Primrose Kitten
There is a diverse and dizzying range of courses that you can study at UK universities.
I'm going to take you through what they all mean. Before you pick the course you apply for, the university that you apply for, you need to select the type of course you're going to apply for. The most common type is going to be a bachelor's. This can be a BA, a Bachelor's of Art, or a BSc, Bachelors of Science. If it is a three-year course, it's going to be Bachelor's if it's a four-year course, it's going to be a Bachelor's with honors. This is an undergraduate course, generally three or four years and it can be straight after high school.
Master degrees come after your undergraduates. They're an extra year, which you can either add on to the end, or you can do an integrated course that already has the additional year added onto the end. If you're doing a combined course, you'll probably just continue from your undergraduate, your Bachelor's, onto your Master's without even noticing it. You can choose to switch universities for your Master's year and try somewhere new and try something different.
Some courses also have foundation years, which is a year before the course starts. These are going to be aimed at people that want to do challenging courses like medicine, but haven't quite got the intro requirements from their A-levels or international students who wish to spend their time familiarizing themselves with country and language before they start their studies.
Foundation degrees are much more vocational degrees. It's going to have a significant element of work experience in there. They can be offered through employers. These are two years long, There is, at some places, the opportunity to add a third year onto that and turn it into a bachelor's.
People opt to go to university for different reasons-some go because of family worth; some go simply for the fun of studying a course that they are really interested in. But if you are like me, you went to university to study for a specific career area.
I spent a very long time pondering on the 'what to study'. I swept across from film to law, marketing to science until I finally found Education Studies. I had spoken to my parents and friends in the various occupations and my teachers at school, they offered me some really helpful insights. I also visited several lectures and discussed careers related to the various department. ONCE I put all of this together, I did some research behind it, and I settled on the thought of Education Studies.
I found the Education Studies course at university because I realized that I needed a career anywhere in the realms of education. During choosing my course, I was adamant that I would be an school teacher, therefore, thought my course was perfect-it was mixed and covered a variety of topics, involved practical experience in a work area of my choosing, sounded great and it would suited me right down to a T.
I also chose it because I realized that by the end, I'd have far more scope using what career I possibly could get into than easily opt for BEd course, that was my original idea. For my personally, that was a great choice because what I've been learning on my course have sparked a pastime in the areas of education and dealing with young people.
Nearly every year at university, I've met some very nice people and made good friends with people on my course. I've gotten to analyse subject areas and gain activities that I often wouldn't have and feel that learning education studies is a good groundwork for studying over a PGCE course to become qualified teacher.
If there's any advice, I possibly could give anybody about choosing a university level course, it is think long and carefully, and ensure you know you will want to be doing a similar thing by the end of those three years.
One of the first things you need to do when thinking about a university is picking what course you want to study. And the types of courses at university can be wildly different from those you studied in school.
Even if the title of the course is familiar, there is no longer a set curriculum for universities. When you're at school, maths A-level in one school is going to be identical to maths A-level in another school, because there's a curriculum set up by the exam boards. This doesn't happen at university. At university, the courses are determined by the lecturers, and they're going to lecture in what they're interested in. So, a history degree at one university could be utterly different to a history degree at another university. Click here to read more and go to Hamz story...
For a traditional degree teaching terms at university are close to ten weeks in time, when you take into account exam weeks, reading weeks, freshers weeks and short holidays, you’ll be spending between 30 and 40 weeks a year at university. This leaves a lot of time on holiday and relaxing. Click here to read more and see the current courses & providers...
Foundation years are fantastic things, but how do you know it they're right for you?
Foundation years are offered by a wide range of universities. And they've got two target
groups in mind. The first is students who want to get on a course but don't quite reach the requirements.For example, if your A-Levels weren't quite good enough to get onto medicine, then medicine with a foundation year is going to
have slightly lower entry requirements at some, but not all places. Click here to read more and read Lofti's story...Liberal arts degrees are rare and beautiful things. They are the unicorns of degrees, but not many people know about them, and not many people can find them, but they are brilliant.
Despite the name, doesn't involve any painting or drawing. It's a mixture course; it's a make-your-own course so that you can pick modules, units from loads of different subjects, put them all together and make a degree that is specific to you. Click here to read more and see Max's story...
Natural science degrees are fantastic things. In my opinion, they are one of the best hybrid degrees out there. If you're considering doing science at university, then before you apply, you should definitely at least look at natural sciences. Click here to read more and hear Rachel's story...
Vocational degrees are strongly linked to the career that you will end up in. For example, a medical degree. You cannot be a doctor unless you have a medical degree, and your medical degree trains you specifically for that one job: being a doctor. There are loads of other degrees that are vocational; teaching, accountancy, landscape design, nutrition or game design. There's a broad and wide spectrum of vocational degrees. And if you're certain, absolutely certain, of the career that you want in the future, then this a really good choice of degree for you. Click here to read more and see Anna's story...
This is an odd term for something that is not edible but useful and could be the difference in determining whether you get a job after university or not.
Spending a year apart of your degree, working and studying while volunteering overseas is a fantastic way to travel, get some experience, and make sure your CV stands out from the crowd.
This scheme has a really little name. And hiding behind that fancy small name is a long name, and a fantastic opportunity to work, travel, live abroad as part of your degree.
University can be a costly few years, and you may think it's a necessity to get your dream job, but is it really, do you need to go to university.
Degree apprenticeships are a relatively new thing in the UK, but they're a fantastic combination of on-the-job experience and getting a degree at the same time.
