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Using a large and novel administrative dataset, this paper investigates variation in returns to different higher education ‘degrees’ (subject-institution combinations) in the United Kingdom. Conditioning on a rich set background characteristics, it finds substantial variation in returns, even within subject, across universities with very similar selectivity levels, suggesting degree choices matter a lot for later-life earnings. Selectivity is weakly related to returns through most of the distribution but strongly positively correlated at the top end. Other than selectivity, returns are poorly correlated with observable degree characteristics, which has implications for student choices and the incentives of universities.
Authors

Lorraine Dearden

Ian Walker

Research Fellow
Luke is a Research Fellow at the IFS and his general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality.

Anna Vignoles

Associate Director
Jack's main interests lie in human capital accumulation and discrete choice dynamic modelling.

Chris Belfield

Yu Zhu

Matt Dickson

Laura van der Erve

Franz Buscha
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2021.2421
- Publisher
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
Suggested citation
Belfield, C et al. (2021). How much does degree choice matter?. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-much-does-degree-choice-matter (accessed: 14 February 2025).
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