Andrew Farlow's
teaching and communication

Oxford International Health and Tropical Medicine course

I teach on a mixture of graduate courses in global health and undergraduate courses in economics. I have lectured extensively all over the world including, in the years before the pandemic, fifty institutes across China.

For the past decade I have taught a course on ‘Vaccine Deployment and Policies’ for the vaccinology module of the Masters in International Health and Tropical Medicine (I am told, to extremely good reviews). A one-page syllabus is here: Farlow Vaccine Economics and Deployment syllabus

In late 2022 I was asked to organise a Problem Based Learning Exercise for the students (a mix of IHTM vaccinology students and Jenner vaccine DPhil students).

 

The 2023 PBL, the first year of this new initiative, focussed on the “Future of Epidemic and Pandemic Vaccines to serve Global Public Health Needs” The PBL statement I set the students is here: 2023 Vaccinology PBL.

Five ask-the-expert sessions were organised. The students researched each expert then submitted questions to me in advance of the session, so that feedback could be given to tailor the questions. The floor was run by the students and questioning was deep and meaningful to their needs. The five experts kindly agreeing to join us were:

  • Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert: Professor of Vaccinology, University of Oxford. More here.
  • Professor Helen Rees: Founder and executive director of Wits RHI, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. More here.
  • Dr Joe Fitchett: Senior Adviser for Biotechnology at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal. More here.
  • Professor Gary Kobinger: Director, Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas. More here.
  • Dr Stig Tollefsen:Technology Office Lead at CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations). More here.

These sessions provided an opportunity to ask specific questions and sense check the developing recommendations for the PBL project. It was also intended to motivate the students and give them access to world-expert opinions and thinking.

One of the first batch of experts wrote after intense cross examination by the students:  “Oh my god my message is please please continue – this is the best learning format I have seen in my career. I guarantee you that they will remember what they learn there for the rest of their career because it is not just technical knowledge but knowledge that one learns along the way through more painful processes (and much more time). Combining this with the writing of papers is just phenomenal…. I will share the concept with some colleagues here…where I teach grad students”

I supported the students and young researchers with a webinar too: Webinar Poster 2Feb23

I gave a lecture to students in June 2023, a news item about which can be found here.

 

The 2024 PBL focussed on global flu pandemics. The PBL is here: 2024 Vaccinology PBL A short news item is here.

Five ask-the-expert speakers were organised. Those kindly agreeing to join us were:

  • Professor Petro Terblanche: CEO, Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, host of
    WHO mRNA tech transfer hub who talked about LMIC challenges and opportunities.
  • Christopher Chadwick (here, here, and here) previously at WHO now at CDC working on flu, gave WHO/CDC related angle and how to achieve equitable access.
  • Spring Gombe, Market Access Africa (her Linkedin here) talked about access issues and strengthening Africa healthcare.
  • Professor Bruno Versaevel: Professor at emylon business school, (his page here) a specialist in “industrial organization.. with a special interest in the economics of R&D in the biopharmaceutical industry context”, talked about tech transfer, investment, and pricing.
  • Dr Holly Sadler: consultant to WHO, talked about challenges of broadly protective (“universal”) flu vaccines, vaccine design, human and one health angles, epidemiology of influenza, implementation. 

 

The 2025 PBL focusses on malaria and mpox. The PBL is here: 2025 Oxford IHTM Vaccinology PBL

Details of the ask-the-expert speakers in 2025 will be shared shortly.

 

During the pandemic I did a couple of extra sessions. Since I only used them a couple of times and they were a lot of work to create, I share them fully here:

Farlow COVID-19 vaccines 2022-2023

Farlow Health Economics COVID-19 interventions November 2020

In previous years I have given an economic course on how to evaluate tools, especially for malaria (the content needs updating and will be posted soon).

Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research graduate supervision

I supervise and/or transfer-examine students of Ineos Oxford Institute for antimicrobial research, especially those working in Africa, Pakistan, and Malaysia.

In 2025 I launched a new DPhil in Food systems and AMR. See here and here.

I have funded several IOI early career researchers to join international meetings and workshop.

The Hasso Plattner Institut, Potsdam, Germany has very kindly funded a DPhil student, to be jointly supervised by me and Professor Lothar Wieler (Speaker of the HPI Digital Health Cluster and Head of the research group “Digital Global Public Health”) in areas of mutual interest and that overlap with the work of a new partnership with CHAMPS. I am hoping we can connect more young researchers this way and create opportunities.

Oxford Summer School: Global Health; Planetary Health; AI and the Future of Health

I have recently become involved in the Oxford Certificate Programmes Summer School at Worcester College, University of Oxford. My vision is for a summer school for young people (many of whom will have only just become exposed to global health issues and are exploring their options in life) and early career researchers in the area of global health.

The two-week Global Health and Planetary Health Syllabus is here: Farlow Global Health and Planetary Health syllabus

AI and the Future of Health. Syllabus is under edit and will be posted shortly.

‘AI and the Future of Health’ was piloted for the first time in 2024 with intent to extend in future years as part of a global effort to strengthen training of young people in AI for health. We are seeking funding that will allow us to fully fund half the attendees from LMICs to achieve this goal.

I also created a week on “Economic Crises and crashes” The syllabus is here: Farlow Crash syllabus

Participants graded my courses as excellent (5 out of 5) which will hopefully secure its future as a regular offering of the Worcester Programme. We also intend to link it so high-level policy summer schools and workshops. Watch this space!

Undergraduate economics teaching

I have taught Oxford undergraduates for over 30 years, variously macroeconomics and microeconomics from introductory level through to Finals (i.e. end of degree) level, the Industrial Organisation option paper for Finals, the Money and Banking paper for Finals, and some finance options at the Finals and MSc/MPhil level.

Currently I teach small groups for the Money and Banking Finals paper. I also organise a financial crash seminar every spring at which, with my guidance and support (copious visual content shared), students present and discuss.

Descriptions of all the Oxford undergraduate PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) option papers are here. The description for the Money and Banking option is: The role of money in general equilibrium models. Aggregate models of price and output fluctuations. The role of banks and financial intermediaries. Models of monetary policy. Inflation targeting and other policy regimes. Money and public finance. The transmission of monetary policy to asset prices and exchange rates.

I am told that I am a deeply knowledgeable (I wrote a book about the crash after all!) and inspiring tutor for the Money ad Banking paper. Several students every year go on to further programmes of study in economics.

Currently I teach a few macroeconomics tutorials for the undergraduate Introductory Economics paper. The syllabus is described here.The macroeconomics component is described as covering: national income accounting; the determination of national income and employment; monetary institutions and the money supply; inflation; balance of payments and exchange rates; the determinants of long-run economic growth.

Some useful links for students are this and this.