Exploring Economics, Politics and International Relations

We’re inviting years 12 and 13 to join us on campus for a day packed with activities! Explore our departments in Economics, Politics, and International Relations at undergraduate level. Students will choose two taster sessions, tour our campus and hear from current students.

We are excited to offer a Taster Day Bursary for school groups attending this event!* School groups bringing 10 or more post-16 students can claim up to £150 towards their travel expenses.

Event Programme:

Session information:

• For Love, life, and money: the economics of searching for a job, a house, or a partner: How do buyers decide whether to go ahead now and buy the product on offer or to keep looking for a better deal? It is often a complicated and difficult decision fraught with uncertainty. Nonetheless, the choice is frequent and impacts on many, if not all, of the important choices people confront. This talk reflects on common factors embedded in these decisions and on the implications for economic performance.

• Is the world becoming more authoritarian?: More than 70% of the world lives in non-democratic regimes today, with 5.7 billion people calling authoritarian regimes home.  How is this happening and should we be worried about this?

• Big Brother versus the Invisible Hand: the economics of regulating markets: Governments throughout the world have a profound impact on the economy in many different ways. They not only tax and spend, they also restrict what and how buyers and sellers can trade. These regulations permeate our lives. This talk will consider how economics interprets and justifies government regulatory intervention as well as how do we as economists decide whether there is too much or too little regulatory intervention.

• Information wars!: This taster lecture provides students with information about what propaganda is, disinformation and fake news, and how these terms have evolved in practice.  In other words what is the difference between disinformation campaigns, and marketing?  What is the difference between sharp power and soft power?  We then look at how disinformation campaigns are used by different actors to undermine the quality of democracy both in their own countries and abroad.

Please do get in touch with us if you have any questions about the event in the meantime, we'd love to hear from you.

*Please note, this offer is not available in conjunction with the Schools Membership travel bursary.