D. Economics and management

Part I. Text I: The Faculty of Economics

Economics and Management

Text 1: The Faculty of Economics

Economics analyses what, how and for whom society produces. The central economics problem is to reconcile the conflict between people’s virtually unlimited demands with society’s limited ability to produce goods and services to fulfil these demands.

Economics is about everyday and topical issues: unemployment and its social consequences and psychological effects on those personally experiencing it? Price inflation and its effects on different income groups in the society, the problem of payments, the slow rate of growth of the country economy, the control of resource exhaustion and environmental pollution. Economics is concerned with the measurement and communication of information relating to the management of enterprises, it is aimed at satisfying the decision needs of interested parties both within and outside those enterprises. Economics is not simply about technical efficiency, it is about the just efficient distribution of national income.

No wonder that studying economics has become very popular with young people of our country. Thousands of school leavers make their choice in favour of economics. So, in 1994 it was decided to organize the Faculty of Economics at our university which is still the youngest one in the university. The laboratories and the departments of the faculty are equipped with modern teaching facilities, which are available for advanced work across the whole spectrum of economic research from micro, mini to mainframe computers. Professors, associate professors and experienced teachers of the university including those of the specialized departments of economics, management and economic information processing technologies teach and lecture at the faculty.

Economic studies cover a broad spectrum of knowledge: economics, accounting, industrial relations and economic statistics, business finance, monetary theory, development economics, regional and labour economics, etc. Moreover, courses combining economics with science subjects – physics, chemistry, computational science, mathematics, operational research and data processing are available.

Teaching is by lectures and tutorial classes, lab works and course papers. The principal method of assessment is by oral examinations held at the end of each term. Degree assessment is based on the final examinations and performance in the project work. Practical training can be obtained during field practice in industry before graduation.

The graduates of the faculty combining the study of economics with engineering subjects have a wide range of employment opportunities in government, in private and state sectors, in industry and commerce as managers, accountants, lecturers and researchers. Their relatively high level of numeracy and analytical ability is particularly attractive to employers. The graduates are competent to solve a wide range of problems concerning major objectives, they are capable specialists in modern techniques of processing economic information. This enables them to work in banks, insurance and financial companies, firms engaged in developing software products for economic and financial purposes.

The faculty maintains scientific and educational contacts with other Belarusian universities, with Russian and German universities. Thanks to friendly relations with the Wuppertal Technical University, the best students of the BSUIR may have their probation training in Wuppertal (Germany).