Has an economics degree got a lot of politics content?

I want to do an economics degree at university but I don’t really like getting into politics so I was just wondering is there a lot of it in a typical economics degree? Especially at Russell group unis? And if you can, can you give me a brief overview of why you chose economics and if it links with your career progressions?

Hi @kkkhhh,

I study the BSc Finance & Economics at Lancaster, currently in my second year. In my experience, I have never really come across any political content in my degree. We have studied and discussed economic policy, but I have never experienced this being connected to politics itself. Typically, you are more just looking at the mechanics and implications of policy options rather than their political implications.

I cannot speak for other universities, but I imagine it will be a similar situation in regards to political content in Economics. At Lancaster, you can take a minor module in first year with the Economics course, if you chose something such as Politics then you'd be exposed to that area, but you can take a variety of subjects - I took Accounting & Finance, but there's options from many departments.

I've found that if you're seeking political discussion, it can be found anywhere, but if it's something you're not interested in then you can surround yourself with like minded people!

If you've any other questions about Economics at Lancaster, feel free to ask!

Charlie
2nd Year BSc Finance & Economics

I've personally found there to be basically no political content in my BSc Economics course. Very occasionally it'll pop if you do a module in something like public economics or political economy for obvious reasons but even here it's not actually political, it's more about topics like how should the government determine the right amount to spend on public goods so it's in a quantitative way. It stays away from judgements based on people's subjective values. If anything there's more maths than economics so the political content should be the least of your worries 😅