Economics (B.Sc.)

Our bachelor's programme gives you the opportunity to adapt your studies to your individual development. After all, as you study your personality grows and you may discover new interests and perhaps change your plans. By choosing elective modules and specialising in a variety of areas such as development economics, applied statistics and econometrics, or economics of globalisation, you also have the opportunity to set yourself apart. In this way, you can give yourself your own profile, which will make it easier for you to enter professional life.

You need to be able to apply your knowledge in the real world. Therefore, our modules are designed to establish a link to practice and to smooth your transition into professional life - for example, through guest lectures by industry experts. In addition, you will work on current, practice-relevant issues in your final thesis and use real data for that purpose. In order to apply the knowledge you have learned in practice, you can have a voluntary internship in the elective area credited to you under certain conditions.

In order to take into account the increasingly international economy, our bachelor's programme is also very internationally oriented. Areas such as foreign trade, international trade and the economic analysis of developing countries are important focal points. We offer elective modules in English, taught by our lecturers and guest lecturers. At the same time, our University offers a range of language courses - from beginner to professional level. And for those who would like to spend one or more semesters abroad, there are numerous exchange programmes with partner universities around the world.

At the start of your studies, you will be supervised by older students who are tutors in the WiWi-O phase. As well as attending your first lectures, you will learn about important learning management and examination administration systems, and receive information on timetable planning and the relevant examination and study regulations. Numerous joint activities, such as a city rally, a so-called “Bunter Abend” and pub nights, will help you familiarise yourself with the university, the city and your fellow students. Before the lectures begin, you can voluntarily take part in the preliminary mathematics course (“Mathe-Vorkurs”/MVK), which covers selected topics from school mathematics. The MVK will prepare you optimally for the quantitative modules in your degree programme, such as the mathematics module. The WiWi student council organises a 'support programme' comprising various social activities around the MVK. These include a pub evening, a games afternoon and campus and city tours.

If you decide to study economics, you should be interested in general economic issues and have a good or advanced background in mathematics and English. German skills are mandatory. Before lectures begin each semester, the faculty offers a preparatory mathematics course for first-year students. This course covers (German) school mathematics content and prepares students for quantitative modules, such as the mathematics module.

The internationalisation of economies, together with an increasingly transnational segmentation of the value chain, has led to an ever-growing international interdependence of companies; the demand for a labour force that thinks and acts global has never been so high. A sound knowledge of the economic coherences within an economy, of companies' decision-making bases, of how household and state interact, and of the advantages of the growing international integration as well as skills in quantitative methods and Business English are key competencies for a successful entry into professional life in various fields, or lay the foundations for a career in academia. Get to know the different professional fields of our graduates in the alumni portraits.

The bachelor degree also offers the possibility to continue studies in a master's programme either at home or abroad. In Göttingen, for example, a bachelor graduate with a good grade may apply for the four-semester long Master's programmes in International Economics (English-language programme), in Development Economics (English-language programme), in Applied Statistics (English-language programme) or in History of Global Markets (can be studied in German or English).

Applicants interested in the MSc in International Economics or the MSc in Development Economics have also the option to apply for a two-year-English-language double degree programme in cooperation with the University of Groningen, the Netherlands (International Economics) and in cooperation with the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, the University of Florence, Italy, and the University of Clermont Auvergne, France (Development Economics), respectively.