Economics with a Foundation Year

Economics provides some of the most powerful analytical tools available for understanding how societies organise themselves and why outcomes differ between people and places. It asks how prices allocate resources, how firms and consumers make decisions, what determines wages and employment, why some countries develop rapidly while others stagnate, and how governments can use fiscal and monetary policy to pursue social goals. It is both a rigorous quantitative discipline and a deeply humanistic one, concerned ultimately with how people live and what conditions allow them to flourish.

At Swansea this four-year BSc Economics begins with a foundation year, which broadens access to the degree for students whose prior qualifications need to be developed before university-level economics begins. The foundation year provides the academic preparation you need so that you enter the main programme ready to engage fully with its demands. Once in the main degree, you will study the modern economic principles that underpin both micro and macroeconomic analysis, developing quantitative and analytical skills alongside an understanding of the key issues shaping the contemporary global economy.

Teaching at Swansea is research-led, connecting economic theory to real-world practice through the expertise of academic staff who work at both scholarly and applied levels.

Graduates with economics degrees are consistently among the most employable of all graduates. Finance, banking, the civil service, central banks, international organisations, consultancy, and the technology sector all actively recruit economists. The combination of quantitative skills, analytical rigour, and understanding of how markets and institutions work is applicable across virtually every part of the economy.

Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in economics, finance, public policy, or related fields.