BSc Programme in Economics and Business

The academic curriculum of the BSc programme covers areas of both economics and business, thus allowing students to get a wider perspective and thus have more career options after graduation.

Courses

Given the student body of 450 students and the comparatively small size of the School, staff and lecturers are able to work closely with students.

The core courses combine mainstream economics with various aspects of business. The five main blocks are as follows:

• Economics Courses: Learn theory, application, and quantitative aspects, including international and European economics. Gain insight into decision-making for individuals, households, businesses, and organizations.
• Finance and Accounting Courses: Explore capital markets, finance, management accounting, and financial management.
• Business Administration Courses: Gain insights into business, organization, and strategy. Includes courses on ethics, sustainable business, and economic anthropology, addressing the growing focus on ethical business practices.
• Data Analysis and Business Intelligence Courses: Develop advanced skills in data management, visualization, storytelling, and data-driven decision-making. Learn to use digital tools like MS Excel, Power BI, and R programming for data analysis and reporting automation.
• Communication Courses: Enhance communication skills for academic and professional success, with a strong emphasis on English language proficiency and teamwork.

Specialisation Courses

At the beginning of the last academic year, students should choose two specialisation courses from the five that are offered.

• Economics: Focuses on an in-depth analysis of the role of the banking system in the economy from micro and macroeconomic perspectives.
• Finance: Starts with topics on financial markets, including market design, price discovery, liquidity, informational efficiency and bubbles. This is followed by behavioural finance and portfolio management, corporate valuations and private M&A. The course emphasises empirical finance research methods that are relevant for the various topics.
• Retail Management: Offers a general management view, covering a broad range of functional topics including strategy, online and offline marketing, operations and supply chain.
• Entrepreneurship: Designed to teach students how to think and act entrepreneurially, how to start a new venture, and how to operate a business.
• International Politics: Examines complex global political issues, including geostrategy, the arms industry, climate change, and international relations, providing students with a deep understanding of the forces shaping global governance and diplomacy.

At SSE Riga, studies concentrate on just two or three courses at a time. An intense course usually takes from two weeks to two months. A course often has daily lectures and seminars, and the grade given consists of the exam result, practical project work and presentation.

Teamwork

The ability to work in a team is greatly valued in business nowadays. It is said that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Teamwork is the essence of the study process at SSE Riga, hence almost all the courses require project work to be written in international teams of four.

Students learn to work with diverse personalities, ranging from various nationalities and with people with various working styles and skills.

Project Work

Project work is simply called ‘reports’ among the students of SSE Riga. The papers are based on taking theoretical knowledge gained during the course and applying it to a practical issue.

Business projects might include visiting an enterprise, interviewing managers and employees for a case study, or contacting several companies to ask for information.

Meanwhile, academic research is usually based on quantitative information which is analyzed with statistical tools to reach conclusions or test hypotheses.

Presentations

At the end of each course, students present their project work in front of the class and an evaluator and defend their papers from colleagues’ opposition and critical remarks.

While the Presentations Skills course at the very beginning of studies at SSE Riga provides basic knowledge, these abilities are developed throughout the three years.

The ability to present in-depth on complicated issues and research in 5 to 7 minutes, and to use visual aids both to keep the listener interested and get the intended reaction, requires practice and is a must in business life.

Knowledge Sharing

Many seminars in SSE Riga are led by Teaching Assistants – students who performed well in the course the previous year.

Such responsibility gives pedagogical and leadership experience to the Teaching Assistants and is also a way to present complicated issues in a way that is familiar to students while emphasizing the problems from one’s own fresh experience.

Study groups are also widely promoted in SSE Riga. Students gather to discuss course material, solve exercises or distribute the workload among each other when studies are intense.

Two-way Feedback

After each course, the Administration creates a questionnaire for evaluating different aspects of the course so that all students can express their opinions and criticize any shortcomings they observe.

After that, a feedback session with representatives from the Administration, students, and lecturers takes place. The information gathered is later used to improve the quality of the course. Students, in turn, get feedback after each course, too.

Some lecturers provide detailed evaluations of project work; others are available throughout the course for support and supervision.