Economics 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.

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

• Throughout your degree, you will build skills for constructing and communicating complex economic issues, enhancing your leadership and employability skills.

• Take the opportunity to get industry-ready with our award-winning Professional Training placements.

• You’ll join a friendly and vibrant community which comes together over many additional opportunities that we host so you can enjoy and experience economics at its best: our annual Malthus Dinner, Nobel Prize Workshop, and trips to London.

• 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.

• Studying an Economics degree provides excellent graduate prospects and earnings. Ninety-five per cent of our Economics graduates were in employment or further study, earning an average of £32,046 (Graduate Outcomes 2024, HESA).

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 the BSc Business Economics and Data Analytics, or Economics and Finance from your second year, or continue with the Economics 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, you will start to specialise according to your own interests. You will continue to study microeconomics and macroeconomics, now at a more advanced level. The skills that you acquire, and in combination with the econometrics modules, will allow you to observe and analyse the real world through the lenses of economic theory as well as set up and run a data analysis and interpret the results; something that is part of many economists’ daily jobs.

In your final year, you can choose six optional modules in addition to two 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. While deepening your knowledge of economic theory, you will learn how it can be applied in various settings (e.g. labour markets, development economics) to formulate policy recommendations. You may also want to improve, expand and reinforce your research and writing skills by selecting the Economics Project (a 5,000-word research project) as one of your optional modules.