PSA: there is a freely accessible article in the Observer today about changes in degree preferences from 2019 to 2025. It is summarised from a study by Britton et al at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, New estimates of the impact of undergraduate degrees on lifetime earnings.
Projected lifetime financial return of the degree (vs expected earnings without a degree) is plotted against the percent change in the number of students doing a given degree. There are separate graphs for men and women.
Pharmacology has the biggest gain for each sex, with increased lifetime earnings of just over £100K. For men, Economics has a medium increase in numbers and the greatest lifetime earnings increase, about £460K. For women in Economics the increase in student numbers - from a very low base - is similar. But sexism in the field us shocking, and the earnings increase is under £300K. Shamefully, the Observer article cites the men’s figure as the overall one. I don’t think female numbers are so small as to make this accurate.
More women than men are moving into Medicine and women have their greatest earnings gain, £400K, here, though it is still a bit less than the men’s gain.
For men, the second highest increase in student numbers is for Nursing even though the lifetime earnings gain is small.
Languages have lost the most students and I am sorry to say that a Languages degree is associated with a small lifetime loss of earnings. So are degrees in the Creative and Performing Arts.
About 25% of students are thought to be worse off financially for doing a degree, according to this summary. That is shocking and worth bearing in mind.