Accounting and Finance vs Economics

Hi,
Which degree would provide me with better salaries and job opportunities? How do I find out which degree is more for me in terms of interest and enjoyment?
Thanks

Depends what uni you’re going to. Overall economics is a more respectable degree reflected on the tougher entry requirements and higher grades needed. However if there was an economics grad and an A&F grad who went to the same school applying to the same job, my bets would be that the economics grad would get the job since the degree is more mathematical and harder. You can look at the online data as well which shows economics grads earn more after graduation and it is the second highest degree only second to medicine/dentistry. Economics is also more broad and versatile and also more interesting in my opinion whereas A&F is more niche and limited to the jobs you can apply for. If you’re sure you want to go into accounting or finance then A&F would be fine, however if you’re not sure what you want to do after uni then go for economics. However i would say a degree in A&F at a top target uni (Warwick, LSE) is better than an economics degree at a decent but non target uni like Manchester or Leeds. Keeping in mind these courses will have the same entry requirements. So in conclusion if you have the grades to do economics at a target uni, then do economics. However if you don’t have the grades just do A&F as you’ll have a better shot since entry requirements are lower

Depends what uni you’re going to. Overall economics is a more respectable degree reflected on the tougher entry requirements and higher grades needed. However if there was an economics grad and an A&F grad who went to the same school applying to the same job, my bets would be that the economics grad would get the job since the degree is more mathematical and harder. You can look at the online data as well which shows economics grads earn more after graduation and it is the second highest degree only second to medicine/dentistry. Economics is also more broad and versatile and also more interesting in my opinion whereas A&F is more niche and limited to the jobs you can apply for. If you’re sure you want to go into accounting or finance then A&F would be fine, however if you’re not sure what you want to do after uni then go for economics. However i would say a degree in A&F at a top target uni (Warwick, LSE) is better than an economics degree at a decent but non target uni like Manchester or Leeds. Keeping in mind these courses will have the same entry requirements. So in conclusion if you have the grades to do economics at a target uni, then do economics. However if you don’t have the grades just do A&F as you’ll have a better shot since entry requirements are lower

My degree was economics and finance, I found the economics gave me more options for jobs after uni.

Although there arn’t a massive amount of econ specific jobs out there, I was getting bombarded with stuff where they were looking for a STEM student and they classed econ as STEM.

Plus a lot of the modules overlapped anyway, I did accounting modules and politics modules as well as the econ and finance modules.

Cant say which you’d “like” to study more. That kinda depends on you.

Thanks for your reply. Do you know how I can find out which one pertains to my interest more?

I mean during lockdown google is your friend on that.

See if you can get a couple of intro lectures/ Ted Talk type things on different topics and see which you find more interesting.

But realistically at a super basic level, accounting is focused on businesses, finance is focused on money and how to price things, and economics is based on individuals/ industry’s / governments making the ‘best’ decisions.

Because they’re very similar but different you need to know enough about each one to understand the difference. (Which is why you’ll probably do modules in all of the regardless of which you do a degree in)

Also I checked the league tables and Leeds seems to be 7th in the UK for economics. What exactly is a target university and who are target universities?

What degree is generally more respected?

Also I checked the league tables and Leeds seems to be 7th in the UK for economics. What exactly is a target university and who are target universities?

Thank you for your reply. The thing is I study A-level English Lit, Bio and Chem excluding Maths. I have managed to find some good universities that don’t require maths for economics (like St Andrews) but I think that’s the only one tbh. St Andrews also offers a joint degree comprising Economics and English. Is a joint degree less respected than a single degree? Am I going to be severely disadvantaged without A-level maths? The only reason I didn’t take it was because I hated it but I got a decent 7 at GCSE.

IB (investment banking) is one of the jobs economics grads and other grads often interested in however keep in mind, it is VERY competitive due to the large number of graduates who are wanting to go into IB for the salary (starting salaries are around £35-45k straight after uni). The target unis are the ones where grads are most sought after in IB and generally for most economics/finance related jobs these include (CAMBRIDGE, OXFORD, UCL, WARWICK, LSE) and the semi targets (less sought after then targets ) are BRISTOL, NOTTINGHAM, BATH, ST ANDREWS, DURHAM.

Yeah that’s not ideal because all the top unis for economics require maths. (However I know Nottingham- a semi target- don’t so you could apply there) and I’m pretty sure maths is needed for accounting and finance at Warwick and bath

I’m not interested in investment banking but regarding target universities, Leeds and Glasgow and bath are in the top 10 according to the league tables (for AF). Are these not considered to be target universities?

You need it for bath but not for Warwick. I just checked.

Well there’s not really a definitive list which displays whether the uni is a target or not but If your main concern is grad prospects, I would stick to those unis I gave you + Leeds Manchester york Edinburgh and kings for economics. I’m not really sure about A&F tbh

You need it for bath but not for Warwick. I just checked.

If it helps I did my course at manchester and I’m pretty sure you didn’t need to have a maths A-level.

In first year they split everyone up for some modules, people who had maths, people who didn’t, and people who had some some (like AS level kind of stuff)

Because there were loads of international students there was a massive blend of maths options people had done before uni.

For second and third year, you picked modules depending on what maths level you were in for the first year, and the follow on course you did the second year.

It means there were a couple of 3rd year modules you couldn’t do if you had no previous maths before uni, (because you hadn’t done all the pre-requisites) but not many.

I imagine other uni’s have similar set ups.