Minimum curriculum requirements for Licencjat Programmes
in ECONOMICS

1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Licencjat programmes in Economics last at least 6 semesters. These are offered as a separate type of higher professional education programmes or first-stage (undergraduate) higher education programmes, both ending with the defence of a diploma thesis. The total course load is ca. 2200 hours, including 1155 hours covered by the minimum curriculum requirements.

2. PROFILE OF THE GRADUATE

The graduate is familiar with computer science and has an extensive knowledge of economics. He/She is a specialist in a particular area of applications of economics. He/She is qualified to work in business institutions and organisations as well as business administration agencies at the white-collar non-management (operational) level.

3. COURSE GROUPS AND MINIMUM COURSE LOAD

GENERAL COURSES	240 hours
BASIC COURSES	675 hours
MAJOR COURSES	240 hours
Total	1155 hours

PROFESSIONAL SPECIALISATION AND SPECIALIST OPTION COURSES AS DETERMINED BY THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION: 30% of the total course load

NB.: Professional specialisation courses are those which prepare the future graduate to practise a profession (in particular, to obtain professional qualifications); specialist option courses are those which offer more profound field-specific knowledge in particular areas.

4. PRACTICAL PLACEMENT

The minimum duration of a practical placement is 6 weeks if not stated otherwise in the legislation.

5. COURSES BY GROUP AND MINIMUM COURSE LOAD

GENERAL COURSES
Physical Education	60
Foreign Languages	90
General courses in social sciences and geography (2-3) to be chosen from among the following: Philosophy, Sociology, Economic History, State Studies, Economic Geography	90
BASIC COURSES
Microeconomics	90
Macroeconomics	90
Mathematics	90
Statistics	60
Econometrics	45
Computer Science	60
Fundamentals of Management	30
Law	60
Finance and Banking	30
Accounting	60
International Economic Relations	60
MAJOR COURSES
Social Policy	30
Methods for Valuation of Business Projects	30
Economic Policy	30
History of Economic Thought	45
Mathematical Economics	30
Forecasts and Simulations	45
Public Finance	30

6. CURRICULUM CONTENTS

2. BASIC COURSES

1. MICROECONOMICS

Market. Household. Theory of consumer behaviour. Theory of production. Perfect competition and monopolies. Equilibrium of the enterprise. Oligopoly. Alternative theories of the firm. Competitive equilibrium and elements of the theory of welfare. Markets of production factors.

2. MACROECONOMICS

National economy. Global demand and supply. Macroeconomic equilibrium. National output, national income. State budget, deficit and public debt. Money and the banking system. Money market, Keynesian macroeconomics and classical macroeconomics, business cycle, inflation, unemployment. Open economy. External equilibrium. Budgetary and monetary policy. Stabilisation policy and the IS-LM model. Economic growth.

3. MATHEMATICS

Differential calculus for single-variable functions. Functions of several variables – partial derivatives, contour lines, extremes of functions of variables – and their applications to economics. Indefinite, definite and improper integrals. Matrix calculus, systems of linear equations, determinants.

4. STATISTICS

Statistical data and basic statistical standards. Random variable. Basic distributions of random variables. Sample distributions. Confidence intervals. Testing statistical hypotheses.

5. ECONOMETRICS

Descriptive econometric models. Estimators, point and interval estimate. Regression. Forecasting on the basis of single- and multi-equation models. Linear programming.

6. COMPUTER SCIENCE

Computer equipment. Operating systems. Word processing programmes. Spreadsheets. Internet.

7. FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT

Organisation - aims and measures of effectiveness. Strategies of organisational management. Strategic planning. Organisational structures. Organisational procedures. Human resources management. Human resources policy. Management styles. Organisational culture. Change management.

8. LAW

Business entities and institutions. Legal structure of the economy. Legal conditions for pursuing economic activity. Role and types of business agreements. Commercial law company. Commercial activities (sale, agency, consignment, storage, shipping). Law on bills of exchange and checks. Protection of industrial property.

9. FINANCE AND BANKING

Structure of capital and the value of the firm. Financial management of working capital. Risk in business operations. Securities. Financial institutions. Interest rate. Monetary policy. Scope and functions of public finance. Budget.

10. ACCOUNTING

Accounting principles and techniques. Business operations and their impact on the balance-sheet. Balancing assets, liabilities and equity.

11. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS

International division of labour and the world economy system. Theory of international trade and international advantage. Prices in trade, international monetary system. Balance of payments and international balance of payments equilibrium. Trade policy. Economic integration. Global problems in the world economy.

3. MAJOR COURSES

1. SOCIAL POLICY

Concept of social policy. Social security for old age, illness and disability. Employment policy and unemployment. Education and culture. Social welfare. Economic determinants and implications of social policy. Social pathologies.

2. METHODS OF VALUATION OF BUSINESS PROJECTS

Life-cycle of a business project. Basic types of methods and tools for evaluation of business projects. Structure and content of a feasibility study. Place and role of financial analysis. Main elements of financial evaluation of business projects. Discounted cash flow methods. Break-even, sensitivity and probability analyses. Economic evaluation of business projects. Methods for evaluation of the enterprise’s condition.

3. ECONOMIC POLICY

Budgetary, monetary and exchange rate policies. Stimulation, anti-cyclic anti-inflationary polices. Role of the State and economic policy in a period of systemic transformations.

4. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Pre-classical economic thought, classical economics. Historical school and American institutionalism. Neo-institutionalism. Socialism. Neo-classical school, neo-Austrian school, public choice theory.

5. MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS

Mathematical theory of demand. Function of demand. Theory of production. General equilibrium and the Pareto-optimal.

6. FORECASTS AND SIMULATIONS

Tools, methods and techniques for computer-aided building of simple forecasts, variant-based forecasts, forecasts based on growth tendency models, cause-and-effect models, multiple equation models, and econometric and non-econometric models. Students are fully acquainted with at least one computer software package for analysis of economic phenomena and forecasts.

7. PUBLIC FINANCE

Concept and scope of public finance. Role of public finance in the contemporary market economy. Budget and the State Treasury. Non-budget items. Public expenditure, and economic and social policy of the State. Types of public revenues. Taxation system. Budget deficit and public debt. Local government budgets. Sources of funding for local government tasks.

7. RECOMMENDATIONS

The professional orientation of licencjat programmes should be reflected, among other things, in:

1. the practical placement, and

2. the group of professional specialisation and specialist option courses determined by the higher education institution.

The course of a practical placement and the approach to professional specialisation and specialist option courses should depend on the specificity of the higher education institution and the profile of the graduate as determined by the institution for a given licencjat programme.