Head to head
Both on the same terms: £9,790 tuition and £8,000 maintenance a year on Plan 5, median DfE LEO earnings, each measured against the no-degree route for that field.
Ahead of the no-degree route after
Ahead of the no-degree route after
Physics pays for itself 8 years sooner than Engineering. That gap compounds: every year ahead is a year of earning without still being behind the alternative. Repayments differ too — £104,799 over the life of the Physics loan against £142,341 for Engineering. The higher figure is usually the higher earner, not the worse deal.
This compares money only. It says nothing about whether you would be any good at either, or want to spend a career doing it — and the no-degree comparison is an estimate, which is the figure both verdicts are most sensitive to.
These use default costs. Your tuition, maintenance, repayment plan and where you land in the earnings range all move the answer.