DGPE PhD course: RCTs in Education - Methods and Findings
9-11 June 2026. Lecturer: Susan Dynarski, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Info about event
Time
Location
Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen 51, 8000 Aarhus C, room TBA
This PhD course is hosted by DGPE and Trygfonden's Centre for Child Research.
Description
This course is intended for PhD students in economics or related quantitative fields who have an interest in the economics of education, especially randomized controlled trials.
Students will learn how to plan, run, analyze, and interpret randomized field experiments in education. The course focuses on research design and statistical analysis. Students will learn the history, methodology, and theory of RCTs and write a proposal for a field experiment.
Students are expected to have familiarity with basic econometrics of program evaluation and causal inference.
Format and Schedule
This course is comprised of the equivalent to 2 full days of teaching (12 hrs) in addition to preparing readings (20 hrs) and presentations (or the submission of a research proposal after the course) (20 hrs).
Tuesday 9 June 2026: sessions 13:00-16:30 in 1816-144
Course dinner: 18:00-Wednesday 10 June 2026: sessions 9:00-17:00 in 1816-144
Thursday 11 June 2026: sessions 9:00-13:30 in 1816-144
All lectures will take place at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen 51, DK-8000 Aarhus C, building 1816, room 144.
Lunch, along with tea and coffee throughout the course, is included, as well as a course dinner for all participants.
Travel and accommodation expenses are to be covered by the participants’ home institutions.
Lecturer
Professor Susan Dynarski, Harvard Graduate School of Education: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/susan-dynarski
ECTS credits
To receive credits for the course, students should either give a presentation (30 min) within the topics covered by the course (broadly speaking) or submit a proposal for a randomized trial (5-10 pages) no later than 2 weeks after the course has finished. The proposal should include a short literature review, specific research questions, an analysis plan, proposed context and data sources, power calculations, and a project timeline.
For PhD students at AU (ECON), this course has been pre-approved as an internal BSS PhD course equivalent to 2 ECTS.
Registration
Registration deadline: 1 May 2026 via https://event.au.dk/events/dgpe-rcts-in-education-methods-and-findings/registration
The course is free of charge for:
- DGPE members from AU, KU, CBS, AAU and SDU.
- PhD students from Economics Departments at Nordic universities outside Denmark.
For other participants, the course fee is EUR 150.
See other DGPE courses here: https://econ.au.dk/talent-development/phd-programme/phdcourses/dgpe-courses
Contact
Academic: Helena Skyt Nielsen hnielsen@econ.au.dk
Administrative: Susanne Christensen, sch@econ.au.dk