Economics (Study Abroad) BSc Hons - 2020 Entry

UCAS Code
L101

Entry Year
2020

A Level Requirements
AAB see all requirements

Duration
Full time 3 Year(s)

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What makes some countries richer than others? How does society fund social care? Why are footballers paid so much? An understanding of economics gets to the heart of how the world works. It’s also highly prized by employers in the private and public sectors.

We build on first principles, and weave theory and evidence into policy analysis along with a valuable year studying overseas. This allows you to under-stand fundamental issues and topical concerns whilst developing an international perspective.

You don’t need an Economics A level as all first years study the Principles of Economics and Quantitative Methods for Economics, covering mathematics and statistics. You’ll also be able to choose another subject such as Accounting and Finance, International Relations or Marketing. If you wish, you can continue with this minor subject throughout your degree.

In the second year, you’ll study at a partner university usually in North America or Australasia. There are many advantages to studying abroad, including personal and educational development, experiencing a new culture, and enhanced employability. If you’re considering further study, graduate programmes welcome study abroad candidates.

When you return to Lancaster, your final year sees you choosing up to eight modules taught by researchers active in that field. From Public Economics to International Trade, Health Economics to Sports Economics you can tailor your studies to suit your aspirations. High-performing students also have the chance to write a dissertation. In fact, a large number of our students go on to study a Masters degree.

Throughout your degree, we’ll supply training in CV writing, interview assessment centres and telephone interviews. We are proud of our aspiring economists and aim to nurture the potential in every one of them.

Lancaster University will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner university that offers appropriate modules which contribute credit to your Lancaster degree. Occasionally places overseas may not be available for all students who want to study abroad or the place at the partner university may be withdrawn if core modules are unavailable. If you are not offered a place to study overseas, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent standard degree scheme and would complete your studies at Lancaster.

Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of the year or term abroad.

Grade Requirements

A Level AAB

Required Subjects A level Mathematics or Further Mathematics grade A

GCSE Mathematics grade B or 6, English Language grade C or 4

IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.

Other Qualifications

International Baccalaureate 35 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects including 6 in HL Mathematics

BTEC May be considered alongside an A in A level Mathematics or Further Mathematics

We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.

Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster please visit our Teaching and Learning section.

The following courses do not offer modules outside of the subject area due to the structured nature of the programmes: Architecture, Law, Physics, Engineering, Medicine, Sports and Exercise Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedicine and Biomedical Science.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research.

Year 1

Core

Career and Employability I

Each year students receive specific training by the Management School Career Team, to prepare them for the graduate labour market. In the first year the focus is on growing the student’s awareness of labour market dynamics and his or her professional aspirations and inclinations. The second year focuses on goal setting, action planning, and the development of a personalised career plan. The third year focuses on one-to-one sessions with career advisors. The Career Team is based in the Management School, organises events with employers and alumni, and coaches students on how to best perform in the graduate job market through seminars, surgeries, mock interviews and one-to-one advice.
Principles of Economics A

Providing a thorough introduction to the discipline of Economics, this module is divided into two parts. The first part covers microeconomic analysis, including the theory of demand, costs and pricing under various forms of industrial organisation, and welfare economics. Many applications of theoretical models are examined. The second part focuses on macroeconomic analysis, including national income analysis, monetary theory, business cycles, inflation, unemployment, and the great macroeconomic debates.
Quantitative Methods for Economics

This module integrates elementary economic theory, mathematical and statistical methods and the interpretation of data in order to analyse economic issues of current policy importance. You will therefore be introduced to the basic tools of mathematics essential for a proper understanding of economics and business. Teaching on quantitative methods is combined with numerous practical applications to economics, enabling you to practise applying your analytical and quantitative skills to the topics developed and analysed in depth over the course of the module.

Year 2

Core

Management School UG Study Abroad Year

This year of your degree will be spent studying abroad at one of our partner universities. We have exchange agreements with prestigious universities all over the world and many of our undergraduate degree programmes include a year spent studying at a top international university. Progression to the study abroad year will be dependent upon performance in the first year of the degree programme. Some students may also have to complete a Study Abroad Maths examination. You can find out more about our study abroad programmes on our LUMS Study Abroad web pages.

Year 3

Core

Career and Employability III

Each year students receive specific training by the Management School Career Team, to prepare them for the graduate labour market. In the first year the focus is on growing the student’s awareness of labour market dynamics and his or her professional aspirations and inclinations. The second year focuses on goal setting, action planning, and the development of a personalised career plan. The third year focuses on one-to-one sessions with career advisors. The Career Team is based in the Management School, organises events with employers and alumni, and coaches students on how to best perform in the graduate job market through seminars, surgeries, mock interviews and one-to-one advice.

Optional

Advanced Macroeconomics

This module gives an overview of important topics in macroeconomics. Topics covered include the stabilisation policy under rational expectations, the Lucas critique of policy evaluation, and the implications of asset market efficiency for macroeconomic behaviour. The relevance of theory to these issues is emphasised throughout the module.

The second part of the course analyses various topics of advanced macroeconomic theory. In particular the course focuses on theoretical models of growth, real business cycle, endogenous labour supply and unemployment.
Advanced Microeconomics
This module develops advanced topics in the field of microeconomic analysis, with an emphasis on formal mastery as well as intuitive interpretation and understanding.

Topics include:
- duality and the envelope theorem
- the Robinson Crusoe economy
- prices and decentralisation
- general equilibrium
- the core decision-making under risk and uncertainty
- game theory (correlated equilibrium)
- information and mechanism design
- the equilibrium price of time
Applied Macroeconomics

This module develops your understanding of the application of macroeconomic theory and quantitative methods to the analysis of international economics and the economic history of the UK, and the pound sterling in particular. It also helps you to understand the role of international economics and finance in the world economy.

The module integrates intermediate macroeconomic theory, statistical methods, the interpretation of data, and empirical results. Analysis is applied to macroeconomic issues important to businesses and policymakers – including exchange rate regimes, international parity conditions, business cycles, and monetary unions.
Behavioural and Experimental Economics

This course aims to introduce students to the field of Behavioural and Experimental economics. The module provides the necessary skills to study how the standard rationality assumptions can be relaxed in order to take into account psychological and cognitive biases, as well as social preferences. In addition, it introduces students to the tool of experimentation in economics as a means of collecting data to test the various economic theories.
Development Economics

This module develops your understanding of advanced material in the field of economic growth as well as the problems of economic development. There is particular reference to the application of theoretical material to the development experience and policy-making in developing and emerging economies.
Dissertation Module

This module integrates intermediate economic theory, statistical methods and the interpretation of data to analyse applied economic issues of current business or policy importance.

You will be prepared for your 5,000-word dissertation on an applied topic by attending workshops either individually or in groups. The workshops are supervised by a member of staff.
Econometrics
This module equips you with the tools needed to conduct applied econometrics. It emphasises an analytical and intuitive understanding of the classical linear regression model, and also covers newer topics such as:
- specification tests
- binary choice models
- Tobit analysis
- non-stationary time series
- unit root tests and basic cointegration
You will use the Eviews econometrics software.
Game Theory

Over the course of this module, you will enhance your knowledge and understanding of how to specify economic problems in the confines of a game-theoretic model and to solve those problems using appropriate mathematical techniques. The module aims to build your capacity for logical and structured problem analysis.
Health Economics

This applied module is designed as an introduction to the economics of health and health care, and helps to develop your awareness of the main policy issues in this field. It provides a comprehensive set of economic tools for critically appraising fundamental issues in the economics of health while offering a broad overview of the UK National Health Service and other health care systems around the world. The emphasis is on the use and interpretation of microeconomic models and the latest empirical evidence.
Industrial Organisation

This module focuses on firm behaviour and competition, using theoretical (especially game theoretic) and empirical models. It also explores the relationship between industry structure and firm conduct, together with aspects of firm behaviour such as advertising, R&D and mergers.
International Business

This module develops your understanding of advanced material in the field of international business. There is particular emphasis on analysing the strategic economic and financial behaviour of multinational firms in the global economy. The module also considers the role and effects of government intervention on firms and multinational firms and how they adapt.
International Trade

This module develops your understanding of concepts and theories of international trade and factor flows, with particular reference to the way in which such material can inform policy-making.

You will gain knowledge and understanding of international trade theory, and learn to apply this theory to the analysis of present-day policy issues in international economics.
Labour Economics
Focusing on the microeconomics of labour and personnel, this module covers topics such as the economics of migration, wage determination, job search and labour market discrimination.

There is a particular emphasis on principal agent problems in human resources and the design of incentives within firms.

Economics theory is used to analyse the operation of labour markers and assess the empirical evidence. Areas covered include:
- the firm's demand for labour
- labour supply at an individual and aggregate level
- causes of wage rigidity
- the economic impact of trade unions
- inflation and unemployment
Mathematical Economics

This module trains ambitious economists to use formal mathematical methods used in economic modelling. These techniques are necessary for students interested in pursuing postgraduate studies in economics or working in analytically demanding jobs in the private sector. You will learn to use the Mathematica software package and how to address and solve economic problems by means of abstract models.

The first part of the module is more micro-oriented and you will learn further methods of integration and what metric spaces and existence theorems are. You will also learn what quasi-concave and quasi-convex functions are and how to optimise with inequality constraints. The second part of the course is more macro-oriented and you will learn how to solve differential equations and perform dynamic optimisation.
Monetary Macroeconomics
This module examines the essential characteristics of a money economy, and the topics covered include:
- Non-neutral money
- Interest rate determination
- Monetary and labour market disequilibria
- The national debt and monetary disequilibrium (fiscal monetarism)
- Monetary and international payments disequilibria
- Rational expectations (RE) solutions and applications to stabilisation policy
- Market efficiency and the application of RE to bubbles and to exchange rates
- The central bank and inflation bias
Public Economics

This module is concerned with understanding the role of government in the economy. Among the topics covered are the characteristics of public goods, basic characteristics of a tax system under both classical and political economy approaches, and the effects of globalisation and its effects on modern tax systems. The module also explores how economic models can be used to understand current affairs.
Sports Economics

This module looks at how theoretical and empirical methods can be applied to the growing field of sports economics.

It helps you to understand the particular characteristics of labour and product markets in professional sports, and what implications these have for economic analysis. You will also learn more about how theoretical and empirical work in the economics of sport can be used to inform policy issues, including competitive structures in sports leagues, free agency and player mobility, and the financing of professional sport. You will also gain insights into how betting markets function and why people gamble on sports.

Careers

Our degrees are designed to prepare you for a career in industry, business, finance, consultancy or government. Recent Economics graduates have joined banks and financial consultancies such as HSBC and Deloitte, while others have been employed on graduate schemes with major companies, including BAE and the Swire Group.

Many of our Economics students have gained places on postgraduate courses at top institutions and then pursued specialised careers as economists – for example, at the Bank of England, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and in academia.

Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring you not only gain a highly reputable degree, you also graduate with the relevant life and work based skills. We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which offers you the opportunity to complete key activities such as work experience, employability awareness, career development, campus community and social development. Visit our Employability section for full details.

Lancaster Management School has an award winning careers team to provide a dedicated careers and placement service offering a range of innovative services for management school students. Our high reputation means we attract a wide range of leading global employers to campus offering you the opportunity to interact with graduate recruiters from day 1 of your degree.

Fees

Our annual tuition fee is set for a 12-month session, starting in the October of your year of study.

Our Undergraduate Tuition Fees for 2020/21 are:

UK/EU	Overseas
£9,250	£19,474

Undergraduate tuition fees

For students starting at the University for the 2020 session, subsequent year’s fees may be subject to increases. UK fees are set by the UK Government annually. For international applicants, any annual increase will be capped at 4% of the previous year’s fee. For more information about tuition fees, including fees for Study Abroad and Work Placements, please visit our undergraduate tuition fees page.

Applicants from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

Some science and medicine courses have higher fees for students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. You can find more information about this on our Island Fees page.

Funding

For full details of the University's financial support packages including eligibility criteria, please visit our fees and funding page

Students may incur travel costs dependant on their placement location.

Students also need to consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation it may be necessary to take out subscriptions to professional bodies and to buy business attire for job interviews.

Student Insights

In his blog, Faraz Khokar discusses how he has enjoyed taking advantage of all the opportunities at Lancaster. "My time so far has been enriching. I’ve met industry leaders in the world of banking and finance, successful entrepreneurs, top graduate recruiters and so on. You can learn a lot by listening to someone’s experience and career journey, it grows you as a person and makes you aware of the world out there."

Read Blog

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Alumni Profiles

Katy Shaw

BA Business Economics (Study Abroad), 2012

The opportunities I had during my time at Lancaster allowed me to achieve even more than I'd imagined at university.

Panagiotis Charos

BSc Economics (Study Abroad), 2018

Overall, Lancaster University goes at great lengths to prepare its students to successfully overcome the challenges that they face when they enter the market.

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Important Information

The information on this site relates primarily to 2020/21 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication. The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses.

In the event of a course being withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date information before you submit your application. Further legal information.

The amount of time you spend in lectures, seminars and similar will differ from year to year. Taken as an average over all years of the course, you will spend an average of 11.5 hours per week in lectures, seminars and similar during term time.

A broad range of assessments methods will be used throughout the degree. As a guide, 40% of assessment is by coursework over the duration of the course.

Our Students’ Charter

We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.

Economics (Study Abroad) BSc Hons - 2020 Entry

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