Information for Lecturers
The Irish Taxation Insitue Fantasy Budget Competition is an excellent class assignment to set for your students. We invite you to submit the top three entries from your college. Your entries will automatically be reviewed by the external judging panel and there are prizes for first second and third place!
The winning team are usually invited to make a 10-minute presentation on their proposals at the prize-giving ceremony. The winning team’s proposals may also be published in the Institute’s Journal - The Irish Tax Review and on www.taxireland.ie
Dr Gerardine Doyle, Academic Director MBA Health Care Management in UCD Business School has seen great success with her students’ involvement in the Fantasy Budget.
“UCD has been participating in the ITI Fantasy Budget Competition for three years, since I included it as part of our tax module. When I first proposed doing the competition the students hadn’t heard of it, but now because they are aware of the success of previous students whose winning team have been on the RTE 6-1 news, interviewed by George Lee and received great interest in the media. The feedback we get from student evaluation forms suggests that they find the Fantasy Budget competition to be of great benefit in their studies.
Our students present their Fantasy Budget submission to their classmates as part of continuous assessment, which helps them focus on the topic and brings out their competitive nature. They have found it useful too, when they do their interviews with the firms during the “milkround” to have current topics, already researched to discuss. The chance of being placed, winning a prize and the prospect of media attention is what excites students about the competition. If successful, the experience can also be included as an outstanding achievement in their CV, so that is a motivating factor.
When choosing our top three, we firstly draw upon the ITI’s criteria, and I look for originality and sound reasoning, the link to the theory and economics of tax, in terms of their explanation for their rationale, I look for clarity of expression and finally evidence that they have done rigorous research.
The key benefits of participating in the competition for students are:
• Development of tax research and critical thinking skills
• Improved presentation skills
• Encouraging team-work
• Invaluable preparation for “milkround” interviews
• Possible achievement for CVs
I would encourage all third-level colleges and universities to introduce the ITI Fantasy Budget Competition into their modules. Even those who don’t have tax modules could include it with economics or other business subjects. It really worked for us and I continue to see the advantages of making it a compulsory assignment. The benefits are multi-dimensional from gaining research and presentation skills to getting that achievement for your CV to give you the edge in interviews. “
Entry Criteria
All full-time students are encouraged to enter! Students should form teams of either three or four members and enter on an independent basis or as part of a class exercise. We encourage lecturers and tutors to use the competition as a teaching resource. Each lecturer should nominate the best three entries and submit them to the Institute by 30 November 2008.