Economics and Finance with Foundation Year

Economics and finance is a combination that develops expertise in both the broad study of how economies work and the more specific discipline of how financial markets and institutions function. Economics provides the theoretical frameworks and empirical tools to understand individual and collective decision-making, how markets allocate resources, how governments set policy, and how macro-level patterns of growth, inflation, and employment emerge from billions of individual choices. Finance applies those foundations to the operation of capital markets, corporate financial management, investment decisions, and risk, asking how money flows through the economy and how financial actors behave under uncertainty.

At Keele University, this four-year, full-time programme includes an integrated foundation year, which provides an accessible route into the degree for students who need to build their quantitative and analytical foundations or who want additional support in the transition to university-level study. The foundation year develops the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the main degree before you progress into the full economics and finance curriculum. Over the programme you will develop your understanding of microeconomics and macroeconomics, study financial theory and investment analysis, build quantitative skills in mathematics and statistics, and explore how financial markets operate and how policy affects them.

Graduates from economics and finance degrees are well placed for careers in financial services, banking, investment, economic consultancy, the civil service, and the business sector more broadly. The quantitative and analytical skills you develop are in demand wherever rigorous financial or economic reasoning is needed. Many graduates pursue professional qualifications in finance or accountancy after graduation, and some go on to postgraduate study in economics, finance, or related fields to develop specialist expertise.