Economics BSc Honours

What is the UK government doing to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic? How is the global community tackling poverty? What will Brexit mean for trade? How can companies embrace the opportunities of a decarbonised world? In this degree, you’ll explore these and more questions, crises and controversies as we uncover the far-reaching impact of economics on our world.

Economists tackle anything from interpreting and forecasting market trends or individual business performance by country, region or market to advising businesses, governments and individuals on everyday and strategic decisions. These can encompass areas as diverse as international trade, profit maximisation, pricing decisions, forecasting revenues or consumer demand, managing the national health service, and tackling unemployment or inequality.

You’ll learn to analyse and predict the impact of economic, social and public policy issues on a variety of stakeholders, including consumers, investors, and businesses, and how to source and provide the most appropriate insight to inform future decision-making and strategy.

As the role of data in informing decision-making grows, this degree expands your crucial skills in data gathering, handling and interpretation, quantitative analysis and forecasting. You will use industry-standard software, including SPSS, Excel, Eviews, Minitab and other statistical packages, to analyse data, build models and produce forecasts. You will also develop key soft skills such as communicating complex economic ideas to a non-expert, a logical approach to formulating and solving problems, presentation skills and teamwork.

As our economics degrees share a common first year, you’ll gain a solid foundation in economic concepts, principles, analysis, techniques and knowledge and if you choose Introduction to Financial Economics as an option, you may be eligible to change to the Financial Economics course at the start of your second year. A variety of optional modules also enable you to tailor your studies to suit your interests, for example you can choose specialist economics modules in the digital economy, in international trade, money banking and finance. You can also choose optional modules in other areas of the business school such as entrepreneurship, human resource management, marketing or accounting. Our degree also offers the flexibility of studying one language module per year.

Our vibrant economics community has strong links to employers, including the Government Economic Service and the Society of Professional Economists, which offers monthly meetings, conferences and continuous professional development courses. There’s an opportunity to gain Bloomberg professional certification and attend a half-day certified training session with the London Stock Exchange Group.

You will also be encouraged to participate in an array of extracurricular activities. Previous activity includes the IBM University Business Challenge (2020 Winners, Finalists 2018 and 2017, Semi-finalists 2016) and Microsoft University App Challenge (Winners 2019, Runners-up 2019). EDI Microsoft BAME University Business Challenge (3rd place 2021)

Top reasons to study with us

• Study at one of London’s leading centres for business education based in the heart of London and its political, media and financial services scene
• Access to one of the largest financial databases in our state-of-the-art Bloomberg virtual trading room
• Outstanding facilities and access to the software widely used in the industry: Bloomberg, SAGE, FAME, NVivo and SPSS
• Option to undertake a paid placement year with previous economics students employed by organisations such as Goldman Sachs, Boxington Corporate Finance and Government Economic Service, to name just a few
• Free final-year membership of the Society of Professional Economists, the leading organisation serving professional economists in the UK and Europe, relaunched at Westminster Business School in 2018
• Opportunity to study a foreign language as an optional module in each year of study and spend one semester or one year overseas at one of our partner institutions
• Opportunity to apply for up to 4 exemptions entering into the CIMA operational level

Why study this course?

• Combine theory and practice
  Link theory to global practice through real-life case studies, guest lectures, field trips and insight from one of the world’s largest financial databases.
• Professional software
  Enhance your digital literacy and computer skills with industry-standard software, including Excel, Tableau and FAME.
• Build connections
  Build connections with peers and future business leaders.

Professional recognition

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is the world's largest professional body of management accountants offering the most relevant accounting qualification for a career in business. If you are considering a career in finance and business, the CIMA qualification will open doors with employers all over the world.

This course will give you the opportunity to apply for up to 4 exemptions entering into the CIMA operational level.