Core modules
All students take the same first year core modules in all three departments, which will support you with the foundation of the disciplines. Mathematical and Statistical modules are available at either an intermediate or advanced level, to suit students’ existing knowledge.
- Year One: 80% core modules, 20% optional modules
- Year Two: 25 to 50% core modules, 50 to 75% optional modules
- Final Year: 25% core modules, 75% optional modules
Choice of pathways
Before the start of Year Two, you will choose from a set of six pathways. You can focus on all three subjects (BA Tripartite) or choose to focus on a combination of two. Depending on your pathway, you will be able to graduate with either a BA or BSc.
Important information
We are planning to make some exciting changes to our Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) (BA/BSc) degree for 2025 entry. We continually review our curricula to reflect developments in the relevant disciplines to deliver the best educational experience. The core and optional modules will undergo approval through the University's rigorous academic processes. As modules are approved, we will update the course information on this webpage. It is therefore very important that you check this webpage for the latest information before you apply and prior to accepting an offer. Sign up to receive updates.
Year One
Introduction to Philosophy
You'll study a wide-ranging introduction to philosophy, including ancient, continental, moral and political philosophy, followed by epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and aesthetics, and logic. You'll learn to engage critically with different viewpoints and critically analyse and evaluate arguments central to philosophy.
Read more about the Introduction to Philosophy moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Introduction to Politics
Introduction to Politics gives you a broad overview of the main issues and theoretical perspectives within Politics. You'll learn first to understand and then apply the core concepts of comparative political science and theory to processes, institutions, ideologies and practical policy-making. You'll conduct a comparative study of different political systems and political change, both in writing and in open debate.
Read more about the Introduction to Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Economics 1
You'll develop an understanding of fundamental and intermediate concepts in micro- and macroeconomic analysis, equipping you with a range of appropriate analytical skills, including descriptive, graphical and mathematical methods. This will develop your ability to analyse economic trends, institutions and policies and the capacity to apply analytical techniques to real-world problems.
Read more about the Economics 1 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Quantitative Techniques
This module combines two modules: Mathematical Techniques and Statistical Techniques. You may study these topics at either an intermediate or advanced level, depending on your existing Maths qualifications.
You will cover topics ranging from algebra and calculus to distributions and hypothesis testing, which will provide you with key skills and knowledge that will then be applied in many other modules. In addition, you will be introduced to some advanced statistical software packages, which will help you learn about a range of techniques to analyse data and different ways in which you can present data.
Read more about these modules, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study):
Year Two (optional cores taken depending on pathway)
History of Modern Philosophy
You will discover the metaphysical and epistemological ideas of great Empiricist philosophers Locke, Berkeley and Hume on substance, qualities, ideas, causation and perception. You will then explore Kant's ideas, including metaphysics, space, self-awareness, causation, scepticism and freedom. You will develop skills in critical engagement, articulating your own views of the relative strengths and weaknesses of these arguments and interpreting key philosophical ideas.
Read more about the History of Modern Philosophy moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Ethics
We evaluate each other’s actions constantly. Maybe your friend broke a promise, or you protest against a government welfare policy. But what makes these moral claims true? You will use the tools of philosophy to illuminate these questions. You will study theories of what makes things right or wrong (normative ethics) and more basic questions – is anything right or wrong anyway (metaethics)? Studying this module will provide you with knowledge and skills useful to the exploration of ethical and political questions in your further study.
Read more about the Ethics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Applied Ethics
Should I be able to buy your ‘spare’ kidney? You might think that if you are willing and I have the money then there is no harm involved. But if you were desperate, does that mean I would be taking advantage of you? These are the sorts of questions you will cover in Applied Ethics, answering them in systematic ways. For example, we may ask about our duties to animals, whether it’s permissible to have children and what is it that’s bad about death, among other questions. You will engage in debate on these and other questions arising in normative ethics and clarify and articulate your own standpoint on such issues.
Read more about the Applied Ethics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Economics 2
In this module, you'll develop a deeper understanding of some of the key economic concepts introduced in your first year, but will also be introduced to new concepts in both micro- and macroeconomic analysis. These include material drawn from general equilibrium, welfare economics, game theory, risk and uncertainty within microeconomics and the three-equation macro model, open economy macroeconomics and the labour market within macroeconomics. It will introduce you to the analysis of public policy issues such as market failure, insurance, monetary unions and fiscal policy, and will give you a range of tools to analyse economic problems. Your analysis will be underpinned by a rigorous theoretical understanding acquired on the course.
Read more about the Economics 2 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Applied Econometrics
You'll learn important skills of both academic and vocational value, an essential part of the intellectual training of an economist and social scientist, and also useful for your future career. These skills include awareness of the empirical approach to economics and social science; reviewing and extending fundamental statistical concepts; methods of data collection and analysis; regression analysis, its extensions and applications; and use of statistical packages such as STATA. You will then be able to apply this knowledge to a research project of your own.
Read more about the Applied Econometrics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Econometrics 1
You'll be equipped with important skills of both academic and vocational value, being an essential part of the intellectual training of an economist and also useful for your future career. This includes an awareness of the empirical approach to economics; experience in analysis and use of empirical data; understanding the nature of uncertainty and methods of dealing with it; and using econometric software packages as tools of quantitative and statistical analysis. With the required necessary skills and knowledge to critically appraise work in applied economics, you'll have a good grasp of the dangers, pitfalls and problems encountered in applied modelling. You will then be able to apply this knowledge to a research project.
Read more about the Econometrics 1 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Foundations of Political Theory
The aim of this module is to introduce students to some of the foundational arguments and debates in modern (mainly) European political theory, as well as some of the discipline’s most important primary texts. To this end, students will critically examine claims about freedom, equality, democracy, revolution and crisis made by some of the most important political thinkers since about 1640. Key texts will include Hobbes’s Leviathan, Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto, Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, Clara Zetkin’s Fighting Fascism, and Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth.
The module will also consider how these theories speak to contemporary debates in political theory, such as debates about gender and sexual difference, economic crisis, reparations for colonialism and the resurgence of the far right. The module builds on ideas explored in Introduction to Politics during your first year, and it leads towards the term two module Topics in Political Theory, which deals with present-day arguments about social justice.
Read more about the Foundations of Political Theory module, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Topics in Political Theory
Politics considers how the political world operates, and how it ought to operate. In this module, we consider the “oughts” of politics. Building on Foundations of Political Theory, the module examines key thinkers and topics in contemporary normative political theory. The module is divided into two parts:
(A) Key thinkers in contemporary normative political theory. This includes the study of Rawls, and of other key political theorists, such as Nozick and Okin.
(B) Key topics in contemporary normative political theory. This includes issues such as immigration, education, representation, microaggressions, and climate change.
Read more about the Topics of Political Theory module, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Three (optional cores taken depending on pathway)
Principles of Political Economy: Economics and Politics
This module is only available to final year PPE students. You will be concerned with governance at both national and global levels, and consider this topic from the perspective of both economics and politics as academic disciplines. The focus is on the extent to which these perspectives complement or conflict with each other. You will study four specific areas where these perspectives overlap, and learn to distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology covered.
Read more about the Principles of Political Economy: Economics and Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Principles of Political Economy: Economics and Philosophy
This module is only available to final year PPE students. In this module, you will explore topics at the intersection of moral philosophy and the economic analysis and evaluation of public policy. You will encounter topics in individual choice and rationality, collective choice and justice, welfare and welfare measurement and markets and their ethical limitations. You will be introduced to key debates and learn to apply philosophical and economic perspectives to public policy issues.
Read more about the Principles of Political Economy: Economics and Philosophy moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Principles of Political Economy: Philosophy and Politics
In this anthropogenic era, politics and philosophy seem inextricably entwined. On this module, available to final-year PPE students, you’ll combine the study of philosophy and politics and examine how each influences the other. Using the tools of philosophy to understand, analyse and debate contemporary political problems, you’ll improve your ability to dissect and critique complex moral arguments, and learn to construct an independent, rigorous and informed position on topical social and political issues, drawing on a variety of disciplines to reach your considered judgement.
Read more about the Principles of Political Economy: Philosophy and Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Across Years Two and Three you will also take at least one interdisciplinary optional module.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy
- International Trade
- Philosophy of Terrorism and Counterterrorism
- Topics in Development Economics
- Feminism
- Making of Economic Policy
- Philosophy of Religion
- The Political Economy of Money
- Economics of Money and Banking
- Democracy: Authority and Resistance
