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Economics & Business with a Foundation Year

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About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subjects

Business studies

Economics

The BSc Economics and Business with a Foundation Year is a programme designed for the student who wants to excel and reach the top level of global business management practice but does not yet have the required qualifications. The foundation year is taught at The College, on Bay Campus. The College is the University’s pathway provider and offers a unique learning environment; designed to fully prepare you for the final three years of your degree. Small lecture and seminar classes, state-of-the-art facilities and world-class teaching help you to realise your full academic potential.

An Economics degree can help to unlock a huge variety of careers, from investment banking and management consultancy to politics and management roles in global organisations. Swansea University has an excellent reputation for producing elite graduates, many of whom have progressed to work with world-leading financial brands.

Economics at Swansea is ranked:

Top 5 in the UK for Course Satisfaction (Guardian University Guide 2023)
Top 15 in the UK for Teaching Satisfaction (Guardian University Guide 2023)
Top 20 in the UK for Student Satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2023)
Top 25 in the UK for Teaching Quality (Times Good University Guide 2023)

As a student of our Economics department within the School of Social Sciences at Swansea University, you can expect to receive excellent teaching, driven by our world-class academic team of staff and state-of-the-art facilities.

Modules

Your first year of study is made up of compulsory modules covering a range of themes. Compulsory modules are studied by all students on the programme, meaning you are automatically enrolled. Examples of compulsory modules include:

• Current Issues in Economics
• Finance for Economics
• Exploring Economic Data

In your second and third year you will study a mixture of compulsory and choose optional modules from a vast selection. Examples of optional modules in recent years have included:

• Global Business Environment: International Political Economy
• Supply Chain Management
• Time Series Econometrics
• Applied Money and Banking Economics
• Leadership

Your final year will include an optional independent study project.

For the full programme structure and module breakdown, please visit our webpage at: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/social-sciences/economics/bsc-economics-business

Assessment methods

We offer a variety of assessment methods within our programmes. In addition to traditional examinations and essays, examples of alternative assessment include:

• Presentations
• Group Work
• Data Sampling

Throughout your undergraduate Economics and Business degree, you will develop excellent research and analytical skills and learn to present your ideas effectively both verbally and in writing.

For full breakdown of course structure and assessment please visit our course page: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/social-sciences/economics/bsc-economics-business/ or get in touch with us at [email protected]

The Uni


Course location:

Bay Campus

Department:

School of Management

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.

74%
Business studies
90%
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.

Business studies

Teaching and learning

75%
Staff make the subject interesting
81%
Staff are good at explaining things
74%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
71%
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

77%
Library resources
82%
IT resources
81%
Course specific equipment and facilities
69%
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?

83%
UK students
17%
International students
65%
Male students
35%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
11%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
C
C

Economics

Teaching and learning

76%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
83%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
67%
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

82%
Library resources
85%
IT resources
78%
Course specific equipment and facilities
83%
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?

92%
UK students
8%
International students
83%
Male students
17%
Female students
85%
2:1 or above
6%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
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.

Business studies

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.

£21,000
med
Average annual salary
99%
high
Employed or in further education
46%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

29%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
25%
Business, research and administrative professionals
10%
Business, finance and related associate professionals

The number of business studies graduates fell significantly last year after a long period of increase. But there were still more than 14,000 degrees awarded and this is the third most popular subject for new graduates. Because so many graduates get business studies degrees, you can find them everywhere in the economy, and very few jobs are completely out of reach for a good business studies graduate. Around 40% go into jobs in finance, sales, recruitment, management (particularly retail) or marketing. There is also a small (but well paid) group who take their technical skills into computing and IT. Thousands of graduates from this subject go into professional jobs every year, and average starting salaries are above the average for all subjects and particularly healthy in London where they top £25k. Graduates with good degree grades in business studies are much more likely to get good jobs, so don’t be complacent, and keep a close eye on your grades.

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.

£23,400
med
Average annual salary
100%
high
Employed or in further education
68%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

46%
Business, research and administrative professionals
29%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
12%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals

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.

Business studies

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

£25k

£25k

£30k

£30k

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.

£23k

£23k

£31k

£31k

£39k

£39k

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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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

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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