Curriculum
Curriculum
The academic curriculum of the BSc programme covers areas of both economics and business, thus allowing students to get a wider perspective and thus have more career options after graduation.
Timetable 2024/2025
Fall Semester | from August 19 |
November Holiday | November 18 |
Christmas Break | December 21 - January 5 |
Spring Semester | from January 8 |
Easter Break | April 18 - April 21 |
May Holidays | May 1 |
Graduation | June 14 |
End of Year | June 20 |
Courses
Given the student body of 450 students and the comparatively small size of the School, staff and lecturers are able to work closely with students.
The core courses combine mainstream economics with various aspects of business. The five main blocks are as follows:
- Economics Courses: Learn theory, application, and quantitative aspects, including international and European economics. Gain insight into decision-making for individuals, households, businesses, and organizations.
- Finance and Accounting Courses: Explore capital markets, finance, management accounting, and financial management.
- Business Administration Courses: Gain insights into business, organization, and strategy. Includes courses on ethics, sustainable business, and economic anthropology, addressing the growing focus on ethical business practices.
- Data Analysis and Business Intelligence Courses: Develop advanced skills in data management, visualization, storytelling, and data-driven decision-making. Learn to use digital tools like MS Excel, Power BI, and R programming for data analysis and reporting automation.
- Communication Courses: Enhance communication skills for academic and professional success, with a strong emphasis on English language proficiency and teamwork.
Get insight into some of the courses. - Academic Studies and Critical Thinking, Marketing, Econometrics, International Finance and Artificial Intelligence.
Specialisation Courses
At the beginning of the last academic year, students should choose two specialisation courses from the five that are offered.
- Economics: Focuses on an in-depth analysis of the role of the banking system in the economy from micro and macroeconomic perspectives.
- Finance: Starts with topics on financial markets, including market design, price discovery, liquidity, informational efficiency and bubbles. This is followed by behavioural finance and portfolio management, corporate valuations and private M&A. The course emphasises empirical finance research methods that are relevant for the various topics.
- Retail Management: Offers a general management view, covering a broad range of functional topics including strategy, online and offline marketing, operations and supply chain.
- Entrepreneurship: Designed to teach students how to think and act entrepreneurially, how to start a new venture, and how to operate a business.
- International Politics: Examines complex global political issues, including geostrategy, the arms industry, climate change, and international relations, providing students with a deep understanding of the forces shaping global governance and diplomacy.
Internships
Students should have two internships during the summer breaks after the first and the second year of studies. Internships usually last from 4 to 8 weeks.
In total, all students must obtain at least 10 weeks of internship experience in order to graduate. The search process for internship placements is fully under student control.
Due to the fact that SSE Riga maintains close relationships with its alumni, quite a lot of job advertisements arrive via e-mail straight to students’ inboxes. Furthermore, many get in touch with their future employers during the SSE Riga career fair, Days of Opportunities, which takes place every Spring and attracts more than 40 companies from the Baltics.
Very often, students receive full-time job offers from their internship companies upon graduation.
Further opportunities
Further opportunities for an SSE Riga graduate are broad even during an economic downturn – students are appreciated by the top companies in the Baltics, and are welcome to pursue their academic interests in top-notch universities all over the world.
About half of SSE Riga recent graduates have found employment in consulting, accountancy, auditing and banking. During the last five years, there has been a growing interest in IT, sales, HR and marketing-related jobs. A significant number of students start their own businesses not only after graduation but also during their studies. A few students undertake further choose to study for a Master’s degree right after graduation, but the majority prefer working for a few years and then pursuing graduate studies.
Course List
First Year
Academic Studies and Critical Thinking
Academic English
Mathematics
Financial Accounting
Microeconomics
Economic Statistics
Data Analysis
Managerial Economics
Macroeconomics
Business Ethics and Sustainability
Marketing
Economic and Consumer Behaviour
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Management Accounting & Finance
Civil Protection
Introduction to Management and Leadership
Second Year
Business Law
Strategic People Management
Econometrics
Market Research
Public Policy
International Finance
Financial Economics
Economic Anthropology
Business Valuation
Research Methods for BSc Thesis
International Economics
Third Year
Artificial Intelligence
Strategy
Specialisation: Economics
Specialisation: Finance
Specialisation: Retail Management
Specialisation: Entrepreneurship
Specialisation: International Politics
Bachelor Thesis
Electives
Introduction to Quantitative Finance
Business Intelligence
Fundamental Principles of Sales
Practical Real Estate
Contract Law
Contemporary Issues in Ethics
Political Economy of Russia’s Foreign Political, Economic and Military Interference
Business Organizations
Speech and Accent Training
Understanding and Preventing Corruption
Business Analytics