York, Nottingham or Southampton?

Hi all - I'm interested on thoughts of reading PPE at these 3 unis... have offers for all so interested on views on how you'd view their ranking.
Thanks!

As the above poster pointed out, York is the only one of these three that I've consistently heard good things for about their PPE course.

I'm afraid I'm coming from an economics background so can only speak to this. Out of the unis you listed, Nottingham is definitely the strongest for Economics. Better research output, bigger department, higher entry requirements for Econ subjects, better opportunities in Econ/finance careers, etc etc. Specialisms of the department are behavioural/experimental, trade, development and time-series. I'd definitely put York second and agree with the other poster in that its specialisms are econometric theory and health econ, it's still strong but just a touch below the tier of Nottingham, Bath, Bristol and Durham. Southampton is also pretty good for economics, again specialising in econometrics. All three are actually pretty good overall for economics, no weak one, but Nottingham would firmly be top for economics.

No idea on philosophy or politics rankings apologies. It sorta depends what field you want to go into really, if it's something like investment banking/finance then I'd definitely go with Nottingham even if its overall PPE program might be behind York's for example. If you wanna go into government/policy, etc then all will be fine with maybe York's being the best. So sorta depends on what you want to use the degree for.

Would you place york for pure econ above Southampton and Lancaster in your personal opinion. Ds interested in IB, econ, actuary jobs so econ is good all-rounder. Offes from York, Lancaster, Surrey, Southampton so far. Thanks

I go to York, and many of my friends and people from the Investment and Finance careers society have secured Sales & Trading roles and IBD roles as summer internships or full-time at banks such as BNP, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc., so for IB most definitely I would recommend York above those universities. Mind, it's not a "target", I think its classed as a very good non-target, meaning that your son would need to compensate a bit by being active in extracurricular activities.

Southampton is still a really good university, I quite like their module menu, so I would say their economics course is very good as well. But, as I said previously, York has one of the biggest departments in the UK, and if your son is interested in actuary, then studying econometric theory at an advanced level (a lot of it is almost the same syllabus as people studying statistics in a maths degree, minus a few topics) would certainly be very helpful.

Lancaster probably has the weakest course out of the three. From when I looked at it, the course looks like a "generalist" Economics course; the module choices doesn't indicate any particular strength, and it looks like it'd just be any bog-standard economics education you'd receive from most institutions (e.g., just following the textbooks, Blanchard for example, no real discussion ...).

Would you place york for pure econ above Southampton and Lancaster in your personal opinion. Ds interested in IB, econ, actuary jobs so econ is good all-rounder. Offes from York, Lancaster, Surrey, Southampton so far. Thanks

I'd say York is probably equal to Southampton and better than Lancaster in terms of pure economics education/department quality. Although there's a lot more to consider than just this factor, York's department is bigger, uni is more popular, in a better city and uni is more prestigious so has careers advantages over places like Southampton.

All of York, Southampton, Lancaster and Surrey are non-targets for investment banking so may struggle with getting offers. Generally, Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick and Imperial are the target unis with King's, Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and Bath being the semi-targets. York would be a good non-target but a non-target nonetheless. That's not to say you can't get in, you definitely can, it's just harder. Most decent non-targets can boast of some people getting good internship/grad offers in IB but it's the frequency and quality of roles (FO>MO>BO) that differentiates the level of targeting. For example, I've got a friend at a uni ranked 50th for Econ yet they still had some people with grad offers from IBD at GS and MS for example but far less people than better unis get in if this makes sense.

For the careers you mentioned (IB/Econ/Actuary), a maths degree or a joint maths and Econ degree would likely be preferable to an Econ degree. You can study any subject and get into IB so not an issue for that industry. For Econ jobs, getting a government economics job is fairly easy and is a good career and just requires and undergrad degree from a standard averagely ranked uni (all mentioned would be good enough unis for the GES). The lucrative economics jobs are the economist and strategist roles at banks, asset managers and economic consultancies, these normally but not always require at least a master's sometimes a PhD although some hire undergrads, the unis represented in these roles is far more concentrated at the top unis then the government or even IB sometimes. For example, some places I've worked have been 90% LSE, Cambridge and UCL grads so very little diversity with almost everyone having a master's (sometimes the MSc was from these top unis but undergrad from semi-targets or good non-targets).

I'm not an expert on Actuary but generally the more maths and stats the better. Econ degrees are fairly quantitative but not so much compared to maths&Econ joint degrees or applied maths/stats degrees which are definitely preferably for Actuary. May want to look at unis that offer more statistical and econometric theory modules rather than offering applied econometric theory courses if you're considering Actuary.

As an aside point, I'd recommend genuinely thinking about career goals after uni before picking course and uni. IB, Econ and Actuary are all very different and most students at a-level stage or even 1st/2nd year of undergrad really don't understand what the work is actually like in these industries/roles. I spent 2yrs in investment banking but if I knew what it would be like I probably would've targeted other roles/industries. Most students just know IB pays a lot and is prestigious so are interested which is understandable to an extent but very few actually know what goes on day-to-day so I'd recommend thoroughly researching these industries before just blindly applying like so many do who either never get into these elite industries due competition or dislike the work once they get there. Remember the average tenure of a graduate investment banker is under two years!

I'd say York is probably equal to Southampton and better than Lancaster in terms of pure economics education/department quality. Although there's a lot more to consider than just this factor, York's department is bigger, uni is more popular, in a better city and uni is more prestigious so has careers advantages over places like Southampton.

All of York, Southampton, Lancaster and Surrey are non-targets for investment banking so may struggle with getting offers. Generally, Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick and Imperial are the target unis with King's, Durham, Nottingham, Bristol and Bath being the semi-targets. York would be a good non-target but a non-target nonetheless. That's not to say you can't get in, you definitely can, it's just harder. Most decent non-targets can boast of some people getting good internship/grad offers in IB but it's the frequency and quality of roles (FO>MO>BO) that differentiates the level of targeting. For example, I've got a friend at a uni ranked 50th for Econ yet they still had some people with grad offers from IBD at GS and MS for example but far less people than better unis get in if this makes sense.

For the careers you mentioned (IB/Econ/Actuary), a maths degree or a joint maths and Econ degree would likely be preferable to an Econ degree. You can study any subject and get into IB so not an issue for that industry. For Econ jobs, getting a government economics job is fairly easy and is a good career and just requires and undergrad degree from a standard averagely ranked uni (all mentioned would be good enough unis for the GES). The lucrative economics jobs are the economist and strategist roles at banks, asset managers and economic consultancies, these normally but not always require at least a master's sometimes a PhD although some hire undergrads, the unis represented in these roles is far more concentrated at the top unis then the government or even IB sometimes. For example, some places I've worked have been 90% LSE, Cambridge and UCL grads so very little diversity with almost everyone having a master's (sometimes the MSc was from these top unis but undergrad from semi-targets or good non-targets).

I'm not an expert on Actuary but generally the more maths and stats the better. Econ degrees are fairly quantitative but not so much compared to maths&Econ joint degrees or applied maths/stats degrees which are definitely preferably for Actuary. May want to look at unis that offer more statistical and econometric theory modules rather than offering applied econometric theory courses if you're considering Actuary.

As an aside point, I'd recommend genuinely thinking about career goals after uni before picking course and uni. IB, Econ and Actuary are all very different and most students at a-level stage or even 1st/2nd year of undergrad really don't understand what the work is actually like in these industries/roles. I spent 2yrs in investment banking but if I knew what it would be like I probably would've targeted other roles/industries. Most students just know IB pays a lot and is prestigious so are interested which is understandable to an extent but very few actually know what goes on day-to-day so I'd recommend thoroughly researching these industries before just blindly applying like so many do who either never get into these elite industries due competition or dislike the work once they get there. Remember the average tenure of a graduate investment banker is under two years!

Thank you so much, you have made some really useful points 😊

Thanks for all the replies - I’m edging towards York for firm and Southampton for insurance for PPE
I’m not really feeling Nottingham and can’t put my finger on it - the York PPE course attracts me the most