England or Scotland for Economics ? Help !

[nona99]

Son trying to decide between unconditional offers for Economics. We live in Scotland, so no fees for two of the courses, but the third (preferred because of placement year) course is in England so has fees at the usual English rate. Last applicant day on Sat. - Can anyone help with this ?

BSc(Hons) Economics (with placement year) at Lancaster, MA (Hons)Economics at Heriot Watt, and - less favoured - BA (Hons) Economics at Strathclyde.

Don't know anything about Economics degrees but going to Lancaster seems a very expensive option for the sake of a placement year. Plenty of scope to get internships in the holidays instead. And he will "only" graduate with a BA as opposed to an MA from Heriot Watt.

I would personally prefer Heriot Watt to Lancaster in terms of area to spend time in...

I'd go for Heriott Watt because Edinburgh is a great city, but the MA in Scotland is not the Masters level you know in England- it is still an undergraduate degree. Many of the Scottish universities undergraduate arts/humanities degrees have the MA title.

Here is an explanation en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Arts_(Scotland)

Thanks for the input, he is finding this choice difficult, and we are finding it hard to support him in it. It's complicated by the fact that he has lived in Edinburgh all his life (but there is a guarantee for first year halls even so - and Heriot Watt is right on the edge of the city, and is a campus) also Strathclyde surprisingly being lower in the rankings for economics than Heriot Watt (though Strathclyde has great reputation here for business - so I, and others have been very surprised by this - the question is what is the general perception without people looking at the rankings ?)

I did my masters at Strathclyde (not economics but mathematics- based subject within Business school) and I have worked at Heriot Watt. Loved both (much more so than the RG university where I did my first degree). I would have rated Strathclyde more highly than Heriot Watt (in my day) so I'm slightly surprised about the current ratings (looked it up for economics and you are correct). Both Scottish universities were very strong with placements/work experience so I wouldn't worry on this front. Maybe at the offer days look at the breadth of courses offered thinking about what your son might be interested in - in my day Heriot Watt was strong on the mathematics/economics/finance type courses but Strathclyde had a much wider choice of options e.g. politics, philosophy, business enterprise.

If he is intending to live and work in Scotland, then the Scottish universities are fine. If he wants to work in London, that may be a different proposition due to huge competition from LSE students etc. I would choose on where he feels most comfortable, living options, and course content.

DS has friends doing Economics at Lancaster, both are loving it. But you will need to weigh up whether the £30k fees will be worth it - if you are in Edinburgh will there be opportunities for summer placements instead? In a lot of subject areas Heriot Watt has very good connections with industry so that would be something to consider too.

My DD is about to firm Edinburgh for Economics with Southampton as her insurance. Both are asking for ABB at A-level.

What is good about Edinburgh is having four years. The first two are spent acquiring skills and the last two applying them. There are also serious opportunities to study non-economics courses, just because of the extra time.

It's also a truly world class university in a vibrant city.

I would say Edinburgh in a heart beat!
Eldest dd is doing MSc there this year and loves it( she did 4 yr Scottish MA degree)- she's now been advised to apply for PhD!
Does son have to arrange his own placement or do uni?.... my younger dd is trying to arrange her placement year from MMU with little help from uni and is considering a gap year to do some unpaid interns ( plus work in her partime job in Topshop so she can then travel for 2-3 months)
As there is so much competition for placements she would then re-enter 3rd year when all her friends return from their overseas year
Fees would be a huge consideration too!

Thanks for thoughts. We went to the final applicant day yesterday, which was useful. I think that he now has all the information. Its just a case of sitting down, digesting it and making a decision.....which he is putting off.........encouraging him not to leave it to the last second !!!......

He's thinking of having a word with head of careers and head of sixth form at school first...