BA Hons Psychology & Economics
ApplyKey facts
- UCAS Code: CL81
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Ranked: top 10 in UK for Economics (Complete University Guide 2021)
Study abroad: exchange partnerships in Spain, Germany & Netherlands
Facilities: includes 6 purpose-built experimental research laboratories
Study with us
- study the science of behaviour and the reasons for differences between individuals, across the lifespan
- acquire skills in communication, numeracy and critical thinking
- use key economics concepts and models to better understand real-world problems
- develop excellent analytical and problem-solving skills that are highly valued by employers
- work within our purpose-built experimental research labs
- our BA degrees in Humanities & Social Sciences are initially broad-based. In Year 1 you'll study three subjects, including your chosen subject(s)
How could the Covid-19 pandemic affect my studies?
Covid-19: information & FAQsWhy this course?
Our main focus in psychology is the study of human behaviour. Studying with us, you'll look at conditions of behaviour – how we learn, remember, co-ordinate our actions and interact with others – and the reasons for differences between individuals, such as personality or intelligence.
Due to the popularity of the course and performance criteria for entry into Honours (Year 4) the numbers admitted to Years 2 and 3 of the course are limited.
Following the recent global economic crisis, economics is more important and relevant than ever. Decisions on money, banking, interest rates, taxation and government spending affect us all with global consequences.
Economics aims to understand the activities of the different agents in the economy – consumers, producers and the government – and how they all fit together.

What you’ll study
Psychology
Year 1
The first year covers the basic principles of learning:
- biological bases of behaviour
- thinking
- memory
- personality
- social influences on behaviour
- changes in behaviour through the lifespan
- research methods
Years 2 & 3
Due to the popularity of the course, performance-related criteria may be in place to manage entry into Honours (Year 4); this means that the numbers admitted to Years 2 and 3 of the course are limited. The range of classes provides a greater understanding of human development and interaction, cognitive processes, individual differences and biological influences on behaviour.
Year 4
We offer a variety of classes that allow you to study an area of psychology in greater depth. You'll study conceptual and historical issues in psychology and write a dissertation based on your research project.
International placement
There's an opportunity for you to take an optional international research placement through Erasmus.
The School of Psychological Sciences and Health has Erasmus exchange agreements with several European universities. We currently have active exchanges with:
- Humboldt University zu Berlin, Germany
- Universidad de A Coruna, Spain
- University of Twente, Netherlands
- University Tubingen, Germany
- Radbout University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
For general queries about exchanges to and from the School of Psychological Sciences and Health, please email Dr Kellyanne Findlay.
Major projects
You can undertake an optional summer research project working with a member of staff. In addition, there are opportunities to apply for funding to complete summer internships between year 3 and 4.
Economics
Year 1
The first year of study looks at consumers and industries, with markets, market failure and the role of government, unemployment and inflation. No previous knowledge of economics is assumed but the class is also suitable if you've studied the subject before.
Year 2
You'll take core classes in microeconomics and macroeconomics and choose from a number of optional classes.
Year 3
As a third-year student, you will study a combination of core and optional classes to develop the foundations laid in Years 1 and 2 with a view to Honours study.
Year 4
Optional classes complement the areas of microeconomics and macroeconomics. You'll also write a dissertation.
Facilities
Our location in the Lord Hope building provides a social hub and access to student services such as the library, cafés, meeting areas and exhibition spaces.
Our high-quality facilities include six purpose-built experimental research laboratories:
- driving simulator lab
- memory lab
- perception and action lab
- psychophysiology lab
- psycholinguistics lab
- oculomotor lab
Student competitions
The British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award is awarded annually for outstanding academic performance in the final year.
Postgraduate study
Psychology graduates can progress into postgraduate training to become professional psychologists. We currently run a number of post-graduate courses which provide additional research training:
Psychology
Psychology 1a
You'll take this class in semester 1 and are not expected to have any prior knowledge of psychology. It explores learning theory, developmental psychology, personality, biological psychology, and the scientific basis for psychology.
Psychology 1b
This class is taught in semester 2 and covers sensation and perception, cognitive psychology, social psychology, abnormal psychology, and research methods.
Economics
Introduction to Economics
Psychology
Cognition & Neuropsychology
This class reveals how our understanding of higher mental functions has been enhanced through:
- theoretical and experimental studies of normal human cognition
- neuropsychological studies of how cognitive functions may be damaged as a result of brain lesions
Social & Health Psychology
This class introduces social psychological theories and research that provide insights into why people believe what they believe, and why they behave the way they do.
Topics covered include attribution theory, aggression, prosocial behaviour, group influence, norms, conformity, obedience, and attitudes.
It ends with an introduction to health psychology, demonstrating how social psychological principles covered earlier in the class are applied to pressing, real-world health issues such as dietary behaviour, smoking/alcohol-use, and suicide.
Introduction to Research Design & Analysis
You'll be introduced to the main features of measurement, research design, and statistical analysis in psychology.
Following a general introduction, the course presents fundamental concepts, issues, and debates in the field of research methods.
You'll also become familiarised with the conceptual basis for inferential statistical testing, and introduced to different inferential statistics. Finally, a brief introduction to qualitative research methods takes place.
Economics
Microeconomics 2
Macroeconomics 2
Psychology
Research Methods in Psychology
This class builds on year 2 and equips you with a broader, more advanced set of methodological and analytic skills. These skills are essential for carrying out the year 4 dissertation and for being able to read and understand articles published in academic journals.
Individual Differences
You're encouraged to think scientifically about conceptual and practical issues related to the study of individual differences, with specific reference to intelligence and personality. You'll gain the chance to put this knowledge into practice by designing your own measurement instrument.
Cognition
You'll be introduced to some of the core topics in cognitive psychology
- Perception and action, particularly how we perceive time and recognise faces
- Memory and learning, including models of episodic and working memory
- Language, including word production, sentence comprehension, and discourse processing
- Thinking, specifically problem solving, deductive reasoning and judgement and decision making.
Development
This class reviews the ways that children develop from infancy right through to the end of adolescence. Key theories are presented and used to explore the extent to which children’s development is continuous or stage-like and whether specific skills develop more quickly than others. Issues relating to infancy, ‘theory of mind’ (understanding others’ thoughts and beliefs), executive function (planning and monitoring abilities), language, and communication form the core themes in the class.
Psychobiology
The purpose of this class is to provide the opportunity for you to learn the basic principles of brain function, and to encourage you to address the implications of this understanding for their own view of how behaviour is generated. It includes coverage of electrophysiology and psychopharmacology, neuroanatomy, research methods in neuroscience. There are focused sections relating to the visual system and the motor system.
Social Psychology
This class allows you to consider current ideas and positions within social psychology. Four themes drive the class
- Attitudes and attitude change, covering the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Health Belief Model
- Identity, with a focus on social, personal and group identities
- Prejudice, connecting both attitudes and identities, and covering a broad range of areas such as social representations, stereotyping, prejudice and conflict
- Epistemology, where consideration is given to the theory of knowledge, how social psychological knowledge is produced, and to what effect
Economics
Microeconomics 3
Macroeconomics 3
Psychology
Dissertation in Psychology
The dissertation is an opportunity for you to undertake an original piece of research, closely supervised by a single member of staff. Planning for the dissertation begins in year 3, and dissertations can be of such high standards that they are subsequently published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
Advanced Organisational Behaviour
This class is offered by the Strathclyde Business School, and draws on current themes in Human Resource Management understood from the perspective of micro-organisational behaviour theory and research. Although the theoretical underpinning of the material covered is primarily about work and organisational issues at the level of individual behaviour in organisations, a contextual understanding of these issues is also encouraged.
Advanced Psychological Theory & Practice
Choice of topics may include:
- Belief & Anomalistic Experience
- The Psychology of Mental Health
- Artificial Intelligence
- Psychology & Ageing
- Psychology of Language
- Critical Review
- The Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience of Face Recognition
- Neuropsychology of Ageing and Dementia
- Physiological Psychology
- Health Psychology
- Practical Aspects of Memory
Psychology Work Placement
Students have the opportunity to undertake a 20 credit work placement class where they will have the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and skills in a workplace setting, and develop both personally and professionally. Students are supported to find a suitable placement and throughout the experience. Previous placements have included: the NHS, Schools, University departments and third sector organisations such as health support and rehabilitation charities.
Study abroad
Erasmus International Work Placement
This class is an option which is available to a restricted number of students who'll apply to take part. It involves a placement with a European University partner working in a research team during the summer between years 3 and 4. Additional assessment is the completed during semester 1 of year 4.
Economics
Compulsory classes
Dissertation
Elective classes
Microeconomics 4
Macroeconomics 4
Introduction to Econometrics
Economics of Firms & Industries
Industrial Economics
Applied Econometrics
In the third year econometrics class you’ll have learned about regression in both a cross-sectional data and time series data context. This class extends that knowledge in three ways.
First, for cross-sectional data, the class deals with regression techniques where the dependent variable may be restricted or limited in some way. In such cases, the regression model as taught in the third year class is not appropriate; this class develops models which are similar in spirit to the standard regression model, but can handle all of these cases.
A second purpose of Applied Econometrics is to develop regression methods which can be used when you have panel data - consisting of both cross-sectional and time-series dimensions.
Third, the class will build on the introduction to the econometrics of time series data developed in this class by developing two classes of models.
Financial Development & Economic Growth
This class gives a balanced view of the role of finance in promoting long-run economic growth, but also booms and busts. The nature and role of financial intermediaries will be introduced, and, afterwards, formally addressed in a simple aggregate growth model. Empirical evidence will be examined, before turning to the specifics of micro-finance. The importance of financial globalisation will also be investigated. Finally, the rest of the class will be devoted to deciphering the causes and consequences of the current financial crisis.
Behavioural Economics
Behavioural Economics offers alternative theories that merge psychological insights with economic theory and are based on experimental and other evidence, that attempt to provide a better explanation of real-world behaviour.
This class is concerned with exploring these new behavioural theories with the aim of providing you with an expanded toolkit with which to approach ‘real-world Economics’ that is based on the burgeoning Behavioural Economics literature that has emerged over the past two or three decades.
After studying this, you should be able to extend much of your previously-learned knowledge in Microeconomics in various directions that take into account more realistic ways of modelling how individuals behave.
Natural Resource, Environmental & Energy Economics
The class provides you with an introduction to natural resource, environmental and energy economics and policy. It focuses on the contributions of economics to understanding environmental, energy and resource problems, their causes, and the design of effective public policies to counteract them.

We're ranked 8th in the UK for Economics.
Assessment
Psychology
We assess students using:
- class tests
- essays
- practical reports
- dissertations
- individual presentations
- group presentations
- degree examinations
Online and face-to-face group project work is also included in the course. You'll take part in practical assignments from first-year onwards.
Economics
The majority of classes are assessed by a final exam. This mark is supplemented by one or more forms of individual and/or group coursework. In some cases, you can earn an exemption from the exam by achieving a specified coursework mark. Exams are normally held at the end of the semester in which the class is taught.
You normally have one opportunity to be re-assessed for a failed class.
Learning & teaching
Psychology
Our methods include:
- lectures
- small-group tutorials
- practical labs
- online tutorials
- online wikis
- group work
- problem-based learning
- one-to-one supervision
These methods are used across all years of the degree and aim to provide you with opportunities to learn and work in different ways.
Economics
Teaching is given over two semesters in blocks of 12 weeks each. Methods include lectures, tutorials and seminars. As a student, you will take part in team-based projects and make use of online teaching materials. Our industrial partners regularly assist in teaching and the assessment of student presentations.
Glasgow is Scotland's biggest & most cosmopolitan city
Our campus is based in the very heart of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. National Geographic named Glasgow as one of its 'Best of the World' destinations, while Rough Guide readers have voted Glasgow the world’s friendliest city! And Time Out named Glasgow in the top ten best cities in the world - we couldn't agree more!
We're in the city centre, next to the Merchant City, both of which are great locations for sightseeing, shopping and socialising alongside your studies.
Find out what some of our students think about studying in Glasgow!
Find out all about life in GlasgowEntry requirements
Required subjects are shown in brackets.
Highers | Standard entry requirements*:
(Higher English, Maths/Applications of Mathematics National 5 B-C, or equivalent) Minimum entry requirements**:
(Higher English B and Maths/ Applications of Mathematics National 5 C) |
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A Levels | Year 1 entry: ABB-BBB (GCSE English Language 6/B or Literature 6/B, GCSE Maths 4/C) |
International Baccalaureate | 36 (Maths SL5) |
HNC | Year 1 entrySocial Sciences: A in Graded Unit; Maths National 5 B, or equivalent |
HND | Social Sciences:AAB in Graded Units may enable second-year entry to Psychology with History or Politics & International Relations with six HNC/HND credits in each of the two subjects |
International students | Find out entry requirements for your country by visiting our country pages. |
Deferred entry | Not normally accepted |
Additional Information
Due to the popularity of the course, performance-related criteria may be in place to manage entry into Honours (year 4). This means that the numbers admitted to Years 2 and 3 of the course are limited.
*Standard entry requirements
Offers are made in accordance with specified entry requirements although admission to undergraduate programmes is considered on a competitive basis and entry requirements stated are normally the minimum level required for entry.
Whilst offers are made primarily on the basis of an applicant meeting or exceeding the stated entry criteria, admission to the University is granted on the basis of merit, and the potential to succeed. As such, a range of information is considered in determining suitability.
In exceptional cases, where an applicant does not meet the competitive entry standard, evidence may be sought in the personal statement or reference to account for performance which was affected by exceptional circumstances, and which in the view of the judgement of the selector would give confidence that the applicant is capable of completing the programme of study successfully.
**Minimum entry requirements
Widening access
We want to increase opportunities for people from every background. Strathclyde selects our students based on merit, potential and the ability to benefit from the education we offer. We look for more than just your grades. We consider the circumstances of your education and will make lower offers to certain applicants as a result.
Degree preparation course for international students
We offer international students (non-EU/UK) who do not meet the academic entry requirements for an undergraduate degree at Strathclyde the option of completing an Undergraduate Foundation year programme at the University of Strathclyde International Study Centre.
Upon successful completion, you will be able to progress to this degree course at the University of Strathclyde.
International students
We've a thriving international community with students coming here to study from over 100 countries across the world. Find out all you need to know about studying in Glasgow at Strathclyde and hear from students about their experiences.
Visit our international students' sectionFees & funding
All fees quoted are for full-time courses and per academic year unless stated otherwise.
Scotland | *£1,820 *Fees for students who meet the relevant residence requirements in Scotland are subject to confirmation by the Scottish Funding Council. Scottish undergraduate students undertaking an exchange for a semester/year will continue to pay their normal tuition fees at Strathclyde and will not be charged fees by the overseas institution. |
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England, Wales & Northern Ireland | *£9,250 *Assuming no change in fees policy over the period, the total amount payable by undergraduate students will be capped. For students commencing study in 2021-22, this is capped at £27,750 (with the exception of the MPharm and integrated Masters programmes), MPharm students pay £9,250 for each of the four years. Students studying on integrated Masters degree programmes pay an additional £9,250 for the Masters year with the exception of those undertaking a full-year industrial placement where a separate placement fee will apply. |
International | £16,000 |
University preparation programme fees | International students can find out more about the costs and payments of studying a university preparation programme at the University of Strathclyde International Study Centre. |
Additional costs | All recommended texts and computer software packages are available from the University Library and our portal, Pegasus. Students should purchase a standard calculator. It's required for the duration of the course. |
Available scholarships | Take a look at our scholarships search for funding opportunities. |
Please note: All fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year. Find out more about fees.
How can I fund my studies?
Students from Scotland
Fees for students who meet the relevant residence requirements in Scotland, you may be able to apply to the Student Award Agency Scotland (SAAS) to have your tuition fees paid by the Scottish government. Scottish students may also be eligible for a bursary and loan to help cover living costs while at University.
For more information on funding your studies have a look at our University Funding page.
Students from England, Wales & Northern Ireland
We have a generous package of bursaries on offer for students from England, Northern Ireland and Wales:
You don’t need to make a separate application for these. When your place is confirmed at Strathclyde, we’ll assess your eligibility. Have a look at our scholarship search for any more funding opportunities.
International Students
We have a number of scholarships available to international students. Take a look at our scholarship search to find out more.
Careers
As a Psychology graduate, continuing your studies will help you become a professional psychologist, which can lead to working in areas such as clinical, educational or occupational psychology. Many graduates also work in research.
Other possible careers are teaching, human resource management, social work, counselling and management and professional positions throughout the private and public sectors.
Economics graduates are employed in a wide range of areas, including the Government Economic Service, management, investment analysis and media outlets.
Studying psychology at Strathclyde
Find out from our lecturers and students about what it's like to study psychology at Strathclyde.
Psychology's anything about people and how they behave, how they think, how they act in society, how they behave in different settings.
Dr Sally Wiggins, Senior Lecturer
Apply
Psychology & Economics (1 year entry)
Start Date: Sep 2021
Mode of Attendance: full-time
Year of Entry: 1 year