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1. Admissions/ Management Information
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Title of the programme – including any lower awards
Please provide the titles used for all awards relating to this programme. Note: all programmes are required to have at least a Postgraduate Certificate exit award.

See guidance on programme titles in:
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https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
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Masters MSc Economics.
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Postgraduate Diploma N/APlease indicate if the Postgraduate Diploma is available as an entry point, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.N/A
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Postgraduate Certificate PGCert Economics.Please indicate if the Postgraduate Certificate is available as an entry points, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.Exit
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Level of qualificationLevel 7
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This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:2018
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Awarding institutionTeaching institution
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Unviersity of York University of York
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Department(s):
Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department		Board of Studies
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Lead Department Economics and Related Studies.GSB in Economics.
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Other contributing Departments: N/A
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Route code
(existing programmes only)		PMECOSECO1
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Admissions criteria
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Minimum entry criterion is the equivalent of an upper-second class degree primarily in Economics from a UK university.
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Length and status of the programme(s) and mode(s) of study
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ProgrammeLength (years/ months) Status (full-time/ part-time)
Please select		Start dates/months
(if applicable – for programmes that have multiple intakes or start dates that differ from the usual academic year)		Mode
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Face-to-face, campus-basedDistance learningOther
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MSc
Economics.		1 yearFull-timeN/APlease select Y/NYesPlease select Y/NNoN/A
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Language(s) of study
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English
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Language(s) of assessment
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English
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2. Programme accreditation by Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies (PSRB)
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2.a. Is the programme recognised or accredited by a PSRB
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Please Select Y/N: Noif No move to section 3
if Yes complete the following questions
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3. Additional Professional or Vocational Standards
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Are there any additional requirements of accrediting bodies or PSRB or pre-requisite professional experience needed to study this programme?
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Please Select Y/N: Noif Yes, provide details
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4. Programme leadership and programme team
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4.a. Please name the programme leader for the year to which the programme design applies and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
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Zaifu Yang.
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5. Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
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5.a. Statement of purpose for applicants to the Masters programme
Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective masters student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
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Economics is the science of choice and decision-making, whether by individuals, firms, governments or non-government organisations. It concerns people’s well-being and living standards in a world of limited resources. It is an old yet exciting and rapidly growing professional and academic field. This programme is designed to provide the best education in economics for those who wish to have a career as economists in the private sector or international organisations such as firms, bank, consultancies, OECD, World Bank, or in public service, or to continue for a PhD. The courses are taught by leading academics whose research shapes the subject and influences government policy. While the programme focuses on the central areas of economics and combines theory with policy, empirical evidence and data analysis, it also provides the opportunity to specialise in several areas of economics according to each student's own choice and to write a dissertation of independent research. We aim to equip graduates with advanced knowledge, cutting-edge techniques, skills and confidence to deal with economic problems in an increasingly competitive and interconnected world. Many of our former graduates have become leading figures in business, government, and academia.
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5.b.i. Programme Learning Outcomes - Masters
Please provide six to eight statements of what a graduate of the Masters programme will be able to do.
If the document only covers a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma please specify four to six PLO statements in the sections 5.b.ii and 5.b.iii as appropriate.
Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
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PLOOn successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
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1Read and understand important contemporary contributions in learned journals and be able to interpret them in a critical way, and not only grasp economics headlines but also explain them to a layperson. Be capable of skillfully identifying relevant literature through digital technology such as Internet and academic research databases.
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2Effectively communicate with professional economists and policy makers about the major economic methods and principles of logical reasoning used by professional economists and academic researchers to analyse economic problems faced by households, firms, governments, and organisations, and to assess the effect of economic decision or policy.
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3Apply and adapt the techniques, methods and principles widely used in the field to real life economic problems, and analyse them in a quantitative and critical manner. Develop a capacity for critical appraisal of those techniques, methods and principles with a good understanding of the complexity of the reality.
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4Identify economic problems and their key factors in real world contexts and come up with sensible practical solutions, with a solid understanding of how crucial economic factors such as incentive, information, risk, uncertainty, environment, institutions, and policies influence economic performance.
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5Provide critical appraisals of the economic performance of a firm or an organisation, drawing on a good command of economic tools and measurements, and offer policy recommendation for performance improvement.
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6Independently plan, manage and carry out research projects by adapting and integrating relevant learnt principles, methods and techniques to the contexts, and complete with written reports within a required time.
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7Locate and compile economic and financial data, and apply appropriate econometric, statistical and computer-based methods and techniques to analyse the data and present the results effectively with sound judgement.
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5.c. Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes
Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
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i) ... in what way will these PLOs result in an ambitious, challenging programme which stretches the students?
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These PLOs are well designed to equip students with the best knowledge and skills of all major modern economic methods and principles available and help them gain confidence through problem-solving, discussion, seminar, writing dissertation, formative work and summative assessment. The programme sets a first-class world standard of MSc degree in economics and has been long well recognised.
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ii) ... in what way will these PLOs produce a programme which is distinctive and advantageous to the student?
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These PLOS are advanced, comprehensive and unique and aim to provide the best training for those who wish to become a professional economist or an academic economist. They provide students access to a variety of skills to address economic, financial and social problems in the world. The programme attaches a great importance to the training of students' analytical and digital skills but also communication (writing, speaking and presentation) skills. The programme combines theory with policy, empirical evidence and data analysis and offers students a wide range of choices.
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iii) ... how the design of the programme enables students from diverse entry routes to transition successfully into the programme? For example, how does the organisation of the programme ensure solid foundations in disciplinary knowledge and understanding of conventions, language skills, mathematics and statistics skills, writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity
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In addition to students with a solid degree in economics, the programme admits also students with strong mathematics, statistics, natural sciences, engineering, or other relevant background. The programme suggests students with no economics background read one or two basic textbooks on economics or attend our summer programme before entering MSc study. All students will receive an initial mathematics and statistics review before the programmes formally starts. The lecturer of every module is requested to teach their course in an accessible way without sacrificing the required standard. Our faculty members are excellent at doing this.
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iv) ... how the programme is designed to enable students to progress successfully - in a limited time frame - through to the end of the award? For example, the development of higher level research skills; enabling students to complete an independent study module; developing competence and confidence in practical skills/ professional skills. See QAA masters characteristics doument http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
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This programme has a long record of success and has produced generations and generations of outstanding graduates. The programme is designed to focus on a few core modules and provide many flexible optional modules to suit students with a variety of talents and backgrounds. Core modules such as advanced microeconomics, advanced macroeconomics, and advanced econometrics are delivered in the Autumn term and/or in the Spring term. Those modules will be further developed in more specialised and diversified modules, usually optional. Most modules prepare students with the research skills needed for writing an independent dissertation at the last stage of the programme. Students are also provided with a term-long English writing courses to improve their language skill.
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v) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will develop students’ digital literacy skills and how technology-enhanced learning will be used to support active student learning through peer/tutor interaction, collaboration and formative (self) assessment opportunities (reference could be made to such as blogging, flipped classroooms, response 'clickers' in lectures, simulations, etc).
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This will be done mostly through our teaching assistants and sometimes by our technicians. The students will gain their digital literacy skills through parts of econometrics or statistics-related modules in which they will learn how to use a variety of econometric and statistical softwares and how to collect and analyse economic and financial data.
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vi) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)?
The programme's employablity objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
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http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/careers/staff/
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 The students on this well-established programme will be equiped with a solid training in economics and excellent skills and earned self-confidence, which will make them very attractive for employers around the world or well-prepared for further study.
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viii) ... how learning and teaching on the programme are informed and led by research in the department/ Centre/ University?
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The lecturers of many modules in the programme are world-leading experts. Topics taught by them include those basic concepts, principles and results from textbooks, and those from recent journal articles and also some of their own latest scientific findings. So the students of every module are led to the forefrontier of the subject area.
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5.d. Progression
For masters programmes where students do not incrementally 'progress' on the completion of a discrete Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma, please summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of the PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of the set of modules or part thereof. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules and in circumstances where students registered on a higher award will exit early with a lower one.

Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each masters PLO, but this can be done if preferred.
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On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate students will be able to:
If the PG Cert is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the diploma/masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
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To obtain the Postgraduate Certificate students need to complete at least 60 credits of taught modules. Any such combination of taught modules available as part of the MSc in Economics meets the PLOs for the Postgraduate Certificate. By the completion of the Certificate students will have achieved all PLOs except PLOs 5 and 6, although their skills and depth of understanding of economics will be considerably lower than those of students who will have completed the full MSc programme.
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6. Reference points and programme regulations
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6.a. Relevant Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement(s) and other relevant external reference points
Please state relevant reference points consulted (e.g. Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, National Occupational Standards, Subject Benchmark Statements or the requirements of PSRBs): See also Taught Postgraduate Modular Scheme: Framework for Programme Design:
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https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication?PubID=2843#.VthM1fmLS70
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6.b. University award regulations
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The University’s award and assessment regulations apply to all programmes: any exceptions that relate to this programme are approved by University Teaching Committee and are recorded at the end of this document.
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7. Programme Structure
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7.a. Module Structure and Summative Assessment Map
Please complete the summary table below which shows the module structure and the pattern of summative assessment through the programme.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If the structure of your programme does not fit the usual academic year (for instance students start at the beginning of September or in January) please contact your Academic Quality Team contact in the Academic Support Office for guidance on how to represent the structure in an alternative format.

To clearly present the overall programme structure, include the name and details of each invidual CORE module in the rows below. For OPTION modules, ‘Option module’ or 'Option from list x' should be used in place of specifically including all named options. If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists by term of delivery or subject theme these lists should be provided in the next section (7.b).

From the drop-down select 'S' to indicate the start of the module, 'A' to indicate the timing of each distinct summative assessment point (eg. essay submission/ exam), and 'E' to indicate the end of teaching delivery for the module (if the end of the module coincides with the summative assessment select 'EA'). It is not expected that each summative task will be listed where an overall module might be assessed cumulatively (for example weekly problem sheets).

Summative assessment by exams should normally be scheduled in the spring week 1 and summer Common Assessment period (weeks 5-7). Where the summer CAP is used, a single ‘A’ can be used within the shaded cells as it is understood that you will not know in which week of the CAP the examination will take place. (NB: An additional resit assessment week is provided in week 10 of the summer term for postgraduate students. See Guide to Assessment, 5.4.a)
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http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/registry-services/guide/
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Full time structure
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CreditsModuleAutumn TermSpring Term Summer Term Summer Vacation
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CodeTitle12345678910123456789101234567891012345678910111213
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10ECO00001MAdvanced Macroeconomics.SEA
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10ECO00028MInternational Macroeconomics.SEA
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20VariousCore List A.SEA
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20ECO00002MAdvanced Microeconomics.SEA
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10ECO00033MProject.SEA
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30VariousOption Modules from List B.SEA
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80ECO00012MDissertation.SEA
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Please indicate when any Progression Board and Exam board will be held and when any reassessments will be submitted. NB: You are required to provide at least three weeks notice to students of the need for them to resubmit any required assessments, in accordance with the Guide to Assessment section 4.9
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Progression BoardTBC
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ReassessmentTBC
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Exam BoardTBC
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Part time structures
Please indicate the modules undertaken in each year of the part-time version of the programme. Please use the text box below should any further explanation be required regarding structure of part-time study routes.
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7.b. Optional module lists

If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists these lists should be provided below. If you need more space, use the toggles on the left to reveal ten further hidden rows.
Options are based on staff research interests and the number and range of topics covered will vary from year to year depending on staff availability. Options for this cohort will be posted during the academic year for the following stage and can be viewed on the departmental websites listed below.
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Core List AOption List BN/A
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10c Econometrics 1 AUT &.10c Emerging Market Macroeconomics AUT.
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10c Applied Microeconometrics SPR & SUM WK 2.10c Experimental Economics AUT.
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20c Econometrics 1 & 2 AUT & SPR.10c Industrial Economics: Strategic Behaviour and Market Organisation AUT.
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20c Econometric Methods for Research AUT & SPR.10c Public Sector Economics: Microeconomic Applications AUT.
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N/A10c Time Series AUT.
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10c Applied Microeconometrics SPR & SUM WK 2.
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10c Design and Analysis of Mechanisms and Institutions SPR.