LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY
Programme Specification
B.Sc. ECONOMICS
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the
programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected
to achieve and demonstrate if full advantage is taken of the learning opportunities that are
provided. More detailed information on the learning outcomes, content and teaching,
learning and assessment methods of each module can be found in Module Specifications
and other programme documentation and online at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/
The accuracy of the information in this document is reviewed by the University and may be
checked by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
Awarding body/institution;
Loughborough University
Teaching institution (if different);
Details of accreditation by a
professional/statutory body;
Name of the final award;
B.Sc. (Honours) Economics
Programme title;
Economics, ECUB04
UCAS code;
L100
Date at which the programme
specification was written or
revised.
Sept 2010
1. Aims of the programme:
 To provide specialised training in the aspects of economics relevant to the international
economy including trade, finance and development.
 To provide training in the principles of economics and their application.
 To stimulate students intellectually through the study of economics and to lead them to
appreciate its application to a range of problems and its relevance in a variety of contexts.
 To provide a firm foundation of knowledge about the workings of the economy and to
develop the relevant skills for the constructive use of that knowledge in a range of
settings.
 To develop in students the ability to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired to
the solution of theoretical and applied problems in economics.
 To equip students with appropriate tools of analysis to tackle issues and problems of
economic policy.
 To develop in students, through the study of economics, a range of transferable skills that
will be of value in employment and self-employment.
 To provide students with analytical skills and an ability to develop simplifying frameworks
for studying the real world.
 To develop in students the ability to appreciate what would be an appropriate level of
abstraction for a range of economic issues.
 To provide students with the knowledge and skill base, from which they can proceed to
further studies in economics, related areas or in multi-disciplinary areas that involve
economics.
 To generate in students an appreciation of the economic dimension of wider social and
political issues.
2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external and internal reference
points used to inform programme outcomes:
 QAA Subject Benchmark Statements: Economics.
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/default.asp
 Framework for Higher Education Qualifications.
 International links with a network of eleven European Universities within the Erasmus
exchange programme.
 University Learning and Teaching Strategy.
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/policy/learning_and_teaching/index.htm
 Departmental learning and teaching policies.
 Links, both formal and informal, with external examiners.
 Staff research specialisms and professional involvement in the discipline.
3. Intended Learning Outcomes
3.1 Knowledge and Understanding:
On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to demonstrate
knowledge and understanding of:
 A coherent core of economic principles. The understanding of these might be verbal,
graphical or mathematical.
These principles will cover the microeconomic issues of decision and choice, the
production and exchange of goods, the interdependency of markets, and economic
welfare. They also include macroeconomic issues, such as employment, national income,
the balance of payments and the distribution of income, inflation, growth and business
cycles, money and finance. The understanding should extend to economic policy at both
the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. In all these, students should show an
understanding of analytical methods and model-based argument and should appreciate
the existence of different methodological approaches.
 Relevant quantitative methods and computing techniques. These are likely to cover
mathematical and statistical methods, including econometrics. Students will have
exposure to the use of such techniques on actual economic, financial or social data. A
knowledge and appreciation of economic data, both quantitative and qualitative. Students
should also have some knowledge of the appropriate methods that the economist might
use to structure and analyse such data.
 The applications of economics. Students should have the ability to apply a core of
economic principles and reasoning to a variety of applied topics. They should also be
aware of the economic principles that can be used to design, guide and interpret
commercial, economic and social policy. As part of this, they should have the ability to
discuss and analyse government policy and to assess the performance of the UK and
other economies.
Specific applications to financial economics. Students should have the ability to analyse
financial markets and the industrial organization of firms.
The above implies that the attainments of students should be:
 Ability to apply core economic theory and economic reasoning to applied topics.
 Ability to relate differences in economic policy recommendations to differences in the
theoretical and empirical features of the economic analysis, that underlies such
recommendations.
 Ability to discuss and analyse government policy and to assess the performance of the
UK and other economies.
 Understanding of verbal, graphical, mathematical and econometric representation of
economic ideas and analysis, including the relationships between them.
 Understanding of relevant mathematical and statistical techniques.
 Understanding of analytical methods, both theory- and model-based.
 Appreciation of the history and development of economic ideas and the differing methods
of analysis that have been and are used by economists.
 Understanding of the appropriate techniques to enable manipulation, treatment and
interpretation of relevant statistical data.
Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved and
demonstrated:
 Learning and teaching is provided through lectures, tutorials, seminars, computer-based
laboratory workshops, group work, web-based guided study, presentations, and guided
independent study.
 Contact and feedback is typically provided through projects, coursework assessment
(essays, short answer and multiple choice), lectures, tutorials, presentations, seminars,
computer-based laboratory workshops, group work, web-based guided study/self tests,
guided independent study, and one-to-one contact with staff within the personal tutoring
system and office hours with lecturers and subject tutors.
 Students receive a departmental handbook detailing procedures, how to contact staff,
how to get help, assessment criteria, programme outlines, module specifications, essay
writing and presentation of coursework, note taking and potential prizes awarded for
academic achievement. This information is also available to students on the University
intranet.
 All programmes taught within the Division of Economics within the School of Business
and Economics contain a common core of modules. As students progress through each
part of the programme they will develop more programme-specific skills, knowledge and
understanding through greater contact with staff in that specialism.
 In the final year students are given the option of a 40 credit weighted project.
3.2 Skills and other attributes:
a. Subject-specific cognitive skills
 On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:
 Know and understand the core of economic theory and applied economics
 Know and understand the behaviour of firms and consumers in the national and
international economy
 Discuss in an informed manner the major policy directions and regulations for the
implementation of economic policy
 Know and understand the nature of incentives in economic decision making by
agents in the economy
 Evaluate the outcomes of market and policy changes in all spheres of the economy.
Teaching, learning and assessment strategies to enable outcomes to be achieved and
demonstrated:
The skills listed above are developed heterogeneously throughout the modules of the
degree programme. For example, in Parts A, B and C, Macroeconomics and
Microeconomics modules develop ideas of incentives, economic behaviour and static and
dynamic equilibrium, and they emphasize the key ideas of optimization subject to
constraints.
Part A of the programme builds these foundations through modules in Quantitative
Economics, Microeconomic Principles and Macroeconomic Principles. In further years the
key skills are enhanced by the Part B modules in core economic theory, and the Part C
modules that bring together different applications of economics and finance.
Examinations indicate how well the student can demonstrate their mastery of an area by
selecting appropriate material from memory and applying it using the key and transferable
skills, outlined above, to a typically unseen question in a limited period of time.
Coursework may take many forms, for example presentations, multiple choice tests, short
answer tests or timed essays, short projects, and group work. In all cases learning is
encouraged and enhanced, and feedback given, in order to help the student assess and
review their subject specific cognitive skills.
b. Subject-specific practical skills
On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:



Construct economic models using verbal, diagrammatic, mathematical, statistical and
econometric techniques and reasoning.
Access, search for and evaluate relevant data sources for validation of economic
models
Apply and use specialised software including spreadsheets for the analysis of
economic models.
c. Key/transferable skills
On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to demonstrate the
key skills of,
 Analysis and decision making.
 Communication.
 Numeracy and computation.
 IT, information handling and retrieval, including library skills.
 Independent study and group work.
 Time management.
More specifically students should be able to demonstrate the following rigorous transferable
skills:
 Abstraction. From the study of economic principles and models, students see how to
abstract the essential features of complex systems and provide a useable framework for
evaluation and assessment of the effects of policy or other exogenous events. Through
this, the typical student will acquire proficiency in how to simplify while still retaining
relevance. This is an approach that they can then apply in other contexts, thereby
becoming more effective problem-solvers and decision-makers.
 Analysis, deduction and induction. Economic reasoning is highly deductive, and logical
analysis is applied to assumption-based models. However, inductive reasoning is also
important. The typical student will have been exposed to some or all of these and be able
to use some of them. Such skills also enhance their problem-solving and decision-making
ability.
 Quantification and design. Data, and their effective organization, presentation and
analysis, are important in economics. The typical student will have some familiarity with
the principal sources of economic information and data relevant to industry, commerce
and government, and have had practice in organisation and informative presentation of
data. This skill is important at all stages in the decision-making process.
 Framing. Through the study of economics, a student should learn how to decide what
should be taken as given or fixed for the purposes of setting up and solving a problem,
i.e. what the important 'parameters' are in constraining the solution to the problem.
Learning to think about how and why these parameters might change encourages a
student to place the economic problem in its broader social and political context. This
`framing' skill is important in determining the decision-maker's ability to implement the
solutions to problems.
4. Programme structures and requirements, levels, modules, credits and awards:
Full details can be found in the Programme Regulations at:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/lps/progreg/year/1011/index.htm
5. Criteria for admission to the programme:
The up-to-date criteria for admission to this programme can be found at:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/prospectus/ug/courses/dept/ec/economics/index.htm
6. Information about assessment :
Most modules are assessed by a mixture of written exam and coursework, although there
are exceptions in Year 1 (Part A) where some modules are assessed purely by coursework.
Typically, though, coursework counts 20-30 percent and examinations 70-80 percent to the
final module mark.
First year assessment is for progression to the second year. Second and third year results
are weighted 30 and 70 percent respectively for calculation of the final degree classification.
Students follow 120 credits of modules each year (60 credits per semester). In order to gain
credit for a module, students must achieve a pass mark of 40%.
In each of the first and second year students must accumulate 100 credits and obtain a
minimum of 30% in the remaining modules in order to progress to the second/third year (Part
B/C). Part C students who commenced their studies prior to 2010 must pass modules
weighted at a total of 100 credits and obtain a minimum mark of 20% in remaining modules.
Students registering onto a programme from 2010 onwards will be required to pass Parts A,
B and C with 100 credits in each year and a minimum mark of 30% in the remaining
modules. The Degree of Bachelor (Honours) is awarded if 300 credits are accumulated with
no less than 100 from Part C in not less than 6 semesters. Reassessment is permitted
during the Special Assessment Period (SAP) only if a student has achieved at least 60
credits in that year.
Full details of these arrangements are contained in the official programme regulations.
7. What makes the programme distinctive:
The Economics degree allows students to study modules in economic theory, econometrics
and applied economics that together provide a programme that is directly relevant to the real
world and to the evolution of the national and international economy. Loughborough’s
internationally-recognised expertise means that we are able to offer a broad range of
modules in nearly all areas of applied economics. Students acquire the skills necessary to
evaluate economic policy and economic forecasts and understand the implications of current
and future changes in the domestic and international economic environment.
Part A comprises four double weighted common core modules in economic principles
(macro and micro), data analysis (i.e. statistics) and quantitative economics (i.e.
mathematics for economists). In Part B, the student takes double weighted core modules in
Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Econometrics combined with optional modules
taken from the following list (where (2) denotes a double module): Introduction to Finance
(2), International Economic Relations (2), Economics of the Financial System (2),
Economics of the Welfare State (2), Energy and the Environment (2), Economics of Leisure
and Tourism (2) and Transport Economics (2).
In Part C, students must select at least two modules from Developments in
Macroeconomics, Econometric Modelling 1 and Developments in Microeconomics. A choice
of options are then available from the list; project, International Money and Finance,
Financial Economics and Asset Pricing, Public Finance, International Trade, Monetary
Theory and Policy, Corporate Finance and Derivatives, Economics of Industry and the Firm,
Comparative Banking, Development Economics, Environmental Economics, Economics of
Transition. All modules are double modules (20 credit weighting) except the Project which
has a 40 credit weight.
8. Particular support for learning:
Up-to-date information can be found at:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/templateshop/notes/lps/index.htm
9. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standards of learning:
The University’s formal quality management and reporting procedures are laid out in its
Academic Quality Procedures Handbook, available online at:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/policy/aqp/index.htm