Economics and Sustainable Development (with a professional placement year) BSc (Hons)

Modules

• Year 1 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Global Challenges and Innovations
  • Introduction to Economics
  • Introduction to Mathematics for Finance and Economics
  • Understanding Climate Change

  Spring teaching

  • Business School Career Preparation
  • Development Policies and Politics
  • Macroeconomics 1
  • Microeconomics 1
  • Sustainable Development: Big Ideas for Global Action

  Your degree

  In your first year, you’ll build a strong foundation in economics by exploring core principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics. You’ll also develop essential mathematical skills tailored to economics, providing the analytical tools needed for more advanced study.

  Alongside, you will be introduced to climate change, environmental risks and global development, in a rigorous fashion by exploring policy and politics that will help you understand the challenges of managing natural resources and mitigating environmental crises. You’ll move on to more advanced study and engage in real-word applications. Concurrently, you will explore environmental and sustainable management issues while looking at challenges and innovations in global development. This combination of rigorous theoretical training and real-world applications will prepare you to tackle the intersection of economics, environment, and development.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include a combination of Lectures and Seminars.

  

  67%: Lecture
  33%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessments typically involve an examination that carries greater weight and one or two secondary assessments.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 240 hours of contact time and about 960 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course. 

• Year 2 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Critical Approaches to Development Economics
  • Global Climate Change
  • Introduction to Econometrics (level 5)
  • Microeconomics 2

  Spring teaching

  • Data Coding & Visualisation
  • Environmental Economics
  • Environmental Perspectives on Development
  • Geographies of the Living Earth

  Your degree

  In your second year, you’ll build on foundational knowledge with advanced study in microeconomics and econometrics, equipping you with the tools to analyse complex economic systems. You’ll study environmental economics to understand the economic drivers of environmental challenges and explore practical solutions. Alongside these core modules, you’ll sharpen your technical skills through data coding and visualization, gaining proficiency in the techniques essential for modern economic and environmental analysis.

  You’ll also broaden your perspective on climate change by rigorously examining its causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies. You’ll be introduced to different environmental perspectives on development and geographies of the living earth.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include a combination of Lectures and Seminars.

  

  67%: Lecture
  33%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessments typically involve an examination that carries greater weight and one or two secondary assessments.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 240 hours of contact time and about 960 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course. 

• Placement

  Placement (optional)

  To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can provide you with information and advice. If you’re successful in obtaining a placement, this will form part of your course.

  Find out more about placements and internships

  Our careers team offers dedicated support to help you obtain a placement, including:

  • finding an employer
  • drafting an application
  • preparing for interviews
  • ongoing help throughout a placement.

  Don’t worry if you’re not successful in securing a placement, you’ll simply transfer to a non-placement version of your course.

  Please note that if you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t undertake your placement in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course. Find out more about American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid

• Year 3 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Climate Change Economics

  Spring teaching

  • Economics and Data Science
  • The Economics of Development

  Options

  Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

  While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

  Autumn teaching

  • Advanced Sustainable Development: Sustainability in Policy and Practice
  • Applied Econometrics
  • Disasters, Environment and Development
  • Environment and Development in World Politics
  • International Trade
  • Topics in Growth and Inequality

  Spring teaching

  • Global Food Security
  • Political Ecology and Environmental Justice

  Your degree

  In your final year, you’ll deepen your expertise by focusing on climate change economics, the economics of development, and advanced data science. You’ll also have the flexibility to tailor your studies to your interests, with options in areas like international trade, applied econometrics, and sustainability in policy. To further expand your understanding of sustainable development, you can choose from optional modules covering topics such as environmental disasters, political ecology, environmental justice, food security, and global development politics.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include a combination of Lectures and Seminars.

  

  67%: Lecture
  33%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessments typically involve an examination that carries greater weight and one or two secondary assessments.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 240 hours of contact time and about 960 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course. 

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.