Guiding university choice

Session one: Reading two

Choosing a subject to study

Subjects such as Business Studies and Biological Sciences traditionally receive the most applications. But remember what is on offer in terms of degree opportunity is a real A to Z of subjects.

How many of these degrees have you heard about?

Astrophysics, Bakery and Patisserie Technology, Cartoon and Comic Arts, Dance with the study of Religions, Egyptology, Film and Television Studies, Green Technology, Hair and Make-up for Fashion, Interactive and Electronic Design, Journalism, Korean Studies, Latin American Studies, Musicology, Nutrition and Food Design, Optometry, Performance Car Technology, Quantity Surveying, Rural Estate Management, Shipping and Port Management, Theatre Studies, Urban Planning, Viking Studies, Welsh, X-ray (well Radiology is near enough), Yacht and Power Craft Design, Zoo Management.

You may also want to develop your interest in a particular aspect of a subject. For example if you have an interest in a subject like Sociology which is made up of different topics you will find that you would have the opportunity to focus on just one area such as Criminology, Education, or Politics for example.

You will find that some courses offer you the opportunity to study abroad for a year – this is very common if you are interested in studying a language or a particular thematic degree like American Studies. Schemes like Erasmus also offer the opportunity to study abroad for a while even if you are doing non-related degrees. In fact you could study your whole degree abroad as many UK students attend universities full time in North America and Europe. You will find more information on this at the end of this session.

During your research you will also come across various titles of degrees. Amongst others you will find degrees titles such as:

BA – Bachelor of Arts associated with Fine Arts, Humanities, Languages and Social Science Degrees
BSc – Bachelor of Science associated with traditional science degrees (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) but also some social science degrees (Economics, Politics and Psychology)
BEd – Bachelor of Education: you will find some teaching degrees use this title
BEng – Bachelor of Engineering: some Engineering degrees use this title, while others you will find use BSc in Engineering as the title
BMus – Bachelor of Music
LLB – used by some Law degrees

Have a think about these different types of degrees when you are doing the next exercise.