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Economics, Politics and International Relations

Entry requirements


A level

A,B,B

Access to HE Diploma

D:30,M:15

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDM

UCAS Tariff

128

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Economics

Politics

What makes some countries richer than others? How can we measure inequality or the impact of climate change, and what should we do about it? What impact does war have on the global economy? Are education or healthcare investments like the others? How do you measure the success of a political voting system?

BA Economics, Politics and International Relations provides you with the analytic skills and intellectual toolbox to help answer these pressing economics questions and many more. You will learn how to interpret data, understand (and quantify) the decisions made by individuals, organisations, and governments and evaluate public policy both nationally and globally.

**Programme overview**
The programme begins by introducing the foundational principles of Economic Theory, International Relations and Politics. This programme connects the analytical skills of Economics with insights and ways of thinking from Politics and International Relations. This is an incredibly flexible programme allowing you to weight your studies to any and all of the three main subject areas.

Year one will cover the fundamentals of Economic theory and practice, Politics in the modern world, and the fundamentals of International Relations.

Years two and three allow you to choose modules from across Economics, Politics and International Relations. As you’ll see from the course structure, your only compulsory modules are Career and Employability taught by the Management School Careers team. These are designed to prepare you for entry into the labour market. All your academic modules are chosen by you, so as your degree progresses and you discover more about both the subjects and about yourself, you have the opportunity to flex this programme in ways that speak to your changing interests and strengths. This might lead you to choose modules in:
- Development Economics

- Economic Inequality

- Political Ideas

- International Relations, Security and Sustainability

Amongst many other specialisations

**Key facts**
An incredibly flexible degree programme with opportunities to study across the full spectrum of our Economics, Politics and International Relations undergraduate modules.

You do not need an A level in Economics or Mathematics to enrol in this course.

Throughout your degree, we’ll supply training in CV writing, interview assessment centres and telephone interviews. We are proud of our aspiring economists and aim to nurture the potential in every one of them.

**Programme outcomes**
You will graduate with a thorough grounding in Economics, and an understanding of the way a complex world functions and the dynamics of international relations and policy. Graduates have gone on to work for a wide variety of international NGOs, think tanks, consultancies and multinational corporations.

The Uni


Course location:

Lancaster University

Department:

Economics

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

78%
Economics
81%
Politics

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Economics

Teaching and learning

69%
Staff make the subject interesting
85%
Staff are good at explaining things
72%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
59%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

86%
Library resources
88%
IT resources
85%
Course specific equipment and facilities
77%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

77%
UK students
23%
International students
72%
Male students
28%
Female students
79%
2:1 or above
6%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
A
B

Politics

Teaching and learning

85%
Staff make the subject interesting
88%
Staff are good at explaining things
84%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
65%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

78%
Library resources
95%
IT resources
87%
Course specific equipment and facilities
73%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

81%
UK students
19%
International students
57%
Male students
43%
Female students
89%
2:1 or above
4%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
B
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Economics

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£23,000
med
Average annual salary
98%
high
Employed or in further education
66%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

31%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
22%
Business, research and administrative professionals
6%
Other administrative occupations

This is a degree in demand, as business increasingly needs workers who can examine and explain complex data. And yet the number of economics graduates fell by nearly 10% last year, which means demand is even greater. As so many economic grads go into banking and finance, it's not surprising that over half of all 2015's economics graduates who did go into work were working in London. And don't think it's just the finance industry that's interested in these graduates - there's a significant number who enter the IT industry to work with data as analysts and consultants. It's quite common for economics graduates to go into jobs such as accountancy and management consultancy which may require you to take more training and gain professional qualifications - so don’t assume you won’t have to take any more exams once you leave uni. And the incentive to take them, of course, is better pay, which will be on top of an already healthy average starting salary of over £30,000 for graduates working in the capital.

Politics

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
61%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

16%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
11%
Public services and other associate professionals
8%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Economics

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£25k

£25k

£31k

£31k

£42k

£42k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Politics

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£26k

£26k

£29k

£29k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here