Economics and Italian

Economics and Italian is a combination that brings together two of the most internationally significant disciplines in the modern university. Economics provides the analytical tools for understanding how resources are allocated, how markets function, and how policy affects the wellbeing of individuals and nations, drawing on mathematics, statistics, and formal modelling to produce rigorous and testable insights. Italian opens access to one of Europe's major economies and to a rich literary, artistic, and intellectual tradition stretching from Dante and Machiavelli to the present.

Together, the two subjects prepare you for a genuinely international career.

At St Andrews you will receive a structured and rigorous grounding in economic concepts, principles, and analytical methods, developing your quantitative and model-based skills alongside training in economic reasoning at the microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Alongside this, you will develop your Italian language proficiency to a high level, engaging with Italian literature, culture, and contemporary Italian society. The four-year MA programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to spend an extended period in Italy, developing your language skills in context and deepening your cultural understanding through direct immersion in a living Italian-speaking environment.

The combination of economics and Italian opens a wide range of graduate paths. International business, banking and finance, economic consultancy, and policy roles in UK and European institutions are natural destinations, as are careers in diplomacy, international trade, and development economics. Italy's role as one of the EU's largest economies and a major centre of design, manufacturing, fashion, and finance makes Italian a particularly valuable language for those working in European business or policy contexts.

Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in economics, European studies, or international relations, where the combination of analytical depth and linguistic competence is a genuine advantage.