Economics/English Language

Economics and English language is a combination that develops two very different but deeply complementary intellectual capabilities. Economics provides the formal analytical tools for understanding how markets work, how behaviour is shaped by incentives, and how policy affects the allocation of resources across societies. English language is the academic study of how language functions as a system, how it varies across social groups and contexts, how it changes over time, and how it shapes and reflects the societies that use it.

Together they cultivate a graduate who can think rigorously about both formal structures and the complex, contested realities of human communication.

At Glasgow, this four-year programme develops both disciplines to honours level. You will study microeconomics, macroeconomics, and the mathematical and statistical methods that underpin economic analysis, building the rigorous quantitative toolkit that economic reasoning demands. In English language, you will engage with linguistics, sociolinguistics, the history and development of English, and the analysis of language in use across different social and institutional contexts.

A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the opportunity to experience a different economic and linguistic environment directly, which enriches both strands of your study in ways that are difficult to replicate in the classroom.

Graduates from this combination bring an unusual range of skills to the graduate market. Economic analysis is valued in finance, consultancy, the civil service, and research, while linguistic analysis is valued in communications, education, media, policy, and the technology sector. Many graduates find that the combination opens careers that sit between these fields, in areas such as computational linguistics, financial communications, policy analysis, and research.

Postgraduate study in economics, linguistics, or applied linguistics is a natural route for those who want to specialise.