An Economics minor is offered as a specialization for the Bachelor of Business Administration program and will prepare students for a career in a variety of industries, government, and non-profit organizations.
Why Economics?
As part of the Economics minor, students learn cost-benefit analysis to better understand how people make decisions about using scarce resources and the ramifications of these decisions for businesses and other stakeholders. Students are trained to master three important skills: logical thought used in solving problems, observation and inference from data, and presenting ideas both in writing and verbally. These skills are proven useful and easily transferable to a variety of settings at both personal and business levels, and in both private and public sectors of the economy.
Knowledge of Economics enables students to monitor and study changes occurring in specific countries or individual sectors of an economy. This amounts to asking fundamental questions about the nature of economic decisions and at times addressing proposals to change government policies. The curriculum covers areas of international trade, finance, money, banking, and financial institutions, globalization of markets, among others.
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the BBA Economics minor are working domestically and internationally for provincial and federal governments, crown corporations, the business sector, especially within the financial services sector, and in many other private sector endeavors where critical thinking in terms of costs and benefits is required. Graduates may pursue careers as policy analysts, research analysts, risk analysts, research associates, quantitative finance analysts, bank managers, risk managers, real estate analysts, strategists, estate brokers, investment brokers and analysts, security traders, insurance brokers, and corporate financial officers, among others.
Scholarships
The Economics Department has been awarding the Dr. Jixin Xu Economics Scholarship since 2003 to academically deserving students. These students at times served as paid tutors or research assistants, and have capitalized on these opportunities to land admission to respectable graduate and law schools, and jobs commensurate with their qualifications at the provincial and federal government levels. There are now four annual awards of $1,000 available for VIU students who minor in Economics. Alumni of the Economics Department include graduates of the London School of Economics, University of Ottawa, University of Calgary, Carleton University, UBC Law, UVic Law, among others.
Contact
For more information, please contact William Troost, Chair, Economics Department, at William.Troost@viu.ca or the BBA Advisor.
For more information of the BBA entry requirements, or for details on the Economics program, please see the VIU Department of Economics site and the BBA Program and Course Calendar.
Apply for the BBA program today!