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Business Economics

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B-B,B,C

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

31-32

UCAS Tariff

112-120

About this course


Course option

2years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Business studies

Economics

The University of Buckingham is:
- Home of the two-year degree, the University of Buckingham, based in the South East of England, is ranked 6th for Student Satisfaction in the UK (National Student Survey, 2020).

- We are proudly independent and not-for-profit, and offer courses in Allied Health, Business, Computing, Education, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Psychology and Security and Intelligence. We are one of the few universities in the UK that offer September and January start dates for almost all of our courses.

- Based in Buckingham on a riverside campus, we are only 20 minutes’ from Milton Keynes central station and a short drive from Bicester, Aylesbury, Banbury and Northampton. There is free parking on-site and we are within easy reach of London and Oxford.

- Our award-winning small class tutorials ensure every student is known by name and supported throughout their studies, including by dedicated personal tutors.

- As pioneers of the two-year degree, we offer a condensed version of the traditional three-year degree, meaning you can gain a full honours degree and complete your studies a whole year earlier. Alternatively, you can complete both your undergraduate and master’s degree with us in just three years: saving you time and money.

BSc Business Economics if a perfect programme for you to pursue a business career, or if you want to work as a consultant or as a specialist business economist in the private sector. This programme offers the spread of subjects that are likely to be most useful. It enables you to supplement the basic economics modules with modules from the Department of Management thus providing a rounded view of business activities.

Modules

Accounting for Business,
Behaviour in Organisations,
Business Simulation,
Business Success through Service Excellence,
Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Behaviour,
Corporate Strategy and Strategic Management,
Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise,
Cross-culture Management,
Digital Economy and E Business,
Econometrics,
The Economics of Europe,
The Economics of the Labour Market,
Finance for Managers,
Game Theory in Business,
Globalisation and International Business,
History of Economic Thought,
Industrial Organisation and Strategy,
International Economics,
Issues in Developing Economies and the MENA Region,
Macroeconomic Policy,
Macroeconomic Theory,
Managing People and Change,
Marketing Fundamentals,
Marketing Management,
Mathematics for Economists,
Microeconomic Policy,
Microeconomic Theory,
Money, Banking and Financial Markets,
Operations Strategy,
Principles of Macroeconomics,
Principles of Microeconomics,
Process and Operations Management,
Psychology at Work,
Public Sector Economics,
Quantitative Methods 1,
Quantitative Methods 2,
Regulation and Privatisation,
Statistics for Business and Economics,
Supply Chain Management,
Understanding Business and Management,
Welfare Economics.

Assessment methods

Teaching is carried out through a combination of lectures supported by seminars and tutorials. A key feature of the Buckingham teaching method is the use of small tutorial groups which provide the most effective means of ensuring that the students benefit from the academic expertise at their disposal. It is also the philosophy of Buckingham’s faculty to be available to students outside the scheduled tutorial times and to encourage good working relationships between staff and students.

A range of activities is pursued within the tutorial groups depending upon the module. Some modules emphasise problem solving as a means of reinforcing and cementing the important ideas – for example the module in Microeconomic Theory. Occasionally we use game playing to encourage discussion and understanding – for example when competing groups of students try to control a computer model of the economy in Principles of Macroeconomics. Other modules place greater emphasis on writing short and accurate technical pieces (Welfare Economics) or longer more discursive papers.

The assessment of individual modules within each course varies according to the subject. Assessment is usually by examination, assessed coursework, or a combination of the two.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£27,750
for the whole course
England
£27,750
for the whole course
EU
£44,400
for the whole course
International
£44,400
for the whole course
Northern Ireland
£27,750
for the whole course
Republic of Ireland
£44,400
for the whole course
Scotland
£27,750
for the whole course
Wales
£27,750
for the whole course

Extra funding

A generous endowment from the Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Ronald Coase has enabled us to offer new scholarships to study a range of Economics courses at the University of Buckingham from September 2021. Coase Scholarships have a value of £11,000 for a two year degree. Up to 14 scholarships are available per academic year and cover a range of economics programmes starting in January and September each year, including this one. The scholarships are open to undergraduate applicants that are UK nationals and should have, or expect to achieve, three A-level passes with at least one of these graded at B. Women, ethnic minorities and people from lower income backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply.

All awards are subject to your meeting the University’s academic entry requirements and abiding by the University’s rules and regulations. To be eligible to apply for a scholarship you will need to have been offered a place to study at Buckingham.

For details of our current range of scholarships and bursaries please see our website:

https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/admissions/scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

University of Buckingham

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.

89%
Business studies
86%
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

77%
Staff make the subject interesting
88%
Staff are good at explaining things
85%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
82%
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

83%
Library resources
85%
IT resources
83%
Course specific equipment and facilities
80%
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?

46%
UK students
54%
International students
71%
Male students
29%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
25%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
E
A

Economics

Teaching and learning

79%
Staff make the subject interesting
89%
Staff are good at explaining things
86%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
64%
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

100%
Library resources
68%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
64%
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?

56%
UK students
44%
International students
77%
Male students
23%
Female students
77%
2:1 or above
19%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
A
C

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.

£22,000
med
Average annual salary
92%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

28%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
20%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
7%
Customer service occupations

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.

96%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

21%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
12%
Business, research and administrative professionals
10%
Public services and other 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.

£23k

£23k

£27k

£27k

£28k

£28k

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.

£49k

£49k

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):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the 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