Psychology a STEM subject in UK but why not Economics?

Both Economics and Psychology are regarded as Social Sciences, however, many top unis in the UK only classify Psychology as a STEM A level or major which is a bit confusing since Economics is slightly more rigorous and Math heavy than Psychology.

Secondly, Economics has been approved as a STEM field by the National Science Foundation in the US. Ivy League unis do consider it as a STEM major. I wonder why this isn’t the case in the UK too.

Reply 1

username5173262

Bro cmon.. just accept you're not doing stem and get some sleep.

Reply 2

DJ36

Original post by V℮rsions

Bro cmon.. just accept you're not doing stem and get some sleep.

Care to elaborate? Economics falls under STEM in the US.

Reply 3

Ten-Ten

Psychology is STEM, that doesn’t even sound like it makes sense. No offence

Reply 4

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by DJ36

I dont consider either to be STEM. I consider psychology as either life sciences or healthcare.

STEM I view as the analytically driven sciences.

Economics is more of a humanity imo, the econometric side of it obviously is analytically driven but as a whole field is really a different type of subject.

Reply 5

username4218074

STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is misleading since really, it should be *natural* science and not social. Psychology is a natural science (the social aspects are more covered in sociology) since it's an offshoot or specialisation of biology which focuses on behavioural mechanics and conditions (and the underpinning causes) rather than their outward effect on society. Economics is very hit or miss in the UK by the way, some economics courses are very mathematical, in fact are practically applied maths degrees (Cambridge, LSE, UCL etc) whilst others are substantially less maths heavy. Crucially economics itself is a social study so it doesn't matter if STEM is used in it.

Reply 6

chazwomaq

Psychology straddles the natural / social sciences. There are parts which are clearly natural science (neurophysiology) and parts which are clearly not (qualitative social psychology). So there will always be some subjectivity in how you classify it. Economics can be maths heavy but that alone doesn't make it a science - IMO it's more about experimental hypothesis testing.

Is it true that universities themselves view psychology as STEM at A level though? Is there some list or something? I know at HE level psychology falls under the same group as biological sciences in terms of JACS codes.

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs/jacs3-detailed