Studying Economics at Durham has been an exhilarating experience. Coming from a small village in South Lincolnshire, where not many students attend university at all, applying to Durham University was ambitious for me. I applied here because of the collegiate system but also due to the strong performance of the Economics department. Furthermore, Durham offered a course that allowed for wide reaching exploration of my interests, especially as I progress through my degree.
What is good about Economics at Durham?
Economics at Durham is particularly strong due to its range of offerings. In the first year, you get three out of six optional modules, but even the core modules cover stats, pure maths, international economics, macro economics and micro economics, and therefore the three optional modules can be entirely to pursue your own passion and interests. Due to this, I have been able to explore my interests in the first year, which I can pursue deeper into the second and third years as I build on this knowledge. Introduction to international economics was my favourite module because of our lecturers, Michael Nower and Tony Cleaver. They were incredible, with Michael just exploding with passion and Tony literally writing our core textbook.
In particular, Economics equips me and other students with key skills for both the subject, but the working world. These key skills are quantitative (mathematical skills) which you are taught to effectively apply to real world problems, additionally, you learn how to write essays and long-form answers and finally, you learn how to accommodate for wider contextual factors. These three skills are key to any successful career after university and are extremely transferable!
What about the lectures and seminars?
For those not familiar, lectures are large scale where the lecturers teach the course content whereas seminars are smaller groups of 10-15 where lecturers lead discussions on topics. During Seminars is where the best learning takes place as it allows me and other students to go above and beyond what we are taught in lectures, and this is particularly important in Economics to discuss topics and consider different points of view with different contextual factors.
During the first year, we had entirely pre-recorded lectures due to the large proportion of international students who would not have been awake for the lectures in their time zone. While this may sound bad, this was actually an amazing opportunity, providing me with the flexibility to work when best suited me, also allowing me to pursue things outside of university without the worry of conflicting lecture times. Possibly the best part was the ability to rewind lectures so I could make sure I heard everything correctly and to check work!
I’m really looking forward to starting my second year and hopefully a more normal student experience.
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