Economics and Politics (Including Foundation Year) BSc (Hons)

University of Essex

Our BA Economics and Politics (including foundation year) is open to Home and EU students. It will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your English language and academic skills.

This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study four academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory English language and academic skills module.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Department of Economics.

How and why do governments try to regulate markets? Why are Central Banks independent? What explains the fluctuations of stock markets and exchange rates? How important is the economy for the outcome of elections? What is globalisation and how does it impact our daily lives? Economic and political events dominate domestic and international news, and impact on our day-to-day lives, as well as shaping the future. This course should interest you if you want to gain an understanding of politics and economics, but also want to understand the interaction between the two disciplines. You study economic methods while exploring the very nature of democracy and the ways in which governments use the economy for their advantage.

One this course you study a range of topics such as:

• Macro- and microeconomics
• Political systems and political ideas
• Research design and statistical methods
• Globalisation and international development
• European Union economics and politics

Our Department of Government is one of the most prestigious in Europe, with an outstanding record of teaching, research and publication. We are rated top in the UK for research (REF 2014), and have consistently been the highest-rated politics department in the country since national assessments began. Meanwhile, our Department of Economics is top 5 in the UK for research, with over 90% of their research rated as “world-leading” or “internationally excellent” (REF 2014).