BSc (Hons) Economics and Finance

How do stock markets work? What is the link between exchange rates and interest rates? How do betting markets operate? Finance and economics are intrinsic to how the modern world functions. Our three-year joint honours degree provides an excellent foundation for a career in management and finance.

You will be taught by our leading Management School academics who are at the frontier of financial research. There is a firm emphasis on figures, not essays. It was one of our teaching team, Prof. Ian Walker, who made headlines researching the best return on student investment according to graduate salaries.

Your financial studies will cover areas such as capital markets, investment decision-making and financial statement analysis. You will look at economics from an individual and international level, and we will examine issues such as the crisis in banking, fairness in organisations and CEO salaries.

All first years study the Principles of Economics and Quantitative Methods. Our Introduction to Accounting and Finance gives you a strong foundation in concepts and techniques, using real-world financial data from actual companies. In the second year, you’ll learn about topics including capital management, matrix algebra and applying econometrics using the statistical package SPSS. You will also build on your knowledge of micro and macro-economics.

Your final year offers a huge choice of options from International Trade to Game Theory. You can extract, analyse and interpret data using the Bloomberg Professional terminals in our Financial Markets Lab to solve real-life financial problems. There is also an option to prepare for your Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 examination.

Our graduates’ analytical skills mean many secure places on training schemes with accounting firms, banks and other financial institutions.

Careers

The skills gained from the two areas of your degree are highly desirable to employers, both within the finance industry and elsewhere.

Lancaster’s Finance and Economics graduates are able to capitalise on the analytical skills developed during their degree and many find themselves in a good position to win training contracts with major professional accounting firms; find employment within financial institutions and banks, or take up a variety of other posts within various industries.