Critical Economics in the UK: An Institutional History of Heterodox Economics Education (1960s–1990s)

Heterodox economics, often characterised as a progressive and critical intellectual community, has gained prominence in recent years, particularly in response to economic crises and political shifts. While its intellectual history is well-documented, particularly in the Global North, its role in supporting an alternative economics education through time remains underexplored. Furthermore, the ways in which higher education structures have supported or constrained critical thinking in economics have been largely absent from historical analyses. This article addresses these gaps by exploring the historical development of heterodox economics education in the UK between the 1960s and 1990s, looking at the case of polytechnics as higher education institutions. It adopts a multi-method approach, analysing archival institutional records (course prospectuses, syllabi, regulatory policy documents) alongside interviews with economics educators using inductive thematic analysis, followed by triangulation. The findings reveal that polytechnics, designed to mainly deliver vocational education, played a central role in developing heterodox content, further supported by relative regulatory tolerance. However, structural reforms in the 1980s – driven by funding constraints, the rise of performance metrics, and increasing alignment with university norms – narrowed the space for pluralist approaches and accelerated the marginalisation of heterodox economics in UK higher education.