How to make good Uni Course choices

At the start of another academic year, crystal ball gazing might be seen as a hazardous occupation, after the last 2 academic years! But, from a careers point of view there are several issues that will definitely come up, regardless! So a quick run through of what these are & how to choose a uni course, with some pointers, will hopefully help. 

Students make choices

Every year, whole cohorts of students will make decisions around several key issues. Whether it’s GCSE options, 6th form or college options, choosing university and degree options or simply what career ideas sound good, there are a lot of decisions being made. As students move through their education, these choices become more significant – with deciding about uni courses probably being the one that student put the most research and effort into. Some top tips for making these decisions are;

Do lots of research, for instance www.ucas.com and www.prospects.ac.uk are good starting points

Talk to your school careers and teaching staff. They will have helped numerous students to make decisions in the past.

Use one of the https://www.myfuturechoice.com/ services, e.g. about finding your university choices. This can be a great way to objectively find out how your aptitudes match up with different uni options.

Competition for places

Like it or not, students in year 9-13 are in a population ‘bulge’, i.e. there are more students in each year group nationally than a couple of years ago. Why does this matter? It matters because the more competitive 6th forms, FE courses and university courses (like Medicine, Law and Psychology) will have greater numbers applying. Does this mean you need to worry? Not necessarily. What it does mean is that you need to plan on how to make a great application. And then do some more planning – for instance on how to make use of those academic and revision skills you’ve got! Having a Plan B is worth having too – which is where talking to a qualified careers adviser from  https://www.myfuturechoice.com/ will help you.

Degree apprenticeships

These have been around for a number of years now, but in the last 2-3 years there has been an explosion of interest in them. People doing one of these end up with a degree and get paid whilst getting some really good work experience! They are available in a huge range of areas, from IT, finance, health care, engineering and a whole host of other areas. Unfortunately, unlike choosing a degree, there isn’t a UCAS type application process for degree apprenticeships or set deadlines either. So, you will need to actively be looking for these opportunities from late September in year 13. Sites like https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship and https://www.ratemyapprenticeship.co.uk/degree-apprenticeships are good starting points.

We hope this has been a useful ‘horizon scan’ of careers issues that may come up for you over the next few months.  Do take time to do some research and talk to others about how your ideas are developing. You can never start planning too soon. And who knows, you might find some unexpected options lie ahead, that you wouldn’t have come across if you’d rushed your careers research whilst figuring out how to choose a uni course.

Here at My Uni Choices we specialise in helping students, parents & educators make the best choices. Review all the Universities & Courses here or discover more About Us & the best uni courses for you, finally if you’re ready let’s take The Test to find out what course or degree you should do.

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