Central & East European Studies/Economics
Central and East European Studies combined with Economics is a degree that pairs deep regional expertise with the rigorous analytical frameworks of economic science. Central and East European Studies focuses on a region that has experienced some of the most dramatic political and economic transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: two world wars, the rise and fall of communist command economies, the post-1989 transitions to market democracy, and the subsequent challenges of populism, democratic backsliding, and geopolitical conflict. Economics provides the analytical tools to understand why these economic transformations unfolded as they did, what their consequences have been, and how the region's economies are performing and evolving today.
The four-year full-time Central and East European Studies and Economics programme at the University of Glasgow charts the key issues from the Baltic to the Balkans and from Berlin to Vladivostok, engaging with the tumultuous period of the region's history and the profound social and economic changes that the collapse of communism unleashed. You will apply economic analysis to the specific challenges of economic transition, institutional change, inequality, and growth in Central and Eastern Europe, developing an understanding that is both theoretically grounded and empirically informed by the region's actual experience. A year abroad gives you the opportunity to study in the region or at a partner institution with relevant expertise, deepening your linguistic and cultural knowledge alongside your analytical training.
With a typical entry tariff of 232 points, the programme is demanding and suits students with strong quantitative and analytical ability alongside genuine curiosity about the region. Graduates pursue careers in international economic organisations, the financial sector, consultancy, diplomacy, development finance, policy research, and journalism, as well as postgraduate study in economics, transition economics, or European studies.