The University has a new degree programme: Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). This is the first three-discipline degree in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The degree was first taught at Oxford in the 1920s, and has since spread not only to twenty-nine UK universities, but throughout the world.
The degree, which the BBC has called ‘the degree that rules Britain’, has produced three UK Prime Ministers, three leaders of the Opposition, three Prime Ministers of Australia, a Prime Minister of Pakistan, and a Nobel Laureate, with another Noble Laureate (Malala Yousafzai) currently studying PPE.
At Liverpool, the degree will take in students from this September, and has attracted more than 90 applications.
The Liverpool degree is structured differently from how PPE works at other universities and has several distinctive features. Liverpool PPE students must take all three disciplines in all three years. In the first two years the students take 50% Economics, 25% Politics, and 25% Philosophy. In the third year these proportions can be varied.
Liverpool is also unusual in asking for an A-Level in Mathematics as an entry requirement: at Liverpool the Economics side of the degree is heavily mathematical. The University aims to produce the most mathematically competent PPE graduates in the UK, who combine advanced numeracy with sophisticated literacy, communication, and verbal reasoning skills. In addition, graduates will have an astute understanding of the principles and values that underlie policy debates. Students must take Business Ethics and a new and unique module, ‘Philosophy, Politics and Economics in the Workplace’.
The degree is based in the Department of Philosophy, which looks forward to working closely with the Management School and the Department of Politics in providing an exciting and challenging degree that fulfils the University’s aim of producing well-rounded, enquiring global citizens that connect and engage with the world’s most pressing problems.
If you wish to inquire further about PPE at Liverpool, please contact Dr Daniel Hill, Admissions Tutor for Philosophy at: djhill@liverpool.ac.uk