You will be on the current £3k per annum tuition fees deal so I know that the "£40k" debt quote from Gengis is straight out of the Daily Mail's take on academia.
£3k tuition plus about £7k per year to live on.
Multiple by the 4 years it nowadays requires to do the MEng degree needed to become a Chartered Engineer.
About £40k.
However if our OP is from outside the EU but studying at a British University, the tuition fees will be around £10k per year, so that goes up to about £70k.
True enough that many successful politicians have social science degrees. They were all busy working their political apprenticeships, working many long hours as voluntary party activists. A more serious degree such as engineering or medicine, just doesn't allow the time for that. They were (like many professional pilots) dedicated to their calling from an early age.
Which is most respectable, is a matter of personal opinion.
G