Economics and Geography

Economics and geography is a combination that gives you two powerful lenses through which to understand the world. Economics provides rigorous analytical tools for studying how resources are allocated, how markets function, how policies shape behaviour, and how growth and inequality are generated and distributed. Geography brings a spatial and environmental dimension, examining how economic activity is organised across places and regions, how cities and landscapes develop, and how human systems interact with the natural environment.

Together the disciplines address questions that neither can answer alone.

At St Andrews, this four-year MA (Hons) builds a structured, cumulative, and rigorous foundation in economic concepts, principles, and quantitative methods, while also developing your understanding of spatial and environmental processes through the geography component. Economics study will train you in model-based and quantitative analysis, developing the analytical and decision-making abilities that are central to the discipline. Geography will complement this with place-based, qualitative, and environmental perspectives, giving you a broader toolkit for understanding how economies are embedded in particular physical and social landscapes.

The degree includes a year abroad, providing the opportunity to study at a partner institution overseas and to experience academic life in a different context, which is particularly relevant for a degree combining two internationally significant disciplines.

Graduates of economics and geography programmes move into a wide range of careers. The quantitative skills of economics are highly valued in finance, consultancy, data analysis, and government, while the geographical and spatial dimension is particularly relevant in urban planning, regional policy, environmental consultancy, and international development. Many graduates pursue postgraduate study in economics, human geography, regional science, or public policy, developing specialist expertise in areas such as urban economics, environmental economics, or international trade.