Recommended Enrichment Reading for Students Applying to Read Economics or Management at University

UCAS applications and interviews are coming up. But, what should students be reading if they want to study Management at University when there isn't a Management A-Level? And what are the Economics resources that are worth investing some time in over the coming weeks?

This short video explores links to recommended resources for students preparing applications to Economics and Management courses at leading UK and overseas universities.

First - invest in a handy notebook to take summary notes of your reading - an ideal aide-memoire before interview and also a journal of your investment in deepening your subject knowledge and passion!

If you haven’t done much introductory reading on business strategy - for example if you are studying Economics rather than Business at A level - then I recommend accessing some of the excellent resources on business strategy available from the tutor2u web site - have a browse of some of these!

Keeping up to speed with business news is the default diet for aspiring Economics and Management students. There is no better place to start than the Companies and Markets section of the Financial Times and students are now helped by the free online subscription to the FT available to sixth formers. Each day in the Companies and Markets section you will find loads of relevant articles on business strategy ranging from businesses fast-forwarding their growth to companies battling against increased competition and perhaps a long-term decline in their sales.

My strong advice is to pick four or five companies that you are interested in and research in depth their recent performance, the environment in which they are operating and also - if you can - find out something about the management strategies of the business and how it is organised. Many start-ups for example have flat management systems whereas older companies - often for historical reasons - have a deeper hierarchical management structure.

When using your FT subscription, follow specialist management journalists - including John Gapper

Another avenue to explore are the research press releases from management consulting businesses such as the Boston Consulting Group and synopses of articles from the Harvard Business Review. Often they provide extra layers of detail and insight into topical issues such as diversity in the workplace, how best to encourage innovation within businesses and the drivers of competitiveness in fast-moving markets such as e-vehicles and new health technologies.

The Harvard Business Review is subscription only but many of their press releases focus on the main arguments and you have take some important ideas from them.

Likewise - the media briefings of academic journals - in this case the briefings of new research published in the Economic Journal

Follow management / business economics authors such as John Kay (one of the creators of the original economics and management course at Oxford) and Tim Harford - well known as the Undercover economist and an author with the happy knack on picking up on really interesting emerging ideas in business and economics.

Social media can be a useful ally as well - for example keeping up to date with global business via the BBC Global Business Twitter feed