Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Philosophy, politics, and economics, known as PPE, is one of the most intellectually ambitious combinations in British higher education. Philosophy provides the tools to analyse arguments, identify assumptions, and reason rigorously about fundamental questions of ethics, epistemology, and the nature of political authority. Politics examines how power is organised and exercised, how institutions function, and how collective decisions are made in democracies and other systems of government.

Economics asks how resources are allocated under conditions of scarcity, how markets work, and what governments can do to promote prosperity and welfare. Together, the three disciplines provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the social and political world, and the habits of mind they cultivate are highly transferable across professional life.

At Newcastle University, this three-year full-time programme develops your analytical skills across all three disciplines, integrating them in ways that reflect the genuine connections between political philosophy, economic policy, and political institutions. You will study moral and political philosophy, comparative political systems, microeconomics and macroeconomics, game theory, and a range of applied topics in each discipline. The programme develops both quantitative skills, through economics and quantitative social science methods, and qualitative skills in argument, interpretation, and critical writing.

Newcastle is a well-connected city with a strong sense of civic life, and the university's location in the North East gives the programme a distinctive context for thinking about economic and political questions in a region with significant post-industrial challenges and a long history of political engagement.

PPE graduates are among the most sought-after in the graduate job market, entering careers in the civil service, politics, law, journalism, finance, management consultancy, international organisations, and academia. Postgraduate study in any of the three constituent disciplines is a natural progression for those who wish to develop specialist expertise.