Our curriculum

After successfully completing the assessment year, you will deepen your knowledge of economics with the Major Economics. The Bachelor's degree programme is divided into three parts: Compulsory area, the Core electives and Elective area. As a full-time programme, the Major Economics is designed for a standard study period of four semesters. The study time can be extended up to ten semesters. You will acquire a total of 120 ECTS credits.

The semester details for the individual courses are recommendations. Particularly with regard to planning exchange semesters, it may make sense to complete the courses in a different order.

Do you want to study the Major Economics in German or English? You can decide for yourself by choosing the appropriate courses, although some of the compulsory courses are only offered in English. Our students are thus excellently prepared for a career in German- and English-speaking companies or organisations. In addition, you must complete at least 9 ECTS credits in the respective contrasting language. 

Foreign languages are important to us. By the time you complete your Bachelor's degree programme, we require proof of proficiency in two foreign languages (in addition to the school language), whereby English must be demonstrated at proficiency level C2 (CEFR). You will attend a first foreign language in the assessment year, and learn a second during the Bachelor's degree programme. The range of foreign languages is broad; in addition to European languages, there are courses in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese at various levels

Your studies in the Major Economics consist of the compulsory area, the compulsory elective and the elective area.

In the compulsory area, you take compulsory courses for two semesters, which give your studies a clear profile. You will receive subject- and topic-related training in economics, methods courses and basic knowledge of business administration. Thanks to the concentration on the third and fourth semesters, you are free to organise the fifth and sixth semesters as you wish and can easily complete an exchange semester. In addition, you will gain valuable insights into current economic topics and learn how to deal with large amounts of data.

The following courses are compulsory and include contact and self-study. The compulsory courses are offered once a year and are taught in German and English. Exceptions to this are the following three compulsory courses, which are only offered in English:

• 3,230 Data Handling: Import, Cleaning and Visualisation
• 4,220 Data Analytics II: Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung
• 4,212 Macroeconomics III

This course offering corresponds to the current planning status. You can find the entire course offering in the official Course Catalogue Online.

Building on the strong foundation of the courses in the compulsory area, your study profile is additionally sharpened within the framework of the compulsory elective area. You can pursue your individual interests in greater depth and thus broaden your economic perspective. You choose between 28-40 ECTS credits of compulsory electives, which consist of the compulsory elective area of economics, the compulsory elective area of business studies and the compulsory elective area of law. You must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Compulsory elective in economics: at least 18 ECTS credits from the range of courses offered by the School of Economics and Finance (SEPS).
• Compulsory elective in business studies: at least 4 ECTS credits from the School of Finance (SoF) and the School of Management (SoM)
• Compulsory elective in Law: at least 6 ECTS credits from the School of Law (LS).

You are free to take further courses from these areas. Surplus courses of the core electives area will be booked at the expense of the elective area. 

Note: This course offer corresponds to the current planning status. Further information on the compulsory elective courses in economics as well as an overview of the courses offered in the compulsory elective areas of business administration and law can be found in the official Course Catalogue Online.

In the elective area (0-12 ECTS credits), you can either complete further economics courses from a diverse range or supplement your curriculum with courses from other majors. In this way, you can structure your studies with the offers of the compulsory elective area and the elective area according to your individual preferences - either through a broadly composed portfolio of courses or by focussing on courses offered in a specific subject area.

The complete range of courses can be found in the official Course Catalogue Online.

Do you want to give your studies a profile to communicate to future employers? In the Major Economics, you can voluntarily choose the specialisation which will be shown on the Bachelor's degree transcript. The specialisation is offered for the area of "Data Analytics and Data Handling".

In order to complete the Major Economics with the designated specialisation in "Data Analytics and Data Handling", you must complete at least 16 ECTS credits from the courses listed below. Together with the Bachelor's Thesis, which must be assigned to the same subject area, you will receive the selected specialisation. 

Whether the chosen topic of the Bachelor's Thesis can be assigned to the specialisation in terms of content must be clarified in advance with the programme management Major Economics. 

Note: This course offer corresponds to the current planning status. The complete range of courses can be found in the official Course Catalogue Online.

The Contextual studies complements your specialized studies and is compensated with 24 ECTS credits.

The Contextual studies is another strong factor of the programmes' curriculum. It integrates knowledge across disciplinary boundaries and strengthens the social and cultural competencies of our students in a special way. They will holistically "think outside the box" and take courses in focus areas as well as in the skills area. The contextual studies also teaches skills such as presentation and negotiation techniques or programming languages. The cross-cultural and cross-social science programme courses offered in the focus areas are extremely diverse and can be tailored to the Major Economics degree programme. In the skills area, you will learn complementary competencies and practical skills for success in the corporate world.

The Bachelors' Thesis (16 ECTS credits) is a scientific paper. You deal in depth with a question from a subject area of your own choice. In the Bachelor's thesis, you are guided by the relevant scientific research designs and principles.

Internationalisation and intercultural exchange are important topics in the Major Economics. Many of our students are drawn to study abroad in the fifth or sixth semester and we very much welcome you to spend an exchange semester either at one of our many partner universities or at a university of your choice. You can also receive credit for courses abroad and, most importantly, gain intercultural skills without having to pause your academic progress. You can find more information about exchange opportunities here.

Here you will find a compilation of the most important programme regulations.