverse as the future of the NHS, the future of Britain’s relationship with the EU, housing, childcare and many more. It will create a blueprint for a better Britain, a practical and workable vision for a freer, healthier and wealthier Britain than ever before.
To date, the project has generated hundreds of media hits in print, broadcast and online and is making waves in Whitehall and across Westminster.
We have a major annual fundraising target to ensure the project is fully funded to cover the costs of printing and distributing the research, hosting events and ensuring there is maximum publicity of our research findings and recommendations.
For more information about The Paragon Initiative, please click here. If you would like to make a donation towards The Paragon Initiative, please click here.
3) Brexit
Following the historic EU referendum result, the next 12 months may well be one of the most important periods in recent UK history.
Over the next few months, the IEA will be placing a particular focus on post-Brexit policy analysis and will be playing a full and vocal role in discussions about Britain’s future.
Our publishing programme over the coming months includes agricultural policy, employment legislation, taxation and economic growth, industrial policy, immigration, fisheries and foreign aid. Each of these papers will provide details on what the next steps for Britain should be in light of the referendum result.
For more information on our Brexit-related activity, please contact us. If you would like to make a donation towards our Brexit activity, please click here.
4) Lifestyle Unit
Our Lifestyle Economics Unit was established in 2013 with the purpose of investigating, researching and promoting public discussion of the heavy, and increasing, regulation of lifestyle products in the UK.
To date, we have produced extensive research surrounding alcohol, tobacco, gambling, sugar, fat and soft drinks.
Our Head of Lifestyle Economics, Christopher Snowdon, has appeared on national broadcast and print media thousands of times and has given evidence to two House of Commons Select Committees.
If you would like to make a donation towards our Lifestyle Unit, you can do so here.
We rely entirely on donations from individuals, corporations and charitable foundations – we don’t accept or seek a penny from government.
If you believe in low taxes, free markets, a small state and the freedom to make decisions about how you run your life, we hope you’ll consider donating to the IEA.