Course Content
"Economics [...] offers a special kind of learning. Studying it provides you with an excellent, comprehensive means with which to analyse the economy and its relationships with politics, society, psychology and philosophy. Using it, strategies and courses of action for individuals and organisations can be comprehensibly deduced.” Klaus Peter Gushurst, head of the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton in Germany.
Our educational goals are: graduates of the International Degree Course in Economics will be able to understand macroeconomic principles and also play a part in shaping them. The courses are geared towards practise-based learning. Graduates will be able to apply their skills in diverse fields such as international business, trade associations, development economics, European institutions, regional economic development, transport and production logistics or the media. The advantages for you are: a fast-track career-oriented qualification, a clear international outlook as well as a strong dose of business-related studies. The course can be completed in as little as seven semesters and upon completion confers the academic title of "Bachelor of Arts”.
During the degree, which encompasses five semesters in Germany (1-4 and 7) and one compulsory year abroad (during the 5th and 6th semesters), the student will develop economic perspectives and capabilities: general and specialised economics, economic policy, business studies as well political science, sociology, (international) economic history, and national and international economic law.
In its issue of May 20th, 2005, the German Handelsblatt newspaper said of the course content: "In strategic, senior management consultancy it is clear that a good mix of the skills from business studies, economic theory and economic policy offer graduates an important advantage. Students of economics are the best equipped to handle both traditional data analyses as well as complex and dynamic scenario analyses in macroeconomic contexts. The more international the consequences of some decisions are, the greater the benefit which will be gained from the fundamental elements of an individual’s understanding of economics: disciplines such as the new institutional economics with its Principal Agent Theories, and also monetary and actual international economic theory offer a clear, practical set of tools and skills which top managers use to find answers and solutions in a macroeconomic context.”
The International Degree Course in Economics also enables students to improve their English proficiency in general, and the practical application of the language in particular (academic, as well as economics and business-related applications). Other languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, (Mandarin) Chinese and Arabic can also be studied at different levels at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen or at the foreign cultural institutes in Bremen.
Fostering the skills required for communication, statistics and empirical social research is an integral part of this course. This is complemented by an information technology course that stresses the importance of gaining proficiency with Predictive Analysis Software for data analysis (PAWS, formerly known as SPSS).
At the beginning of the fourth semester students strengthen their profile by choosing to specialise in
- International Economics
- European Regional Economics
- Logistics
Two (2) of three (3) specialisations must be chosen. Any combination is possible.
Students spend the 3rd year of study abroad. One semester is spent at a foreign partner university (chosen from a list of established partner universities or self-selected) and an 18-week internship in a company, an international organisation, the public sector or a trade association must be completed.