How you can help.

Our goal is to ensure that the Queen’s Economics Department is the top-ranked department in Canada, in terms of both teaching and research quality, and remains recognized as one of the best globally. This goal will be attained by providing the best undergraduate experience in Canada, attracting the best graduate students and attracting and retaining high quality faculty. Below are some options for how you can help. You can make donations using the on-line giving page especially for the Economics Department. You can also contact us directly (see the Contact Information below).

Providing the Best Undergraduate Experience

Our undergraduate programs provide rigorous training in both theoretical and empirical economic analysis and their quality is demonstrated by the post-graduate achievements of our students. An important priority is that we continue to attract high-quality students at all levels into our programs and that we provide substantial value-added through our programs. You can help us achieve these aims in several ways:

1. Undergraduate Awards and Scholarships: There are several funds that provide awards and scholarships to students in economics which are very helpful in attracting and retaining the best students to Queen’s and the economics department. Although there is an extensive list, perhaps the most useful is the Don Wood Scholarship Fund which allows us to award scholarships on the basis of academic excellence to one or more full-time students entering the second, third, or fourth year of a B.A. (Honours) program. It is also possible to establish new awards.

2. Helping to retain smaller class sizes: As student-faculty ratios have risen there is increasing pressure on class sizes. Smaller class-sizes are important for ensuring close interaction between students and faculty, especially in upper years. Income generated from several departmental funds is used to pay for adjuncts, teaching fellow and visiting faculty to offer courses and sections of courses. These include the QED Initiatives Trust, the Economics Head Special Trust and the Urquhart Memorial Fund.

Attracting the Best Graduate Students

The maintenance of a high quality graduate program is crucial to our overall mission. Graduate students assist in and undertake high level empirical and theoretical research in economics. They also play a key role as teaching assistants thereby helping to ensure a quality under-graduate experience. In addition, several senior Ph.D. students are employed as Lecturers. You can help us attract and retain the best graduate students in the following ways:

1. Awards and Scholarships: These play an even more significant role for graduate students than for undergraduate students. Support for graduate students could consist of establishing a new award or contributing to an existing one. The Skelton-Clark Clark Fund, for example, provide the most flexible way for the Department to provide fellowship support. Graduate students are also supported with research assistantships through the John-Deutsch Institute.

2. Teaching assistantships: A significant part of a graduate student’s income comes in the form of Teaching Assistantships and several departmental funds are used to support some of these, over and above those provided by the University. These include QED Initiatives and the Economics Head Special Trust.

Attracting and Retaining the Best Faculty

Queen’s Economics Department is one of the top-ranked research departments in Canada and remains at the forefront of international economic research. Moreover, the quality of our undergraduate and graduate programs depends crucially on the competence and knowledge of the faculty that provide them. Over the next few years, we anticipate a significant number of retirements from the department. While this will create holes in both our research and teaching capacity it also represents an opportunity for the department to renew its faculty with high quality hires.  You can help us to maintain our research excellence in the following ways:

1. Recruiting costs: For a top department such as QED, the one-time costs of recruiting are significant. Several job candidates are typically invited to visit the campus for any advertised position, so that they and their research and teaching skills can be assessed. Travel and accommodation costs can often be high, especially for international candidates. The QED Rebuilding Fund provides resources that help ensure that we are able to consider the top candidates in a very competitive environment.

2. Start-up research costs: Sources of funding to cover faculty research costs are limited and it is typically very difficult for junior faculty with short track-records to obtain crucial research grants. Consequently, it is very important that we assist new recruits with their initial research costs so that they can eventually compete for external funding. Funds such as the Edith Whyte Memorial Fund and the Alan G. Green Memorial Fund for Economic History play a crucial role in this endeavour.

3. Chairs and Professorship: Stable funding through endowed chairs and professorships help the economics department attract and retain internationally recognized faculty who, in turn, attract junior faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students to Queen’s. We have been quite successful in recent in years in using these funds to hire and retain top researchers and we plan to continue to do so as we replace upcoming retirements. These include the David C. Smith Chair, the Douglas D. Purvis Professorship and the Peacock Professorship.

Contact Information

Donations may be sent directly to the Department. Cheques should be payable to Queen's University, and the fund to which the donation is directed (for example, "David Smith Chair" or "Economics Trust") should be written on the face of the cheque. Please mail to

Department of Economics
Dunning Hall
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6
Canada

Phone: (613) 533-3122
Fax: (613) 533-6668

Of course, funds can also be donated via the University's Department of Advancement, and this is recommended for on-going gifts, gifts of securities, matching gifts, planned giving, and so on. There is on-line giving page for the Economic Department.

If you would like to discuss how you can help the Department raise money, or you would like to make a substantial donation, please contact Allen Head (Department Head and Fundraising Chair).