Economics/Scottish History
Economics and Scottish history is a combination that brings together two disciplines that illuminate each other in productive ways. Economics studies how individuals and societies make choices about how scarce resources are used, what products are produced, and who gets to consume them, examining costs, benefits, risks, and effects on others with formal analytical tools. Scottish history examines the political, social, economic, and cultural development of Scotland from the medieval period to the present, providing a rich and specific context in which economic forces, institutions, and decisions can be examined through the lens of a nation with a distinctive and fascinating trajectory.
At the University of Glasgow, you will develop rigorous economic thinking alongside detailed historical knowledge of Scotland. The economics strand will develop your understanding of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and quantitative methods, giving you the analytical frameworks to examine how economies behave and how policy shapes them. The Scottish history strand takes you deeply into the historical forces that made Scotland: the Reformation, the Union of 1707, the Clearances, industrialisation, deindustrialisation, and Scotland's evolving relationship with Britain, Europe, and the wider world.
The combination allows you to see economic questions through historical detail and historical events through economic frameworks.
The programme is offered on a part-time basis, giving you flexibility to balance your studies with other commitments, and includes a year abroad, which broadens your comparative perspective on both economics and history.
Graduates from economics and history combinations move into careers in the civil service, policy research, economic consultancy, journalism, education, heritage, and cultural organisations. Many pursue postgraduate study in economics, economic history, Scottish studies, or public policy. The analytical and historical thinking the degree develops is valued wherever complex, evidence-based reasoning about how societies function is required.