Philosophy, Politics and Economics combines the best of the three disciplines. The content and the approaches of each discipline feed into each other, yielding a three-dimensional appreciation of the toughest problems facing our society in the institutional, local, national and international contexts. This programme is designed to provide future politicians, civil servants, journalists and managers with a complex and subtle vision of how to improve things, and the skills to argue in support of such a vision. This appreciation of complexity is thus the greatest value that we strive to inculcate in our students: a reluctance to be fobbed off with cliché and mantra, or to be intimidated by statistics and jargon; a curiosity about what lies behind the newspaper headlines, and a persistence to research a topic thoroughly before forming an opinion; the willingness to engage with others respectfully and sensitively, and a humility to acknowledge one’s own error and prejudice.

PPE programmes are scattered throughout many of the top universities in the world, attracting the best and most ambitious students and educating cohorts of politicians, civil servants, journalists and managers. All three disciplines share a commitment to rigour and problem-solving that will develop useful skills for any career – skills such as research, analysis, written expression and interpreting data. For a list of famous PPE programmes and graduates (such as Bill Clinton, David Cameron and Aung San Suu Kyi), see the Wikipedia entry on ‘Philosophy, Politics and Economics’. According to the BBC, the Oxford PPE “dominates public life in the UK”. 

Please ensure that you register to a minimum of 50 credits in total of Philosophy, Politics & International Relations and Economics modules. You must register to a minimum of 15 credits in EACH subject area. The remaining 5 credits can be in either Philosophy, Politics & International Relations or Economics. If you are studying abroad (Erasmus/non-EU exchange), please see registration guidelines here.

Students are required to take 50 option credits in stage 4. Students can choose modules in two subjects (and no modules in the third) OR they can choose modules in all three subjects.

If choosing modules in all THREE SUBJECTS: You must select 10-20 credits in EACH subject, adding up to 50 credits in total.

If choosing modules in TWO SUBJECTS (and no modules in the third subject.): You must select 20-30 credits in BOTH subjects, adding up to 50 credits in total.

If choosing Politics options: Students wishing to take POL30860 and POL30870 (taken together) must apply to the school in advance.