Business Economics and Data Analytics with Foundation Year

Foundation courses
A foundation year can develop your skills and make it easier to get started at university. It is an extra year of study at the start of your course that leads in to a full degree programme. It’s a great option if:

• You don’t have the grades for a full degree course

• You have non-traditional qualifications or experience

• You’re starting university after some time away from education

• You’re looking for more support during the transition into university study.

Life as a foundation year student
During a foundation year you’ll learn about your chosen subject, develop your study skills and get used to university life. On successful completion of your foundation year, you’ll be ready to progress to the first year of your degree course.
As a foundation year student, you’ll be a full student of the University and part of our community. You’ll have access to all our campus facilities and support.

Why choose this course

• As a business economics and data analytics student you will acquire skills to understand patterns in and make inferences about large datasets using market leading analytics software such as Python and R.

• Take the opportunity to get industry-ready with our award-winning Professional Training placements that will prepare you for your future career working with large economics datasets.

• Studying with leading researchers you will examine economic trends and business issues, enabling you to make informed decisions as business leaders.

• Our teaching is at the forefront of the field and is influenced by real industry insights. Our academics are research-active, and some are advisers to world-renowned organisations.

• All our Economics degrees are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), fast-tracking your career by giving you exemption from some professional examinations.

What you will study
All our economics students follow the same first year in order to build a solid foundation on which to specialise. This means you can choose to transfer to Economics or Economics and Finance from your second year, or continue with the Business Economics and Data Analytics BSc.

All our programmes include two compulsory employability modules where you will obtain advice and feedback on CV and cover letter-writing, and how to prepare for an interview. You will also be encouraged to think about what kind of career you wish to pursue and how to start working towards your future goals.

The first-year modules are designed to provide you with a broad range of basic tools, skills and knowledge that you will develop in the course of your programme. You will study introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics as well as the mathematics essential for an economist to know. First year modules also comprise introductory statistics and data analysis.

In the second year, the programme becomes more specialised. You will learn how businesses operate and interact as well as their role within the economy. You will learn to use business analytics tools to process and analyse large datasets which can be used to support strategic business decisions. You will deepen your knowledge of microeconomics and macroeconomics and study econometrics at an intermediate level to firm up your knowledge of theory and quantitative skills.

In your final year, you will choose four optional modules in addition to four compulsory ones. We offer a long list of specialised modules, some of which are more technical than others, all taught by lecturers conducting research in various fields in economics. You will be able to complement your business-related modules with learning about different specialised fields of economics relevant to the business sector (e.g. behavioural economics) or other areas of economics that may be of interest to you (e.g. corruption, family economics).

To see the full range of modules for this course please visit our website. The link is under course ‘contact details’. You will also find full details of the programme, including assessment methods, programme structure, contact hours and Graduate prospects.