This is the transcript for the video Bachelor of Economics
Erica – UTS Business School
Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us today where we will be talking about the Bachelor of Economics here at UTS Business School. My name is Erica and joining me is Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova.
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Good day everyone. My name is Olena Stavrunova and I’m here to talk to you about economics and the Bachelor of Economics course here at UTS.
Erica – UTS Business School
Now, Olena, economics is a broad topic that touches on a number of concepts. What exactly would you say economics is all about, say in a nutshell?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Okay, so it’s a very broad discipline. So it’s very hard to describe in a nutshell. But first and foremost, economics is a social science, which takes a very rigorous approach to analyzing and understanding economic and social issues. In particular, economics focuses on two big questions, how individuals from societies make decisions to allocate scarce resources to meet their needs and wants, and how economic incentives shape behavior. And second question is, what are the consequences of economic decisions for social welfare? And how can government policies change economic behavior and welfare? Understanding economics is very important. It’s fundamental for making good business decisions, good government decisions, careful study of social issues.
Erica – UTS Business School
So Olena, why should students study this discipline?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Okay, so there are many reasons why students should study economics. One of these reasons is that economics graduates are very highly employable. They have very diverse employment opportunities in industry and government, they also have great further education opportunities, in tertiary education sector, as Honours program, Master’s degree or PhD degree. I should say that most graduate recruitment programs in large organisations employ economists Be it financial institutions, such as banks, consultancies, government departments, and so on. Why are economists valued? They are valued because they have excellent analytical skills. They’re valued for their ability to work with data and for a systematic approach that they take to understanding the issue or problem. Another reason why you should study economics, economics is a very broad field of study that has applications to many industries, not only the traditional ones, such as banking, finance, consulting, but also health, education, sports, urban development, and so on. This means that you can pursue many passions and interests while studying economics, and that your potential career path after economics degree can be very diverse and can be chosen to suit your passions and interests. Some interesting economic challenges and social issues that economics can help solve. For example, inequality. One of the biggest economic challenges of modern times is a growing economic inequality has been rising share sharply over the last few decades. Economics will help you understand the reasons behind the recent rise in inequality, consequences of inequality for people and societies and policy options that exist to tackle this issue. Another important social problems that economics can address is climate change. Reduction in green house gas emissions is the key to reducing global warming. And the main question is how governments across the world can create incentives for companies to reduce emissions. Since economics is all about economic incentives and behavior, and how they affect behavior, understanding economics is crucial for being able to formulate effective policies for combating global warming. Another issue where economics can help is understanding wage gap. What explains gender wage gap? What is the relative cost of labor market discrimination, and differences in productive characteristics of men and women that contribute to the existing wage gap that we find here in the labor market? Economics subject Labour Economics will help you understand this issue a little bit better. And so another example where economics is helpful is in understanding the implications of a trade war between the US and China, and economics fields, such as macroeconomics, international trade, and game theory provide more insights on this issue.
Erica – UTS Business School
Thanks, Olena. It’s obviously got many, many applications to many global issues. And I guess one specifically relevant one to us right now is with the COVID situation that’s happening all around us. How would you explain economics relevance to that?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Indeed, the current COVID crisis is a complex crisis affecting public health and the economy profoundly. And economists have been heavily involved in debating about and formulating policy responses. Sometimes when you listen to those debates, it may seem like the debates about health versus jobs or health versus economics, but in fact, it is not like that. In developing economic policies, economics and economists seek to maximize social welfare, and this welfare includes the value of people’s health and life. So it’s not health versus economics, it’s how to choose a policy that maximizes the value of both. One of the interesting things about the current situation is that is a classic case of the market with externalities, which we know would not function really well without government intervention. So if someone catches viruses, they’ll have a negative effect on the people around them. So the situation is not socially optimal. And one way the government can solve this problem is by limiting the behavior, which results in an externality. This is why we have lockdowns, lockdowns is a way for the government to improve the behavior which is currently not socially optimal. And then, other policies implemented during COVID are also founded on economics. For example, programs such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker, are an example of the fiscal policy that governments often engage in during today’s economic downturns. So to understand and contribute to political debate during the current era it is important to be well versed in economics.
Erica – UTS Business School
Wonderful, thank you for that Olenaa, it’s clearly a very important time to be learning about these kinds of things. But other than that, what other skills could students expect to gain from studying economics?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
It is well known that students who have completed an economics degree are regarded as analytical thinkers, they tend to be professionals who are very skilled in working with data, who know how to produce problems systematically, how to pinpoint important aspects to put aside unimportant ones, and how to take into account interplay between different factors. But they also learn about the variety of economic, business, and social issues where an economic approach can provide effective solutions. The Bachelor of Economics program is very applied. Most of our subjects will include case studies and some real life applications of tools and techniques that the students learn throughout the degree. And as I was saying earlier, because economics is such a general field, the skills that economists have are valued very broadly, among a variety of industries, employers and occupations.
Erica – UTS Business School
It seems like a very interesting area of study, that’s for sure. And you can study economics at a number of different universities. But why should students come to UTS to study this discipline?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Well, there are many reasons why you should study economics at UTS. First, economics department at UTS is still a very young department, in fact, we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary this year, but we’ve been consistently ranked among the top economics departments in Australia for research in such fields as economic theory, econometrics and applied economics. So taking an economics degree in UTS means that you will be learning from nationally and internationally recognized experts in this field. Second, not only we’re great in research, we are also great at teaching economics. Our lecturers, our academics are highly regarded as engaging and innovative educators, they tend to have high student evaluations, SFS, they win many teaching awards at the level of the Business School, University, and nationally. Another advantage of studying economics and business at UTS is its geographic location, just 10 minutes from Central Station so it’s easily accessible from all Sydney suburbs. Also, it is close to the CBD. So it’s convenient for students who want to combine work and study, but also the engagement opportunities that faculty here and students have are fantastic. We have all sorts of things for the students in terms of engaging, including mentoring programs, research partnerships, alumni events, guest lectures, recruitment events, and so on. And these activities stem not only from our geographic proximity to the CBD, but also from the concerted effort of many economics academics to create strong links.
Erica – UTS Business School
Now, the Bachelor of economics is a very flexible degree as we can see in the possible structures that are shown here. Olena, are you able to talk through how students can choose to structure their degrees?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
So, indeed this as a quite flexible degree. So what components does it consist of, so there are 11 core economic subjects, these subjects will equip with you with some fundamental skills of economic analysis that are essential for any economist in any sector or role, then you can choose three economics elective subjects. And we have a wide choice of electives, about 10 subjects. We have labour economics, public economics, market design, economics of monetary policy, and many others. So you can tailor your choice of electives to your tastes and preferences. Then you have the freedom of what to study in 10 subjects not allocated to economics curriculum. Here you have three options, you can use these subjects to specialize or to major, in one other business discipline, for example, such as finance, or marketing, and many others. To major in any of these disciplines, you have to complete eight prescribed subjects from this discipline. Or you can do option two, to submajors by completing four prescribed subjects from each of the two disciplines of your choosing. Or finally, you can do option three, one submajor plus six elective business subjects, which means you will take four prescribed subjects towards the chosen sub major, and you can take any six subjects from across the Business School, so it’s very flexible and you can indulge your interests and passions while doing our economics degree.
Erica – UTS Business School
So to start their degree students undertake a number of core subjects, what kind of knowledge do you think they will gain from these subjects?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Like I said, these four subjects will equip you with fundamental skills of economic analysis. For example, in Introductory and Intermediate Microeconomics core subjects, students will learn to analyze economic behavior of people and finance and their interactions in various types of markets. In Introductory and Intermediate Macroeconomics core subjects, you will learn about the behavior of the economy as a whole. You will learn about concepts like GDP, unemployment, inflation, interest rate, monitoring, fiscal government policies, economic growth, and so on. There are also three subjects in the poll in which you will learn how to analyze quantitative data for economic and business decision making. These include Business Statistics, and econometric subjects, Introductory Econometrics and Empirical Methods for Policy Evaluation. The economics core also includes the subject Quantitative Methods in Economics and Business, where you will learn mathematical tools, you will need throughout the degree. If you think that your math is not good enough to succeed in economics, please do not worry, we will teach you all the methods you need for the degree in this subject. Another core subject is Strategic Decision Making. In this subject, you will learn to analyze strategic interactions between market participants. The ideas and methods of game theory are particularly applicable to social, business, or economic situations, where you have small number of players or participants, and the roles of any participant depends on the strategies or behaviors chosen by other players. For example, in economics and business these ideas are useful for understanding competition and collusion between companies, auctions, formation of social networks, trade wars between countries and so on. Behavioural Economics is a new core subject, which we will discuss in a couple of slides. It’s an important subject that we’re very proud to have as a core from 2022, from next year. Also, towards the end of the course, you will complete an economics capstone, a subject where you will learn how to analyze economic policy using real life case studies and scenarios. We will talk about this subject in detail as well in the next couple of slides.
Erica – UTS Business School
Thank you for that Olena. So one way of structuring the degree as you’ve mentioned earlier would be for students to choose a major, are you able to briefly touch on what a major is and how that would complement the study of economics?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
A major is a specialisation in a non economics field of study. And this slide shows the majors that are available with the Bachelor of Economics. Some of the popular majors among our students are finance and marketing, because these disciplines have a lot of overlap with economics in terms of the social and business phenomena that they study as well as the logical approaches. But if you are interested in other fields, you will not be disadvantaged by choosing a major in say, business law, management or IT. Major is about diversification, acquiring different skills than what you learn in the economics degree. It’s also about complementarity, acquiring skills that will complement or help your career path in economics.
Erica – UTS Business School
Another way of structuring the degree would be to choose one or two sub majors. So what exactly is a sub major, Olena?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
A sub major is also a specialisation in non-economics study, but it’s not as deep and profound as the major. To complete a sub major, you need to complete 4 subjects, 4 prescribed subjects from that discipline. And you can complete two sub majors. And again, you’re free to choose the sub major that you want. With economics, I think submajors such as statistics, information, technology, marketing, finance, would work really, really well.
Erica – UTS Business School
So as you mentioned, new for 2022 is the subject behavioral economics. What exactly is this subject all about? And what are the benefits in studying it for students?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
We’re very glad to offer behavioural economics as a core subject in our Bachelor of Economics degree. So the behavioural economics perspective recognises that people are not calculating machines who always make rational decisions with the sole purpose of maximizing their economic well being. Behavioural economics studies how non economic factors such as psychological, cognitive, emotional, and social factors affect economic decisions. The importance of the behavioural approach has been recognised by researchers and academics in the majority of fields in economics, such as financial economics, public economics, labor economics, health economics, industrial organisation, to name a few. Several Nobel Prizes have been awarded to economists for doing research that advances the behavioural economics perspective. The behavioural approach is also increasingly popular in government and industry, where behavioural economics units are being created to inject this perspective into solving policy business problems. Nowadays, any economics graduate should have a good grasp of behavioural economics. Because this is where research and industry are going. We are confident that giving behavioural economics more prominence in the Bachelor of Economics degree will make our graduates more employable. Also, I would like to add that UTS is a great place to study behavioural economics. UTS Business School and economics departments are lucky to have several academics with stellar international research and reputation in behavioural economics. These academics also have an excellent track record of engagement with industry and government. Furthermore, we have a state of the art Behavioural Lab where students can engage with behavioural research as part of their the economics curriculum, as well as their extracurricular activity. And finally, we have the Behavioural Economics Student Society where students can network, connect and take part in various activities related to behavioural economics.
Erica – UTS Business School
So the capstone subject for the Bachelor of economics has recently been revised. Olena, what exactly is a capstone and what do students do in this subject?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
A capstone subject is a third year subject that students take towards the completion of a degree, it is, so to speak, a crown jewel of the degree, where students learn to apply their analytical and data modeling skills to analyse important, real world, economic and social issues. So they study issues like economic inequality, gender pay gap, labor market discrimination, socio-economic disparities in educational attainment and health status, environmental degradation, Indigenous matters, and other topics. In this subject, the students use real world case studies to develop skills in evaluating existing policies, in the areas I’ve mentioned, as well as in formulating new effective policies to existing economic and social problems.
Erica – UTS Business School
Our economics alumni end up working for some very impressive companies as well as government departments. Olena, are you able to provide a bit more detail about what kind of jobs students can expect to gain after finishing the course?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Yes, of course, Erica. Economics alumni end up everywhere, in every sector of the economy. You can probably find an economics alumni even in policy, and antiterrorist departments in law enforcement. But they are particularly concentrated in the corporate world, such as financial institutions, banks and consultancies. Some of the biggest employers ofour graduates are the big Australian banks and consulting companies, but our graduates also work in other sectors such as insurance, logistics, energy, real estate, public sector, and others. I should say that quite a number of our alumni end up in the public sector in places like Treasury, Reserve Bank, Department of Education, Department of Health, and others. Economic graduates can be employed in a variety of roles including economist, financial analyst, investment analyst, market analyst, data analyst, researcher, policy analyst, and many others. You see, the job title economist is only one among a variety of career paths that economics graduates can take.
Erica – UTS Business School
So many students choose to do a combined degree. Maybe because they are interested in two separate fields of study. They might want more diverse career paths, some aren’t too sure what they want to do after they’re finished with university. What are some of the combined degree options that are available to them, Olena?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Starting from 2022, we have three combined degree options that are available with a Bachelor of Economics. First double or combined degree option is the Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Laws. This is a five years study. And it is for students who want to become lawyers with thorough knowledge of economics. This kind of a skill set is very variable if one wants to practice business or taxation law. The two other combined degrees are the new combined degrees which we launched in 2022. The Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment is a four year degree. It is a natural combination of degrees for students who are interested in economics and environmental issues. This degree will produce economists with specific skills to analyse economics decisions and policies in the areas of sustainability and environment. The Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment component will provide knowledge of natural and social sciences, and political landscapes that pertain to sustainability environment. This double degree opens up careers in companies and government agencies engaged specifically with issues of environment, cultural and social sustainability, climate and sustainable development. And finally, the combined degree Bachelor of Economics, Masters of Teaching in Secondary Education is a unique offering in New South Wales. Upon completion of this degree, graduates will have Bachelor of Economics and Masters of Teaching in Secondary Education, and can be qualified to teach Business Studies and Economics in New South Wales secondary schools. So if you’re interested in pursuing a career as a high school teacher focused on Economics and Business Studies, this option is right for you.
Erica – UTS Business School
Thank you for that Olena. And there are some other ways to add to your degree other than doing a combined program. If students want to diversify their degree with some additional skills, they can choose to do a diploma or they can go on exchange. So we have a couple of options on our screen here now, we’ve got the Diploma of Innovation, which is an exciting opportunity for students who want to add interdisciplinary skills to their degree. It borrows from subjects that are taught in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation course. So it’s a great way of diversifying their skills, learning about creativity in the workforce and how they can innovate in their chosen field. We’ve also got the Diploma of Languages, so if students want to gain language and cultural skills, this would also be excellent if they wanted to work overseas or pursue international options in their career, it can help them build a professional identity and a range of capabilities to prepare them for working in international environments and with you know, different cultures. Back to you Olena, now. What would be your number one tip for students contemplating choosing the Bachelor of Economics at UTS?
Associate Professor Olena Stavrunova
Okay, my top tip would be, you can just follow your passions and interests by working on your economics degree. And, importantly, keep in touch with your university teachers. Academics are a great resource that a university has to offer, and academics in the economics department are exceptional in their knowledge of economics, and in their willingness to engage with the students. So I urge you to take full advantage of the interaction opportunities in class and after class, come to office hours, participate in extra credit learning activities, and so on. I’m sure that this additional knowledge you gain from these interactions and connections you develop with academics as well as with your fellow students will be invaluable for your professional growth as an economist, while completing your degree, as well as after you have completed and left university. So I wish you all the best with your choice of course, here at UTS, or elsewhere. And if you have any questions, please let me know. Send me an email and I will be happy to talk to you in greater detail about the Bachelor of Economics.
Erica – UTS Business School
Wonderful. Thank you for that, Olena. Thank you so much for your time. And thank you everyone for tuning in. Please feel free to explore our other videos detailing our courses and our majors that are available. If you have any questions you can reach out to us via our social media channels, which are up on the screen or you can email business@uts.edu.au. Thank you again for tuning in. And we’ll see you at our next video.