The guide
2
What you would actually study
The subject you apply with. What the first year is really made of, what it costs you, and who should study something else instead.
48 subjects
Showing: Every field
Engineering
- Civil engineeringalso called Structural engineering · Construction engineeringDesigning and building the things a place is made of: bridges, water systems, roads, foundations. The work is proving they will stand up before anyone builds them.What the first year is really like
- Mechanical engineeringalso called Mechanical and manufacturing engineering · Mechanical and aerospace engineeringDesigning physical things that move or carry load: engines, machines, vehicles, the equipment inside a factory. The proof that they work comes on paper, before anyone builds them.What the first year is really like
- Electrical engineeringalso called Electrical and electronic engineering · Electronics engineering · Power engineeringWorking with electricity itself: circuits, signals, power systems and the chips everything else runs on. It's the discipline underneath every device that plugs in or carries a battery.What the first year is really like
- Chemical engineeringalso called Chemical and process engineering · Process engineeringDesigning the industrial-scale processes that turn raw materials into fuel, medicine, plastic and almost everything else made in bulk. It's chemistry built at the scale of a factory rather than a beaker.What the first year is really like
Computer Science
- Computer sciencealso called Informatics · Computing · CS · Applied mathematics and informaticsThe study of what can be computed, and how: algorithms, data, languages and machines. It isn't training in any particular programming tool.What the first year is really like
- Software engineeringalso called Software development · Applied computer scienceBuilding and maintaining working software as part of a team, on a deadline, to a specification someone else can still change halfway through. It's the discipline around writing code, not only the writing of it.What the first year is really like
- Data sciencealso called Data analytics · Statistics and data science · Business analyticsTurning large, messy datasets into numbers an organisation can actually decide something from. Statistics and programming, plus enough domain sense to know when a result is nonsense.What the first year is really like
- Cybersecurityalso called Information security · Cyber operations · Information assuranceLearning how computer systems actually fail and get broken into. The point is to be the person who finds the hole first, before someone with worse intentions does.What the first year is really like
Business & Economics
- Data sciencealso called Data analytics · Statistics and data science · Business analyticsTurning large, messy datasets into numbers an organisation can actually decide something from. Statistics and programming, plus enough domain sense to know when a result is nonsense.What the first year is really like
- Business managementalso called Business administration · Management studiesA broad, generalist degree in how organisations actually run: people, operations, money and strategy together. It's built for working across a business rather than mastering one function of it.What the first year is really like
- Economicsalso called Economic theory · Political economyThe study of how people, firms and governments respond to limited resources, and to each other's decisions. It's a mathematical social science, closer in method to applied maths than to business.What the first year is really like
- Financealso called Finance and accounting · Financial economicsThe study of how money is valued, moved and risked. Pricing a company, managing a portfolio, deciding what a future payment is actually worth today.What the first year is really like
- Marketingalso called Marketing and communications · Marketing managementStudying how people actually decide to notice, trust and choose something. Research, psychology and communication, applied to putting a product or an idea in front of the right person.What the first year is really like
Natural Sciences
- Biologyalso called Biological Sciences · Life SciencesThe systematic study of living things, from the molecules inside a single cell up to whole ecosystems. It's also the study of the evidence used to prove a claim about any of them.What the first year is really like
- Chemistryalso called Chemical SciencesThe study of matter itself: what substances are made of, and how they react. The goal is to predict and control that reaction, not only observe it.What the first year is really like
- Physicsalso called Physical SciencesWorking out the rules that govern matter and energy at every scale, from subatomic particles to galaxies. Then expressing those rules in mathematics precise enough to predict what happens next.What the first year is really like
- Mathematicsalso called Mathematical Sciences · Pure and Applied MathematicsThe study of structure, quantity and proof for their own sake. Not applying known formulas, but establishing which statements are actually true, and why.What the first year is really like
- Environmental sciencealso called Environmental Studies · Earth and Environmental ScienceStudying how the natural world actually functions: air, water, soil and the life inside them. Closely enough to measure what is changing, and why.What the first year is really like
- Geologyalso called Earth Science · Geoscience · Earth and Planetary SciencesReading the physical history and structure of the earth from what rock, sediment and landscape actually show. You use that to explain, predict or find what lies beneath the surface.What the first year is really like
- Biomedical sciencealso called Biomedical Sciences · Medical Science (pre-clinical)The laboratory science behind medicine: disease mechanisms, diagnostics and treatments studied at the bench. It carries no clinical training and no licence to treat a patient directly.What the first year is really like
Humanities & Social Sciences
- Historyalso called Historical StudiesThe disciplined reconstruction of the past from incomplete, biased and often contradictory evidence. You build and defend an argument about what happened and why, rather than memorise a settled account of it.What the first year is really like
- PhilosophyThe study of the most fundamental questions about knowledge, existence, morality and reasoning itself, using close argument rather than experiment or historical evidence to test an answer.What the first year is really like
- Psychologyalso called Psychological ScienceThe scientific study of mind and behaviour. You test why people think, feel and act as they do using data and controlled method, rather than intuition or personal experience.What the first year is really like
- SociologyThe systematic study of how societies are organised: class, family, institutions, inequality. It looks for the evidence showing why a pattern exists, rather than simply describing that it does.What the first year is really like
- Anthropologyalso called Social Anthropology · Cultural AnthropologyThe comparative study of human cultures, past and present, understood on their own terms first: what people believe, build and practise. Explaining or generalising across them comes afterwards.What the first year is really like
- Political sciencealso called Politics · Government · Political StudiesThe systematic study of power: how governments form, how decisions actually get made inside them, and why some political systems hold together while others fail. All of it tested against evidence rather than argued from conviction.What the first year is really like
- International relationsalso called International Studies · International AffairsThe study of how states, international organisations and companies deal with each other across borders: trade, conflict, treaties and diplomacy. Plus the theories used to explain why they cooperate, or fail to.What the first year is really like
- Linguisticsalso called Language SciencesThe scientific study of how language itself works: sound, structure, meaning and change. It treats language as a system to be analysed formally, which isn't the same as learning to speak one fluently.What the first year is really like
- Communicationsalso called Journalism · Media Studies · Communication StudiesStudying how information, persuasion and stories actually reach and change an audience. Reporting, media theory and practical production together, rather than only the theory of media or only the craft of writing.What the first year is really like
- Educationalso called Pedagogy · Teacher EducationTraining to teach: how people actually learn, how to plan a lesson that reaches a room of different abilities at once, and the classroom practice that turns subject knowledge into something someone else understands.What the first year is really like
- Criminologyalso called Criminal JusticeThe study of crime, punishment and the justice system as social phenomena. Why crime happens, how criminal-justice systems actually respond, and whether those responses work. It runs on social-science evidence rather than a law degree's focus on rules and procedure.What the first year is really like
Medicine & Health
- Medicinealso called Medical Studies · MBBS · MBChBTraining to diagnose and treat illness in real patients, under supervision from the first clinical placement onward. The course is built around a licence to practise, rather than around a subject in the ordinary sense.What the first year is really like
- Nursingalso called Nursing Science · Registered NursingTraining to deliver and coordinate the hands-on clinical care that keeps a patient safe and recovering hour by hour. It's a distinct profession from medicine, not an assistant version of it.What the first year is really like
- Pharmacyalso called Pharmaceutical SciencesThe science of how drugs act in the body, how they are made and combined safely, and how to advise on and control their use. It's the discipline standing between a chemical compound and a patient who takes it correctly.What the first year is really like
- Dentistryalso called Dental Surgery · Oral Health ScienceTraining to diagnose and treat conditions of the teeth, gums and jaw. It combines the clinical judgement medicine requires with a manual and surgical skill medicine doesn't.What the first year is really like
- Public healthalso called Population Health · Community Health ScienceStudying disease and wellbeing at the level of a whole population rather than one patient at a time. You use data to work out what actually keeps large numbers of people well.What the first year is really like
- Biomedical sciencealso called Biomedical Sciences · Medical Science (pre-clinical)The laboratory science behind medicine: disease mechanisms, diagnostics and treatments studied at the bench. It carries no clinical training and no licence to treat a patient directly.What the first year is really like
Law
- International relationsalso called International Studies · International AffairsThe study of how states, international organisations and companies deal with each other across borders: trade, conflict, treaties and diplomacy. Plus the theories used to explain why they cooperate, or fail to.What the first year is really like
- Lawalso called LLB · Juris Doctor (JD) · JurisprudenceThe systematic study of legal rules, and how they are argued, interpreted and applied. Across most of the countries we cover it is a first degree straight from school. In the United States and Canada it is a graduate degree, taken after an unrelated bachelor's.What the first year is really like
- Criminologyalso called Criminal JusticeThe study of crime, punishment and the justice system as social phenomena. Why crime happens, how criminal-justice systems actually respond, and whether those responses work. It runs on social-science evidence rather than a law degree's focus on rules and procedure.What the first year is really like
Arts & Design
- Graphic designalso called Communication design · Visual communication designSolving problems with images, type and layout, so a stranger understands, trusts or is moved by something in the few seconds they give it. It's structured visual argument, not decoration.What the first year is really like
- Industrial designalso called Product design · Industrial and product designDesigning physical objects that will be manufactured in quantity: how they look, how they are held or used, and how they can actually be produced at a cost that makes sense.What the first year is really like
- ArchitectureDesigning buildings and the spaces around them. Then carrying that design all the way through structure, regulation and budget into something that can actually be built and inhabited.What the first year is really like
- Film productionalso called Film studies · Film and television production · Media productionMaking moving-image work as a crew, not as a solo art form. Writing, shooting, editing and organising a production so a story actually gets finished, and finished on time.What the first year is really like
- Animationalso called Animation and visual effects · Character animationCreating the illusion of movement and life in drawn, modelled or digital figures, frame by frame or pose by pose, for film, games and advertising.What the first year is really like
- Musicalso called Music performance · Composition · MusicologyThe formal study of music: performance, composition and the theory underneath both. It sits at a level well past playing an instrument for enjoyment.What the first year is really like
- Fine artalso called Studio art · Fine arts · Painting and sculptureMaking original visual work in painting, sculpture, print, photography or moving image. It develops from your own ideas rather than a client's brief, and you defend it in your own words.What the first year is really like
- Fashion designalso called Fashion · Apparel designDesigning clothing and accessories from concept through to a physical, wearable garment. Pattern, fabric and construction matter as much as the sketch.What the first year is really like