Economics BSc Honours

The first year covers a range of modules aimed at providing you with a comprehensive understanding of fundamental economic principles, their applications, statistical analysis, and quantitative techniques.

This module introduces theoretical concepts of economic decision making. The module presents the principal elements of microeconomics as a basis for understanding the operations of markets, efficient resource allocation, an awareness of market failures and the microeconomic effects of economic policy, the trade-off between private and social incentives, with special attention given to theories around decision making under risk or incomplete information. Basic concepts of behavioural economics are also discussed.

This module develops your understanding of key concepts in economics, mathematics, statistics through practical application. It introduces the application of microeconomic and macroeconomic theories to analyse real-world economic issues. The module will enhance analytical thinking, reasoning skills, and the capability to abstract and solve problems, fostering an understanding of commonly used mathematical and statistical techniques for interpreting data.

This module presents an overview of key financial markets and institutions along with the key concepts of monetary policy to prepare you for more advanced and specialist studies in the second and third years. The module introduces you to monetary policy, basic macroeconomic indicators, different financial institutions and how they interact in the market. It adopts both a quantitative and qualitative approach to explaining the functioning and importance of financial markets and institutions, and monetary policy supported by real world examples.

This module provides a thorough grounding of the statistical methods and computer software for the analysis and presentation of accounting and economic data. It caters for students with some prior mathematical knowledge, and while you are expected to complete mathematical calculations by hand and using a computer the emphasis is on the interpretation and communication of quantitative results.

This module enables you to undertake and reflect on approved work experiences and a range of personal and professional development activities, for a minimum of eighteen weeks full time employment. This will provide you with an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of work and develop effective strategies to deal with and understand work and organisational life. The module will enable you to develop your ability to articulate your graduate competencies and demonstrate your commercial awareness.

The second year builds upon the foundational knowledge gained in the first year and delves deeper into the field of economics with specialised modules in micro- and macroeconomics. It also covers more advanced statistical (econometrics) and quantitative skills.

This module provides you with a set of tools to analyse time-series economic data and use them to produce forecasts. You will be able to recognise issues arising when analysing time-series data, specify and estimate suitable econometric models to produce reliable forecasts.

On this module you will the models and techniques of macroeconomics at an intermediate level and develop an appreciation of current controversies with respect to the formulation, implementation and impact of macroeconomic policies.

This module develops your knowledge of microeconomics theories that can be used to explain consumer and firm behaviour. The aims of this module are to provide analytical tools for students to evaluate theories of consumer and investor behaviour and to analyse and compare firms’ production and pricing policies under different firm objectives. 

This module develops your skills in applying the principles and methods of social survey research, and the econometric analysis of social survey responses. It will introduce you to survey methods and basic econometric techniques and the skills to carry out qualitative and quantitative analysis. It will expose you to survey methods and design using software such as SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics. It will also teach you the basic econometric toolkit necessary to analyse the result of their surveys such as regression analysis and non-parametric tests using software such as Excel and Stata.

Building upon your first work experience module, you will undertake approved work experiences and personal and professional development activities, for a minimum of 18 weeks full time employment. This gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of work and develop effective strategies to understand work and organisational life. The module will help you to demonstrate your commercial awareness.

For this module you will undertake an approved work experiences and personal and professional development activities, for a minimum of 18 weeks full time employment. This will provide you with an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of work and develop strategies to deal with and understand work and organisational life. The module will enable you to develop your ability to articulate your graduate competencies and demonstrate your commercial awareness.

In the third year, you'll delve into more specialised and advanced areas of the field, especially in macroeconomics and econometrics. In combination with our range of optional modules, the third-year modules will provide you with advanced knowledge and analytical skills in specific areas of economics, enabling you to specialise in your areas of interest.

This module will advance your understanding of macroeconomic analysis, focusing on rigorous and technical analysis of macroeconomic concepts. It includes two main components: business cycle formation and monetary economics with Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models.  The module studies macro-level policymaking, providing a comprehensive exploration of advanced macroeconomic theories and its real-world applications. 

This module provides you with a set of tools to understand and analyse economic data for policy evaluation. The module will expose you to econometric strategies frequently used in applied microeconomics and behavioural research. You will be able to recognise data problems and how they may affect causal interpretations, specify and estimate econometrics models for policy evaluation, and be able to undertake empirical research individually and independently.

This module provides a comprehensive exposure to the insights and methods of game theory, behavioural and experimental economics. The first part is designed to introduce the main solution concepts of game theory and aims at providing a formal framework for the analysis of how individuals and firms behave in context of strategic interaction. The second part of the module is intended to assess the predicted power of different (micro)economic theories when it comes to actual human behaviour and real experimental data.

This module will present the main developments in automated trading and FinTech in the past two decades. A practical understanding of automated trading will be developed by using extensive worked examples of Python and R codes, which are the main languages used in automated finance. The module will provide you with a working knowledge of financial technology applications such as blockchain, crypto assets, crowdfunding and P2P finance. 

This module gives an overview of the state-of-the-art literature in key fields of economics. It adopts both a quantitative and qualitative approach to explaining the current research in these fields and their policy implications supported by real world examples. It will provide you with analytical skills and research knowledge to prepare you for more advanced and specialist studies in graduate schools and jobs in the industries.

This module is for you to undertake an approved work experience and personal and professional development activities, for a minimum of 30 days full time employment. This will provide you with an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of work and develop effective strategies to deal with and understand work and organisational life. The module will develop your ability to articulate your graduate competencies and demonstrate commercial awareness.

You will gain knowledge and understanding through guided reading of textbooks, academic journals, computer software, in-class exercises, labs, workshops and seminars.  
 
You’ll develop cognitive skills through reading the required texts and articles; listening, discussing and presenting a series of topics and theories; identifying suitable research articles to support your learning; organising and analysing datasets with appropriate software in labs; applying theory to specific problems and producing a significant piece of work based on your analysis. 

Outside of teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework, presentations and exams.

Here is an indication of how you will split your time:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

During your first year, your weekly timetable will typically consist of:

• 4 hours of workshops
• 8 hours of seminars.

Academic support

Our excellent teaching and support teams will help you develop the skills relevant to your degree from research and practical skills to critical thinking. And we offer free 24-hour laptop loans with full desktop software, free printing and Wi-Fi to use on or off campus, even over the weekend.

Your knowledge and understanding will be assessed by presentations, business case studies and practical, authentic written assignments.  
Your cognitive skills will be assessed by practice based individual and group coursework assignments, oral presentations and in class tests. 

Placements

A 12-month placement is offered at the end of year two.    
 
Alternatively, you can opt for two smaller placements over the years one and two of the course including the summers between their years of study.   
 
A dedicated employability advisor will help in the search for an employer who can provide you with an appropriate placement.  They will also provide you with guidance and support in preparation for, as well as during and after the placement.    
 
The placement forms the basis for an assessed report based on the organisation.    
 
At the start of the placement you will be allocated an individual supervisor who provides support and advice for the duration of the project.    
 
You are supported throughout the placement with a series of award-winning talks, workshops and engagement with professional bodies and employers.