Studying at University entails less formal contact hours than you will have received at College or School. Core material is likely to be presented in lecture sessions, backed up by a range of styles of smaller group teaching, but you will also be expected to learn how to become an independent learner, consulting not only textbooks, but also journal articles.
If you are a full-time student, you will be expected to study full-time! The balance between formal contact hours and self-study is likely to change as you progress through your degree programme. In the first year, you may have between 15 and 25 hours of formal contact time, but this is likely to diminish in later years.
The style of learning and teaching is likely to change as you become more adept at being an independent learner, and in many courses, you will undertake a supervised project in the final year. Also, the early years will tend to focus on core material, providing a foundation for you to specialise more in the later part of the course.
This will vary between programmes, but modern economics does make substantial use of mathematics. It is a key tool that allows us to develop theories and ways of analysing economic issues. Statistical analysis is also important in evaluating the validity of economic theories against real world data.
Students find economics challenging, fascinating, interesting and relevant to the real world.
Many Economics Departments have agreements with European Universities under the SOCRATES exchange programme, which allow you to spend either a year or a semester abroad. Indeed, some Universities offer you the chance to follow a joint honours programme, such as Economics and French. Such programmes would require you to spend a year abroad. You need good language skills to take good advantage of this.
Next Topic: Applying for an Economics degree