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 2023/2024
Fall Semester | from August 21 |
November Holiday | November 20 |
Christmas Break | December 23 - January 2 |
Spring Semester | from January 8 |
Easter Break | March 29 - April 1 |
May Holidays | May 1 and 6 |
Graduation | June 8 |
End of Year | June 21 |
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
In the beginning of the last study year students should choose from the four specialisation courses 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 entrepreneurial, how to start new venture and operate a business.
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
Financial Accounting - Natalja Tocelovska
Academic English - Elina Banzina
Academic Studies and Critical Thinking - Xavier Landes, Christopher Rieber
Mathematics - Nicolas Gavoille
Microeconomics - Morten Hansen
Data Analysis - Rihards Garancs
Economic Statistics - Morten Hansen
Business and Leadership Skills - Rihards Garancs, Inga Gleizdane
Second
Business Law - Susan Wintermuth
Public Policy - Dominik Gerber
Econometrics - Konstantins Benkovskis
Market Research - Zane Varpina
Human Resource Management - Inga Gleizdane
International Finance - Agnes Lubloy
Business and Leadership Skills - Rihards Garancs, Inga Gleizdane
Third
Bachelor Thesis - Zane Varpina
Artificial Intelligence - Rihards Garancs
Specialisation: Finance - Agnes Lubloy
Specialisation: Economics - Nicolas Gavoille
Specialisation: Entrepreneurship - Dmitrijs Kravcenko
Specialisation: Retail Management - Yuri Romanenkov
Electives
CS50's Introduction to Computer Science (RBS/ RTU recognition)
Introduction to Quantitative Finance - Anton Nartov
Practical Real Estate - Janis Meija
Latvian for Beginners, A1 level (NEW) - Lasma Sirmule
Critical Thinking and Argumentation - Edgars Lapins
Population Analytics for Economics and Business - Zane Varpina
Auditing and Taxation (NEW) - KPMG Team
Business Intelligence - Rihards Garancs
Fundamental Principles of Sales - Guntars Logins
Contract Law - Janis Meija
Business and Human Rights - RGSL, Stefania Di Stefano