BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics

BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) will provide you with a knowledge of significant topics, problems and issues across these three interrelated disciplines.

The course will enhance your capabilities to critically evaluate competing arguments about political events, ideas and institutions; it will help you to develop the ability to effectively evaluate economic policies, and places the study of economics in its broader institutional and political context. You will develop the ability to evaluate and think through philosophical arguments and positions.

PPE gives you an exceptional opportunity to join a vibrant intellectual community spanning three areas within the School of Social Sciences (SoSS). You will learn how key insights from different fields can be applied to pressing policy concerns, and in doing so, can gain an unusually broad and rich set of intellectual and critical skills.

Studying Politics means that you can analyse the behaviour of government from local, national and international perspectives, and provide an understanding and rationale behind policy decisions that affect all of us. Studying politics shows that you are capable of researching and referencing your argument and that you are capable of using rhetoric to reinforce your position in a debate.

In Philosophy, you would learn to develop and express rational arguments and use logical reasoning and critical analysis to defend your position and critique opposing viewpoints.
Economics gives you the tools to analyse the economic environment around us. You would gain a grounding in quantitative methods such as mathematics and statistics or econometrics - which would be highly applicable elsewhere - as well as help you develop an understanding of the spectrum of the wider economy from the reasoning behind macroeconomic government policy to the microeconomic behaviour of individual firms.
You may also have the opportunity to spend Year 3 studying abroad at one of our partner universities as part of a four-year degree option.