These discussions drive me up the **** wall when I hear nonsense like “Unity was easier for me” “Unreal is complicated”. Both of these statements are false. It’s like saying “Photoshop is too complicated…Paint is easier”
Unity only seems easier to use for people because it comes with 10% of the tools you need to build an actual game. It eases you in (to the asset store). Once you bring it up to the level of functionality that core Unreal has through the asset store, all bets are off. Mixed workflows. Bugs. Higher up front cost. The only thing at that point that is easier is perhaps C# vs C++, but even that is debatable because Unreal C++ isn’t much different from Unity C#.
Unity is worthless as a Game Engine (out of the box). Unity is only a PLATFORM to milk money out of the Asset store. Unreal is a fully featured game engine.
If they push hard for Unity, be sure to cost in all of the assets that will be required per seat for missing or poor functionality; such as behavior trees (AI), pathfinding, material editor, level design, multiplayer, level streaming…I think you get the idea.
Honestly, whatever does the job better is what matters–for some people Unity may genuinely be easier for the project they are doing. Unity is definitely simpler which can be a problem but in some cases that’s a definite advantage if you’re doing something that targets low-end systems and you don’t need a lot of extra features. It is a struggle though to try and match the same features of UE4.
There are pros and cons for sure. You should instead focus on the learning outcome and pick different tools for that. I have seen people use both Unity, Rpg Maker, Unreal, Stingray and other engines within the same degree or course. Even if you focus on one engine, often the students will favour the other. So rather than specifying the engine, you could allow them to pick the one they prefer themselves. One of the argument for doing level design using Unreal Engine (Unreal Editor) is that if you use the Unreal Editor you could essentially use existing assets and content to populate your level. If the students have to do everything on their own anyway, such as programming and modeling then Unity is probably better as it has less distraction. That said, both engine can do the same thing but the main difference is that Unity requires extra cost for visual scripting plugin.