Overview

The UK is one of the world’s prominent financial centres. Government figures show the financial services sector contributed £132 billion to the UK economy in 2018, a figure which accounts for 6.9% of the UK’s total economic output. This prominence can mean there is a demand for graduates with a thorough knowledge of the sector – knowledge you could gain by studying financial economics.

Our Financial Economics course provides a specialist focus on financial systems, such as the role of banks and the operation of stock markets, both here in the UK and within an international context. Sharing a common first year with our other economics courses, you will have the opportunity to gain a strong grounding in economics concepts and principles, before specialising in the area of financial economics.

Through a focus on contemporary economic debates and the applications of economics, our course seeks to cultivate logical thinking, quantitative skills and real-world expertise to support your potential future employability upon successful graduation. Former graduates of the course have gone on to find successful careers in areas such as financial services, accountancy, consultancy and the civil service.

Course information

This Financial Economics course is one of three pathways we offer in the field of economics; the others being Economics and Business Economics.

For greater flexibility, all of our Economics degrees have a common first year. This gives you the chance to experience and achieve a thorough grounding in economic concepts and principles, along with relevant quantitative techniques and skills, before you make your decision about which area you’d like to specialize in, depending on your interests or potential future career aspirations.

If you successfully complete and choose to continue your study of financial economics beyond your first year, the practical focus of this course aims to enable you to develop key quantitative skills and analytical abilities required of economists, such as the usage of analytical programmes, alongside knowledge of how to put these skills into practice within the financial sector.