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Economics

MSc

Key information

Duration: 1 year full time

Institution code: R72

Campus: Egham

UK fees*: £14,400

International/EU fees**: £23,700

The course

Economics (MSc)

Our MSc Economics degree course is designed to equip you with the tools of a modern economist. It will help prepare you for your chosen career path, whether in the private and financial services sectors or in government or if you wish to continue your studies doing a PhD. Through your studies you will gain a strong grounding in core areas of economics and have the flexibility to tailor your degree to areas you are particularly interested in, such as political economy, financial econometrics or decision theory and behaviour.

Studying in the Department of Economics within the School of Law and Social Sciences at Royal Holloway means that you will learn from internationally renowned experts at one of the UK’s top ten teaching and research Economics departments. Our balanced approach to research and teaching guarantees high quality teaching from subject leaders, cutting edge materials and intellectually challenging debates. You will have close contact with the academic staff teaching on the course and you will receive individual support from the course director.

Our facilities include access to Bloomberg terminals, which are used by financial traders and investment banks globally. These give you access to live financial and economic data, portfolio construction and optimisation tools, information and analytics to support your studies. We are also equipped with state-of-the-art software packages such Stata, Matlab and Python.

A two-week pre-sessional course is available to bring you up to speed with your quantitative skills.

On graduation you will have the ability to solve theoretical and applied problems in economic policy, critically evaluate current research, develop simplified frameworks for studying the real world and be able to appreciate what would be an appropriate level of abstraction for a range of economic issues.

  • Excellent career prospects with economics graduates having an impressive employment record and starting salaries amongst the highest in the country
  • Be part of a relatively small cohort enabling you to receive individual support from the course director and other academic staff
  • Use our in-house economics experiments data lab to carry out research.

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

Core Modules

  • In this module you will develop an understanding of basic mathematical methods that are used in the study of Economics and Finance, including basic matrix analysis, topology, statistics, and probability theory. You will look at differentiation and integration of standard functions, and basic manipulations of vectors and matrices. You will also examine various optimisation problems and theorems leading to certain basic results in calculus.

  • This module will develop your understanding of the basics of modern microeconomic analysis. You will become familiar with the tools that economists use to analyse problems of resource allocation in market settings, beginning with a formal analysis of the optimising behaviour of consumers and producers. You will be introduced to markets and the notion of competitive equilibrium, in both partial and general equilibrium settings. You will then look at how individual market participants can affect prices, analysing the problem of a monopolist. Finally, you will consider static game theory to analyse markets where a small number of firms compete with each other (oligopolies).

  • This module will provide you with an introduction to modern intertemporal macroeconomics. You will learn about the tools used for dynamic economic analysis and apply them to topics such as economic fluctuations, unemployment, long-run growth, consumption decisions by households and investment decisions by firms. You will develop an understanding of dynamic macroeconomic models of economic behaviour, the main theories of economic fluctuations, the modern theory of unemployment, the principal determinants of consumption and investment decisions, and look at the process of economic growth.
  • This module will provide you with an overview of the principal methods of econometric analysis. Emphasis is placed on applied econometrics and will ensure that you are comfortable when reading and evaluating the econometric work of others in order to produce good quality applied econometric work of your own. You will be introduced to the principles and assumptions underlying ordinary least squares, the consequences of any departure from these assumptions, and methods used for testing. The second half of the module will focus on time-series analysis.
  • You will attend a set of preparatory classes to equip you with the necessary skills required for research, including a hands-on approach to using statistical packages and reading peer-reviewed articles. You will be expected to use either econometric or statistical techniques, and apply your knowledge and skills from the other quantitative methods and theory modules taken during your studies, to produce your own piece of research around 10,000 words in length.

  • This module will describe the key principles of academic integrity, focusing on university assignments. Plagiarism, collusion and commissioning will be described as activities that undermine academic integrity, and the possible consequences of engaging in such activities will be described. Activities, with feedback, will provide you with opportunities to reflect and develop your understanding of academic integrity principles.

     

  • The aim of the course is to give guidance to students who want to work in the financial industry. The level of this course is mostly for third year or MSc students, but it does not require pre-existing knowledge so first and second year students can follow this course. This course aims to bridge the gap between finance studies at university and what finance industry professional expect from graduates. The course explains precisely what existing finance jobs entail, what is required from the people working in those jobs, what the perspectives of these jobs are. This course will also prepare students for the professional interview of such a job.

Optional Modules

There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.

Year 1
  • This course covers static and dynamic games, games with incomplete information, Bayesian decision theory, and common knowledge.  Particular topics include the minimax theorem for zero-sum games, the equivalence of Nash and minimax equilibria for zero-sum games, extensive-form games, backward induction in extensive-form games, subgame perfection, the representation of incomplete information in games, how agents update when they receive information, infinitely-repeated games, folk theorems in infinitely-repeated games, and the effect of common knowledge on the willingness of agents to trade and bet, signalling, and Bayesian perfect equilibria.

  • In this module you will develop an understanding of some of the key topics in macroeconomics, notably the roles of technological change, monetary policy, and fiscal policy in macroeconomic fluctuations. You will look at models of economic growth, resource allocation, and technological change, evaluating empirical evidence of these, and you become familiar with techniques such as dynamic optimisation, log-linearisation and difference equations for general economic analysis.

  • This course aims to give students broad advanced-level training in the economics of policy evaluation. It does so by providing students with the facility to apply economic models to evaluate actual policy interventions, and teaches them quantitative techniques and qualitative methods, and particularly their application to evaluate actual policy interventions in particular fields and countries. Students will learn to apply the following evaluation methods to public policy: i) randomised experiment, ii) natural experiments, iii) panel and fixed effects methods, iv) differences in differences methods, v) regression discontinuity designs, and vi) instrumental variables.

  • The aim of this module is to give a more in-depth look at corporate finance issues related to company evaluation and with the main user of those evaluations e.g. private equity and Venture Capitalist (VC). It also aims at giving a practical approach to key aspects of corporate valuation, for example, leverage. Finally, this module will detail the dynamic and the valuation specificity for the different stages of the company from the start up, to the IPO to the mature company doing merger and acquisition.

  • This module provides an overview of a very significant area of the contemporary financial world. The first part gives a coverage of the important elements of the default-free fixed income securities market, and the second part covers the derivatives market. The module focuses on the analytical tools used in portfolio management and risk management. For bond portfolios, these tools include yield curve construction, duration, convexity and formal term structure models. For derivatives, the emphasis will be on valuation, trading mechanisms and management of credit risk.

  • The aim of this module is to provide an overview of the current research on health behaviour and outcomes in middle- and low-income countries, with special attention to the role of poverty and inequality in shaping those outcomes. The module will focus on drivers of health outcomes and the effectiveness of different interventions and public health programmes and how the environment shapes disease incidence (such as malaria, and other vector-borne diseases).

  • The aim of this module is to provide an understanding on behavioural aspects of individual actions and outcomes related to health. It will offer recent insights in behavioural economics, at the intersection with psychology and health economics to explore addictions, lifestyle choices and their consequences on individual health. The module will also provide insights into why and how people decide to insure themselves against health shocks and the role of policy in shaping health behaviour, from taxes, outright bans (e.g. illegal drugs, smoking restrictions) and behavioural interventions (nudges) like framing, reference points and the role of behavioural biases.

  • The aim of this module is to provide an understanding in the measurement and patterns of long-term trends in health outcomes, including the demographic transition and the evolution of life expectancy, anthropometrics and other indicators that measure quality of life. The module will discuss historical aspects of health, including pandemics in history, the Industrial Revolution and the birth of Public Health, including vaccine programmes and the eradication of diseases and the nationalisation of healthcare.

Assessment is carried out by a variety of methods including coursework, examinations and a dissertation.

2:2

2:2 (Honours) or equivalent in Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a similarly mathematical subject.

Degrees in other subjects will also be considered if there are modules with a strong mathematical background.

Candidates with professional qualifications or relevant professional experience in an associated area will also be considered.

International & EU requirements

English language requirements

  • IELTS: 6.5 overall. 6.5 in Writing. No subscore lower than 6.0.
  • Pearson Test of English: 61 overall. Writing 61. No other subscore lower than 54.
  • Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English (ISE): ISE III.
  • Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) grade C.
  • TOEFL iBT: 88 overall, with Reading 22 Listening 20 Speaking 22 Writing 25.
  • Duolingo: 120 overall, 125 in Literacy, 125 in Production, no sub-score below 110. 

An Economics masters degree at Royal Holloway, University of London will equip you with an enviable range of transferable skills and can lead into a variety of career paths as well as the knowledge and a solid foundation for continued PhD studies. Employers recognise and reward the real knowledge and skills developed in an Economics degree. 

We will help students to recognise their own strengths, skills and abilities so that they can make strong applications for their chosen job or further study.  We also provide careers support including application and interview coaching, career strategy discussions and the opportunity to network with major employees.

  • Our graduates are highly employable and, in recent years, have entered many different economics-related areas, including working in the Public Sector (Government Economics Service), journalism, business analysis. careers as Economists, Journalists and Business Analysts.  
  • Our graduates are currently working for firms such as Accenture, TNS, Bloomberg, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, Pricewaterhouse Cooper and Baker and Mackenzie.

Home (UK) students tuition fee per year*: £14,400

EU and international students tuition fee per year**: £23,700

Other essential costs***: There are no single associated costs greater than £50 per item on this course.

How do I pay for it? Find out more about funding options, including loans, grants, scholarships and bursaries.

* and ** These tuition fees apply to students enrolled on a full-time basis in the academic year 2025/26. Students studying on the standard part-time course structure over two years are charged 50% of the full-time applicable fee for each study year.

Royal Holloway reserves the right to increase all postgraduate tuition fees annually. Be aware that tuition fees can rise during your degree (if longer than one year’s duration), and that this also means that the overall cost of studying the course part-time will be slightly higher than studying it full-time in one year. The annual increase for continuing students who start their degree in 2025/26 will be 5%.  For further information, see the  fees and funding , and terms and conditions.

** This figure is the fee for EU and international students starting a degree in the academic year 2025/26. Find out more 

*** These estimated costs relate to studying this particular degree at Royal Holloway during the 2025/26 academic year, and are included as a guide. Costs, such as accommodation, food, books and other learning materials and printing, have not been included.

Economics Postgraduate Admissions

7th

Ranking in the UK for economics research excellence

Source: THE REF institutions ranked by subject, 2014

Top 4

University of London economics department

Source: THE REF institutions ranked by subject, 2014

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