The House of Commons Comes to Richmond

25/03/2010

The Outreach Programme of the House of Commons came to Richmond University on the 25th of March to re-enact a Select Committee hearing.

The role play exercise, led by Mr Alarsdair Mackenzie, took place in the class of PLT362 Policy-Making in the Globalized World, taught by Dr Eunice Goes.

During the exercise, students were divided in four groups – clerks, MPs and two groups of witnesses – and re-enacted a Select Committee hearing on home repossessions. Mr Mackenzie and two other House of Commons officials briefed each group on their specific role.

The purpose of the exercise was to enable students to understand how policy is formulated and shaped in real life.

The exercise was very popular with the students. For instance, Amélie Barrau thought it was “an interesting way of getting students involved in politics”. And Ian Padley said he would like to see more of these exercises at Richmond. “We should do it again”, he said.

This was the first of (we hope) many projects between Richmond and the Outreach Programme of the House of Commons.

Mr. MacKenzie expressed the wish of seeing more Richmond students visiting the British parliament and engaging with its educational activities, an offer that Dr Goes has taken with open arms.

 

 

 

 

See details of Richmond's Political Science undergraduate program here

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/883.aspx