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Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics (MORSE)

Entry requirements


A level

A,A,A

AAA including A level Mathematics or Further Mathematics OR AAB including A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics

May occasionally be accepted

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

36

with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects including 6 in Mathematics HL 6 (either analysis and approaches or applications and interpretations)

Considered alongside A level Mathematics grade A

UCAS Tariff

144

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

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Operational research

Statistics

Economics

BSc Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics (MORSE) is a coherent degree ideal for mathematically-gifted students who want to use numbers to solve real-world problems in business and industry. The combination of these highly influential subjects and the way we have structured the programme means that from year two onwards, you take increasing ownership over your studies, choosing modules as your interests and strengths change and grow.

**Programme overview**
Shifting markets and an ever-changing political landscape make for a complex world. Every organisation – industrial, financial or governmental – needs to embrace technology and data to optimise their performance.

Smartphone use, the role of social media data, risk planning, retail patterns; all of these can be counted and analysed. They can also help forecast the future, deciding where to invest or what route to take. This needs creative, technically competent and business-savvy people; the kind of graduates our MORSE degree produces.

We have combined the highly influential subjects of Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics into one coherent degree ideal for mathematically-gifted students who want to use numbers to solve real-world problems in business and industry.

In your first year you will gain a strong foundation in mathematics, operational research, statistics and economics. You will study modules worth 40 credits from each of the departments of Management Science, Economics, and Mathematics and Statistics. For Maths and Stats, the 40 credits are taught as smaller 5 x 8 credit modules ("Calculus", "Further Calculus", "Linear Algebra", "Probability", "Statistics"), while Management Science ("Tools and Techniques for Business Analytics") and Economics ("Economic Principles and Applications") each run a single large module worth 40 credits.

After the first year, you tailor your programme, developing a broad knowledge base or specialising in topics relevant to your future career.

**Key facts**
Taught across our world-class departments of Management Science, Mathematics and Statistics, and Economics, the focus is on practically applying mathematical theory. In addition to mathematics, you will learn business modelling, economic theory, statistics and analytics, and how all these skills can come together to create better solutions to intricate problems.

Our careers team, including a dedicated departmental careers coach, will work with you from day one to help with internships, placements and graduate employment. We will supply training in CV writing, interview assessment centres and telephone interviews, helping you with your future career ambitions.

You will graduate with an enviable array of quantitative and analytical skills in high demand by industry, commerce, finance, the public sector, consulting and the government.

MORSE is also available as a four-year programme with a year in industry. It may be possible to switch to this course after you start, subject to availability and to visa and other requirements.

**Programme outcomes**
By combining the four disciplines of Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics, our graduates leave with the skills to make a difference at the core of business. They have gone on to work in consultancies like Accenture and McKinsey, as well as large multinationals. MORSE graduates are highly sought after for their analytical thinking and wide range of technical skills.

The Uni


Course location:

Lancaster University

Department:

Management Science

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.

94%
Operational research
78%
Economics

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.

Operational research

Teaching and learning

90%
Staff make the subject interesting
82%
Staff are good at explaining things
91%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
89%
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

92%
Library resources
98%
IT resources
94%
Course specific equipment and facilities
87%
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?

32%
UK students
68%
International students
55%
Male students
45%
Female students
87%
2:1 or above
3%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
B

Statistics

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

71%
UK students
29%
International students
63%
Male students
37%
Female students
83%
2:1 or above
4%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
A

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

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.

Operational research

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.

£24,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

28%
Business, research and administrative professionals
24%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
9%
Teaching and educational professionals

Not a very common degree on its own, this is often taken in combination with maths degrees. The skills gained by operational research graduates mean that they are in demand, so have a low unemployment rate and pretty respectable salaries, especially in finance and in London - the average starting salary for OR graduates in the capital was nearly £33,000 last year.

Statistics

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.

£24,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

28%
Business, research and administrative professionals
24%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
9%
Teaching and educational professionals

The business and research sectors worry that the UK hasn't got enough people with good statistics skills, and as stats are at the heart of so much of the economy, and we only have a few hundred graduates a year in the discipline, this type of degree can be very useful and versatile. The finance industry is very popular with this group, and they're far more likely to be working in London than most other graduates. And who can blame them — statistics graduates starting work in London were earning an average of nearly £29k just six months after leaving university. There is also demand from the Scottish finance sector in Edinburgh and Glasgow - particularly in banking and insurance. But a good statistician can find work almost anywhere that data can be analysed - which, in an online world, is almost anywhere - and many industries struggle to find enough statisticians to fulfil demand, so stay flexible and you can find a variety of options.

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.

What about your long term prospects?

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

Operational research

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

£23k

£23k

£31k

£31k

£37k

£37k

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.

Statistics

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

£23k

£23k

£31k

£31k

£37k

£37k

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.

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.

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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:

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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.

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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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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