General guide to the Bachelor's programma

At Radboud University, studying economics is more than just studying numbers and ratios. You will discover how economics is everywhere and you will learn how companies deal with economics. You will learn how the numbers and ratios are the result of human decision making. To be able to do so, you will learn the necessary bits and pieces from sociology, psychology, law and business administration. We call this broad orientation ‘Economics+’, which is a distinctive approach in the Netherlands. The Economics programme is taught completely in English. After a general first year of study, for which you can find the curriculum below, you will have to choose from four specialisations: Business Economics, Financial Economics, International Economics and Business, and International Economics and Policy.

Business Economics
You will be provided with the skills and knowledge needed to become an expert in corporate financial management. You will be trained in accounting and corporate finance. After graduating, you will be able to instruct managers on how to invest and acquire money. Although a specialisation with the same name is being offered in the Bachelor’s programme in Business Administration as well, some of the courses of that specialisation do differ.

Financial Economics
Experts in trade, whether it be trade in goods, stocks or foreign currency, all studied financial economics. You will study financial products sold by banks and insurers as well as how the financial markets functions and what risk management entails. Whether you have to advise governments or companies about financial products, you will be able to produce information regarding returns-on-investments, costs and risks.

International Economics and Business
In this track, you will be trained to become an expert in policies of multinational companies. You will study the role of human behaviour, culture and ethics on the financial position of companies. An obligatory semester of studying abroad is part of the programme: all students should acquire international experience. You will be allowed to study this specialisation when you have studied the first year of Economics and obtained a positive Binding Study Advice. In addition, you will be required to obtain a combined average grade of at least 7 out of 10 for the courses, Introduction to Economics and Business, Academic Skills and Project: Money, Banking and Financial Markets.

International Economics and Policy
As an expert in international economic developments, you will analyse consumption, employment, economic growth and what effect this has on companies, so that companies and governments can respond adequately to the latest developments. You will focus on the European Union, the European Economic Area and other economic initiatives.

Elective components
The Bachelor's Programme offers students optional courses (electives). Optional courses can be taken at our faculty or elsewhere, in the Netherlands or abroad. If you choose a coherent set of optional courses (a minor), you can add an extra dimension to your studies. For more information on how to make a good choice of optional courses, you can contact the International Office or the study advisor for your study programme.

Basically, you can choose from all of the courses offered by other Bachelor's study programmes from within the faculty. However, methodological instruction courses, projects and the Academic Skills course cannot be chosen as optional courses. Not all courses are suitable. In particular, you should check the course's prerequisites listed in the course description. Only students who have been admitted to the Master's programme can take the related optional courses. If you want more information about the suitability of courses or the best sequence of courses, you should contact the study advisor or consult the minor guide of the Faculty.

If you want to take courses outside the Faculty, then you can consult the digital study guides of the other degree programmes at Radboud University. If you are in doubt as to the suitability of a course, you can contact the study advisor of the study programme concerned. For courses abroad, you can contact the International Mobility Office.

Contact hours
During almost your entire Bachelor's degree programme, we assume that you have about 15 contact hours per week during 7 teaching weeks (excluding holidays and exam weeks) within a block of 14 teaching weeks in one semester. Besides the contact hours, we expect you to spend 25 hours per week on independent study. The contact hours are divided into lecture hours, tutorial hours and other hours (including practicals, feedback, open consultation hours, seminars and field trips).