Honours in Economics

Information

Convenor: Prof H Abraham

Admission requirements:

• A Bachelors degree or equivalent qualification with a major in Economics. Applicants must achieve an average of at least 65% in their final year undergraduate economics courses.
• To be considered for a place in the Honours Programme, students completing Economics-based programmes at UCT will require a 65% average for ECO3020F (Advanced Macroeconomics and Microeconomics), ECO3021S (Quantitative Methods in Economics) and another third year level economics course.
• Prospective Economics Honours students from outside UCT are normally required to have taken at least first-year level half courses in mathematics and statistics to gain admission to the Honours Programme.
• UNISA students are strongly recommended to have completed second year mathematics and statistics courses as well as the UNISA honours level microeconomics and macroeconomics courses.
• Foreign students may need to provide assurance of their competence in the English language.
• Recommendation of acceptance is at the discretion of the Director of the School of Economics.
• In order for a student to be granted permission to register for a double honours (e.g. Economics and Finance) concurrently, the student must have obtained at least 70% for both the core third year courses, namely ECO3020F Micro and Macro Economics and ECO3021S Quantitative Techniques and an average of at least 70% for three third year Economics courses including ECO3020F, ECO3021S and one other third year Economics course. A student being granted permission to do this will take all compulsory core courses in the first semester, will write the long paper and will take only two options in the second semester. Should a student fail any of the core Economics courses in the first semester, they will be required to drop one of the Honours degrees.

In addition to completing the University application form, students must complete a Departmental Application form and submit it to the Graduate Administrator, School of Economics by 31 October

Programme Structure:

The first year comprises four compulsory courses in the first semester, four elective courses in the second semester, and a compulsory research paper. Business Science students take three elective courses but will be allowed to register for one extra option in the second semester provided they obtain an average of at least 60% for their first semester courses.

Compulsory Courses:
ECO4021W Research and Writing I (Long Paper) (20%)
ECO4006Z Macroeconomics (11%)
ECO4007Z Microeconomics (11%)
ECO4016Z Econometrics (11%)
ECO4027Z Mathematics and statistics for economists (7%)

Elective Courses
Four special topics in advanced economics selected from the following options (each of which counts for 10% of the final mark). Business Science (Economics special field) students will take three options in addition to BUS4050W Business Strategy.

ECO4051Z Development Economics
ECO4052Z Environmental Economics
ECO4053Z Financial Economics
ECO4013Z International Finance
ECO4020S Economic Problems of Africa
ECO4032S Economies of Industry, Regulation and Firms
ECO4026S The Economy and its Financial Markets
ECO4027S The Analysis of Survey Data
ECO4028S Policy Analysis
ECO4031X Computational Political Economy

• In any year, options may be added or withdrawn and course weights may be changed, according to circumstances.
• Under special circumstances and with the permission of the Graduate Convenor, an Honours student may be permitted to take a maximum of one of the options at Masters level.
• Subject to the approval of the Graduate Convenor, students may substitute a maximum of one of the options with a postgraduate course of the same weighting offered in another department.
• Please consult the departmental website for descriptions of the compulsory and elective courses.

Examination requirements:

The Research and Writing course is examined by way of an 8000 word research paper (Long Paper). To qualify for the honours degree, students cannot fail more than 20% of the programme, as defined by the course weights, and must score an average of at least 50% across the compulsory courses, as well as an overall average of at least 50%.
Students who fail to complete all the requirements for the Honours degree within one year will not be permitted to re-register.

For information on scholarships, please contact Paula Bassingthwaighte, Room 4.56, Leslie Social Science Building, or paula.bassingthwaighte@uct.ac.za.

Bursaries and Scholarships

Click here for information on general bursaries and scholarships, or visit the Postgraduate Funding Office's website.