Economics university ranking

Durham> Bristol=Bath> Notts=KCL> Manchester> Birmingham

who do I believe!

Specifically for economics, I'd use the below ranking:

Durham=Bristol=Bath=Notts>Manchester>KCL=Birmingham

The fact that people put kings high is laughable, they only started teaching the BSc Economics like 2yrs ago. Manchester depends if it's BSc or BA, if BA then it's last by a fair way but the BSc is fairly quant based if you pick the right optionals so is respectable.

Durham is fairly good but a lot of this is the general prestige of the uni rather than the course, the actual Econ department (well there isn't one, it's in a business school which is a bad thing) isn't very strong and worse than the 3 others I've put it equal to. However at undergrad this isn't so much of an issue unless you have very economically clued in HR teams hiring you.

Bath, Bristol and Nottingham are all very strong for Economics, I'd probably give a very slight advantage to the former two considering they require maths a-level for the generic BSc Economics

Durham> Bristol=Bath> Notts=KCL> Manchester> Birmingham

I'd say spot on except maybe Birmingham above Manchester

anyone, no-one, everyone. Their guesses are as good as anyone's. Not sure what you were expecting.

I need educated view on which ones I should apply for

Nobody's done economics at all 5 so nobody can accurately compare what it's like studying economics at each of those unis. You are mainly going to get responses from people who are still in 6th form or if you're lucky, someone doing economics at one of these universities.

The rankings people have given here are also pretty similar to the rankings from The Complete University Guide.

Thank you for the detailed response. Are you a professor?

Afraid not 😅 but I'm a 3rd year BSc Economics student and have done a year's a placement as a macroeconomist, a spring week at the BoE, an summer internship at an economics consulting firm, have master's offers and an offer to return to my placement year firm. So I at least know a bit about uni level economics and professional economics so know which unis place well into the job market and which don't. Obviously I don't know everything but maybe marginally more than some.

Afraid not 😅 but I'm a 3rd year BSc Economics student and have done a year's a placement as a macroeconomist, a spring week at the BoE, an summer internship at an economics consulting firm, have master's offers and an offer to return to my placement year firm. So I at least know a bit about uni level economics and professional economics so know which unis place well into the job market and which don't. Obviously I don't know everything but maybe marginally more than some.

How is ucl econ and stats seen by recruiters?

Well naturally this depends on which recruiters your referring to 😅 For example, banks may love it but graphic designers wouldn't so it depends which industries you're talking about.

I'm going to assume that you're considering banking, consulting, economics and general financial services. Let me know if this is right?

Econ and Stats from UCL would be very very well respected by recruiters in these fields. It's probably up there with one of the most attractive degrees in the UK from a recruiters perspective as it shows interested and skills in both Econ/finance but also quant topics. I'd rate it as better than BSc Economics at UCL if that gives it some perspective because you can go into any field than an Econ grad can plus some extra ones like data science for example.

Thank you for the quick reply!! And yes I meant banking and just general finance related jobs. Thats great then!! Ig I just need to hopefully get the grades! Would you say econ and stats or just econ bsc iin general is really maths orientated and difficult? Cos I dont do fm and was wondering how much I would struggle at uni.

I'm afraid I haven't studied Econ + Stats but there's still going to be A LOT of maths in a BSc Economics degree especially one from Cambridge, LSE, UCL or Warwick (I know first hand haha). But the maths in a straight Econ degree is fairly applied, you're still gonna learn all your calculus, linear algebra and econometrics but it will be through the lens of economics whereas I suspect in an Econ + maths/stats degree it'll be more of a case where you'll do Econ modules then have separate maths/stats modules in the maths department so probably less applied to economics and more theory/proof based. But don't take my word for it as I haven't studied that sort of degree, you can sort of tell from the module names though.

I'm not sure what the UCL requirements are for the course so have no idea about FM if I'm being honest. Your best bet would be to email someone at the uni and ask, normally they're very happy to respond.

What I should've added to my previous post was that although finance recruiters would love applications from that UCL degree, your degree is just a small component of why firms hire candidates especially if fields like investment banking where they allow applications from any degree subject.

Things like good work experience are arguably more important than your degree so things like spring weeks, summer internships, placements, etc as these signal that they're not hiring an idiot if other companies also chose you, they also give you experience of actual finance rather than from a lecture hall. Other things recruiters look for a high scores in the firm's application tests, well balanced candidates who have demonstrated interests in things beyond banking, are confident and presentable rather than being just a numbers person.