Philosophy, Politics and Economics with a Year Abroad

Philosophy, politics and economics is one of the most intellectually ambitious degree programmes available, combining three disciplines that together provide what its champions describe as a set of powerful toolkits for decoding global challenges. Philosophy asks the fundamental questions: What can we know? What is right?

What does it mean to exist and to act freely? Politics examines how societies organise themselves, how power is exercised and contested, and how collective decisions are made in democracies and other political systems. Economics investigates how resources are produced, distributed and consumed, using both theoretical models and empirical data to understand markets, inequality, growth and the decisions of firms, households and governments.

The three disciplines complement and inform each other in ways that single-discipline study cannot replicate.

At the University of East Anglia you will study for four years full-time, including an immersive international experience component that deepens your global perspective. You will develop analytical tools across all three disciplines, equipping yourself to engage with today's most pressing issues from multiple angles simultaneously. The combination develops not just knowledge but the intellectual versatility to move between different kinds of reasoning and evidence, which is precisely what the most complex real-world problems require.

Graduates in PPE have historically entered an exceptionally wide range of careers, including politics and government, the civil service, the foreign office, economics, finance, law, journalism, international development, think tanks, consulting and the voluntary sector. The degree's reputation for producing graduates with exceptional analytical and communication skills is well established, and many of the UK's most prominent figures in politics, public policy and finance have studied PPE. Many graduates also pursue postgraduate study in economics, politics, philosophy, law or public policy, building on the triple foundation the undergraduate degree provides.