Economics and Management with Foundation Year

Economics and management together provide a powerful lens on how organisations work, how markets function, and how decisions made at every level, from individual firms to national governments, shape the world that people live and work in. Economics develops your ability to analyse behaviour, incentives, and outcomes using both theoretical models and empirical evidence. Management introduces the practical disciplines of strategy, finance, operations, leadership, and organisational behaviour.

Studied together, they give you a grounding that is both analytically rigorous and practically relevant.

The programme at the University of Portsmouth is a four-year degree that includes a sandwich year with a work placement and a year abroad, providing professional experience and international perspective alongside the academic content. The course is structured to build your knowledge progressively, with foundational economics and management modules in the early years giving way to more advanced and specialised study as the degree develops. You will study microeconomics and macroeconomics, exploring how markets allocate resources and how policy interventions affect outcomes.

The management strand covers accounting, organisational behaviour, marketing, and business strategy. Quantitative methods, including statistics and data analysis, are embedded throughout, as these are increasingly central to both economics and management practice. The sandwich year gives you direct experience of applying these skills in a professional environment, and the year abroad develops the international awareness that is important in careers that increasingly operate across borders.

Graduates with a combined degree in economics and management are well placed for a broad range of careers. Finance and banking, management consultancy, public policy, operations management, and commercial roles across a wide range of sectors are common destinations. The combination of economic analysis and business understanding is particularly valued in organisations that need people who can think clearly about markets, strategy, and performance simultaneously.

Graduate schemes in the public and private sector are open to graduates from this type of programme. Further study at masters level in economics, business administration, finance, or public policy is a natural option for those who want to develop greater depth in a particular area.