Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Economics is about more than maths. When you study economics you get a set of tools that allows you to understand how the world works. And when you understand how something works, you can change it.You'll learn all the core economic theory you need to be an economist using real, topical data from organisations such as HSBC, Barclays, the Bank of England and the UK Government's annual budget. You'll also learn a set of skills that you can use in roles beyond finance.You'll learn:- how to use data to communicate a variety of challenging financial, ethical and social issues- how to present an argument- how economics influences decision making in a wide range of scenarios, from people's behaviour, to environmental sustainability, to investments and government policy makingAfter your second year you can apply this knowledge on an optional paid placement. Previous students have worked at places like the Office for National Statistics, Amazon, or the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

- Benefit from expert teaching that's informed by our academics' close relationships with organisations such as the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics- Gain a Bloomberg Certificate (a trading platform that's used by 250,000 financial service professionals) in our dedicated Bloomberg Suite- Be employment-ready by using the same software as professional economists, including Eviews, Datastream and STATA- Understand how economics affects society through our research expertise in behavioural economics and environmental resource economics- See economics from a different angle by spending a year abroad at a partner university in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe or the Far East- Get support to set up your own business from our Entrepreneurs in Residence Programme- Learn a foreign language as part of your degree

This course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This means that you won't have to take some of the CIMA exams if you want to be CIMA certified after you graduate. You'll have completed part of your professional qualification by doing this degree.

You'll get ongoing career support – up to 5 years after you graduate.Get work experience while you study with support to find part-time jobs and volunteering opportunities. Towards the end of your degree and after graduation, you'll get 1-to-1 support from our Graduate Recruitment Consultancy to find your perfect role. On top of this you'll get bespoke careers support through our faculty 'career-ready' programme.