Doing a combined degree?

It will only be the one degree (otherwise you'd pay twice as much and do twice the work )

Your module will be split, usually 50:50 (50% economics, 50% maths), although the actual weighting can vary.

I don't know what you mean by the last question. If you mean can you do a Masters degree now then, no. They are postgraduate degrees and you will need an undergraduate degree first. There are integrated masters course in the sciences (e.g. maths). In these cases the degree is four years and not three. But I'm not aware of this happening in social sciences (e.g. economics).

If you mean can you still specialise in maths or economics as a postgrad then, yes, that should still be possible.

Would I get the single degree in maths or economics then? Could I do the three year combined course, and then possibly do another year of maths to get a Masters?

This is exactly what you would do if you took the 'normal' route of getting a masters (rather than the 'integrated' way as mentioned above).

Normally you do a 3 or 4 year undergraduate degree (so here you'd do a combined degree in Economics and Maths, and get one certificate and one undergraduate degree from it) then you would move on to a postgraduate masters degree (in maths or another subject), which lasts for one year - then you will be awarded a masters degree in that subject.

You can choose to do your masters at a different university to where you did your undergraduate degree if you wish, but you don't have to.

Okay, so I now understand that to get the masters, I do a year extra on one of the subjects (maths or economics) - but, when I get my undergraduate degree, will it be in maths or economics? Because the course is split roughly 50:50, I still don't know how it works in terms of getting the undergraduate degree (which will either be a BSc or BA, I think?)

Okay, so I now understand that to get the masters, I do a year extra on one of the subjects (maths or economics) - but, when I get my undergraduate degree, will it be in maths or economics? Because the course is split roughly 50:50, I still don't know how it works in terms of getting the undergraduate degree (which will either be a BSc or BA, I think?)

This is exactly what you would do if you took the 'normal' route of getting a masters (rather than the 'integrated' way as mentioned above).

Normally you do a 3 or 4 year undergraduate degree (so here you'd do a combined degree in Economics and Maths, and get one certificate and one undergraduate degree from it) then you would move on to a postgraduate masters degree (in maths or another subject), which lasts for one year - then you will be awarded a masters degree in that subject.

You can choose to do your masters at a different university to where you did your undergraduate degree if you wish, but you don't have to.

At Durham (and probably other unis), you can do a 4yr integrated masters through the natural sciences programme. So you could do Econ and Maths for years 1 -3 then just do maths modules in year 4. ut you would probably have to do more of a 2:1 maths:econ ratio in the first 3 years to make sure you have the prerequisites for 4th year modules.

i do combined psychology and sociology
which is BA Joint Hons Psychology and sociology
so combined maths and economics would be
either

BA Joint Hons Maths and Economics
or
BSc Joint Hons Maths and Economics (< seems to be what maths and economics comes up as with a google search)

If you choose to do a combined maths and economics degree your degree certificate will say something along the lines of 'BSc (or BA, depending which it is) Maths and Economics'. You will get one degree but it will be in both subjects.

Thanks for the replies everyone - also, if I decided I wanted to go into teaching, would my degree (without a masters) be sufficient enough to teach both Economics or Maths up to A Level?

If I'm not sure whether I want to do the extra fourth year to get a masters, would I be able to wait until the end of the third year to decide? If I did decide to go for the masters in Maths, for example, would I get the BSc Joint Hons in Maths and Economics, along with an MA in Maths?

Thanks again for the help

You normally have to have 50% of your degree in a subject to teach it at A Level, so you'd be fine if your degree is a 50:50 split. But I know that the requirements are generally relaxed a bit for shortage subjects and maths is one of them so should be fine.

Which unis are you looking at? Some don't even do integrated masters so you need to see what they are offering. Most unis doing Maths & Econ degrees as joint honours (rather than through a broader natsci programme) won't give you the option of an integrated masters.

Actually, if you're applying for 2012 at a uni that's charging over about £5000 then it's probably cheapest to do a 3 year BSc, graduate and do a separate masters.

Because if you do a 4yr integrated masters you pay the undergraduate tuition fee for each year - eg 4 years x £9000.

At the moment, masters courses in maths, etc. are around £4000 at top 10/top 20 unis (except Oxbridge, Imperial and LSE who charge up to £25000 for finance-related courses, but none of those unis offer a 4 year integrated masters anyway!) Postgrad fees may rise a bit but since you can't get a govt loan for them, almost definitely not up to £9000. So if you would be able to get the money (saving up throughout your 3 years, help from parents, bank loan) for your postgrad it would be cheaper to do a BSc and a separate 1 year masters course.

Okay those figures are definitely helpful, thanks for those. Out of interest, do you know how much maths is included in a plain Economics BSc degree? I'm just thinking that if there is a lot of maths, then it may not be worth doing a combined degree.

It depends where you go, some courses are much more mathematical than others. If you want to do lots of maths then definitely look at the module lists to see how much you can do. But be aware that it is stats and econometrics rather than pure maths, a lot of differentiation and testing of mathematical modules, and definitely some stats but not much pure maths: it is generally all applied to economics. However obviously all courses vary! Plus some unis let you take elective modules in other subjects in some or all years - so you could take 4 economics and 2 maths modules in your first year at same places, and maybe some maths modules (if you had the prerequisites) in your later years too. Definitely check the individual course specifications.

Check in the economics forum on here too, there are usually a lot of discussions about how mathematical courses are at different universities!