Business Economics (with Foundation Year) BA (Hons)

This module develops your academic and transferrable skills to support successful study on a business degree course. These skills include a range of personal and transferable study skills including active listening, reading and understanding academic texts, note taking, time management, written and oral communication, analytical thinking and referencing, as well as professional skills linked to employability and career aspirations.

You are introduced to the basic elements of research and develop an understanding of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in the context of business organisations. You gain the confidence to explore and research current topics and generate new ideas to solve problems. You will work in teams reviewing relevant literature and considering different methodologies for researching and collecting relevant data to develop a proposal for a small research project.

This module will introduce you to the basic elements of collecting primary and secondary business data, understanding it and then presenting it as meaningful information. It will provide you with the confidence to explore current business topics and the knowledge and skills required for the Team Research Project Utilising Digital Platforms module. You will use digital platforms such as Excel spreadsheets, Word, online survey packages and PowerPoint to facilitate collection, basic analysis and presentation of business information.

This broad-ranging module provides you with an introduction to the interrelated nature of business activities and their relationships with the micro (internal) and macro (external) environments. The internal environment will introduce the key concepts surrounding marketing and human resource management (HRM). The external environment, examines the key political, economic, social, technological, and cultural issues affecting the modern firm.

This module provides you with an introduction to core numerical skills and quantitative techniques that are essential to studying business in higher education. You will develop effective quantitative problem-solving skills using practical business problems and gain an appreciation of the contribution that accounting makes to the financial analysis and managerial control of business organisations.

This module provides an opportunity for you to work collaboratively as a team, to carry out a short piece of research using an online survey package to conduct a short survey. As part of a team, you will demonstrate your ability to apply skills of research, analysis and synthesis to present your findings and conclusions using appropriate software packages.

This module will inspire you to think about entering the workplace once you have completed your studies. The module is delivered as an interactive learning experience which will enable you to develop an enterprising mind-set and help to identify some of the skills and attributes you already possess. The module content will encourage you to begin to think about your personal career aspirations, whilst addressing potential gaps linked to your knowledge, skills and experience. You will be encouraged to think in an enterprising fashion; learn new approaches to adapt and enhance your individual style. You will have the opportunity to work independently and as a member of a group by participating in personal challenges and group projects, and will learn to understand the importance of networking. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to hear from and to question experienced external practitioners.

You gain an understanding of the way in which accounting is used in the external evaluation of organisations and develops the ability to use accounting and finance techniques in decision making, control, management and adding value to performance.

Macroeconomics is a main branch of economics. You study the behaviour of an economy at aggregate level such as, the performance, structure, behaviour, and policy making of an economy as a whole. This is a core module giving you an introduction to main and essential macroeconomic principles, theories and methods of analysis. You cover output and aggregate demand, aggregate supply, business cycles, prices and inflation, unemployment, money and interest rates, monetary and fiscal policy, exchange rates and the balance of payments.

You are introduced to the principal concepts, theories and applications of microeconomics. The module covers topics such as demand, supply, markets, prices, competitive and monopoly markets, market failure and the role of microeconomic policy. There is a strong emphasis on the application of microeconomics to contemporary issues such as minimum pricing (eg alcohol, wages), taxes on sugar and carbon emissions, the control of dominant firms and the use of game theory to analyse strategic behaviour.

Economics is a social science subject which adopts a natural science approach. Hence, quantitative methods (e.g. mathematics and statistics) are not just used as the research method, but the fundamental building blocks of this subject discipline. In this introductory level quantitative methods module, you review fundamental numerical skills and are introduced to essential mathematical methods for economics.

You study some of the general principles of business management, particularly in the context of structure, culture, leadership, organisational behaviour, the business environment and the impact of these areas operationally. You are also introduced to the concept of strategic management with an emphasis on organisational resource and competency. And you consider the impact of organisational behaviour on overall business effectiveness, examining the role of the individual within the organisation and exploring motivation, perception and personal impact.

In a world of relentless and fast paced change the most important question for any company is ‘are we agile?’ In other words are we able to deal with new situations and changes quickly and successfully. For many the answer is no. In this module you will learn how to get to yes through the greatest resource available: people. You will develop knowledge and understanding of why much of management is no longer fit for purpose (management 1.0), and how a new alternative is emerging (management 2.0) is an alternative fit for the 21st century.

You develop an understanding of the main issues affecting international business in the global economy and explore topics including globalisation, trade, economic growth and development. You focus specifically on examining these topics across different cultures. As the module progresses you become able to differentiate cultural variations and the impact of cultural difference on individuals and key organisations. You also have the opportunity to study a culture of your choice in-depth.

You build on your knowledge and skills obtained from Introduction to Macroeconomics module and focus on intermediate level theories. You develop and enhance your understandings of the behaviour of the economy as a whole, so you can distinguish and critically understand different theoretical models and relate these models to policy debates in the real world.

You examine the central concepts, theories and methods of microeconomics and apply them to a wide range of problems and real-world issues. You cover the theory of consumer and producer behaviour, market efficiency and market failure, the analysis of strategic behaviour using game theory, an introduction to general equilibrium, and microeconomic policy.

You explore two components. Firstly you build on your knowledge and skills from the Quantitative Economics 1 module. You focus on intermediate level mathematical methods that can be used in contemporary economics, business economics and financial economics. You look at the use of mathematics in the conceptualisation of economic theory as well as its use as a means to solve specific problems. Secondly you focus on the essential statistical methods implemented in quantitative data analysis. This gives you the foundation required for studying Econometrics in level 6.

Building on prior learning within various stage 1 modules, this module develops your understanding and awareness of the principles and practicalities underpinning ethical and rigorous research. Through interactive seminar sessions with research-active academic staff, the module develops the practical skills you require for conducting a rigorous and ethical research study. The skills developed and knowledge gained will link to the stage 3 Dissertation module.

You have the option to spend one year in industry learning and developing your skills. We encourage and support you with applying for a placement, job hunting and networking.

You gain experience favoured by graduate recruiters and develop your technical skillset. You also obtain the transferable skills required in any professional environment, including communication, negotiation, teamwork, leadership, organisation, confidence, self-reliance, problem-solving, being able to work under pressure, and commercial awareness.

Many employers view a placement as a year-long interview, therefore placements are increasingly becoming an essential part of an organisation's pre-selection strategy in their graduate recruitment process. Benefits include:

· improved job prospects
· enhanced employment skills and improved career progression opportunities
· a higher starting salary than your full-time counterparts
· a better degree classification
· a richer CV
· a year's salary before completing your degree
· experience of workplace culture
· the opportunity to design and base your final-year project within a working environment.

If you are unable to secure a work placement with an employer, then you simply continue on a course without the work placement.

You develop an understanding of the challenges faced by organisations and explores the controversies and dilemmas of contemporary management thinking and practice. You study three key interrelated contemporary issues facing businesses - internationalisation; technological innovation and sustainability.

Your final year dissertation is an opportunity to do an independent piece of research, demonstrating that you know how to take a systematic approach to research, analysis and evaluation within a structured business-orientated framework. It also encourages you to reflect and critically evaluate your personal development.

You explore econometrics, which is an essential tool to provide the methodology and statistical techniques to empirically test the validity of economic theories and hypotheses and to construct models to explain the evolution of the economic environment. Knowledge in econometrics is essential to understanding research work in economics. You gain useful skills for conducting sophisticated data analysis for both academic and vocational. You focus on standard econometrics methods employed for performing empirical analysis and policy evaluation.

You gain knowledge and experience of business in society and how to implement responsible leadership for organisational sustainability. You will review the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and work with stakeholders, analysing the macro environment and providing evidence-based solutions to overcome a problem in society.

By building upon the knowledge and skills obtained from previous studies in essential economic theories, you focus on the key and specialised topics in the area of, and related to, business/corporations. You explore the economic foundations of strategies that firms and their managers use in practice. The module places emphasis on the financial markets that have to be taken into consideration in business decision making.