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{slide=Things to consider when choosing where to go and what to study} WHEN DECIDING where to go and what to study, you should remember that universities and colleges of higher education have different strengths and weaknesses. To work out which institution and which course is best for you, you need to refer to multiple sources of information, evidence and official data about teaching and research
Material to help you make up your mind can be found on the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS), Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Unistats websites.
Individual universities and colleges provide the most up-to-date information about courses, through their prospectuses and other publications. Also, visit universities and colleges on open days or if you are an overseas student, go to a British Council seminar. If you can't go to an open day or get to a seminar look for information on the web or telephone the university or college and ask to speak to someone about the course you're interested in to find out more.
Above all, think carefully and logically about the pros and cons of each course choice. "How do I find the 'best course' at the 'best university or college' " is a question asked by thousands of potential university and college students every year... yet it's a question with no easy answer!
As you would expect, there are a lot of factors you might want to take into consideration. Is the "best course"... ... one that suits your needs? Everyone is different. That's why no one course can be seen as "the best". While one course might suit a student's needs perfectly, for a student with different needs it will inevitably fall short. Thankfully, the UK's higher education system is incredibly diverse - with universities and colleges offering a wide variety of courses to meet the needs of many different types of student - so there should be a course and an institution that suits you perfectly. In fact, it's exactly this diversity means that the UK has a well-deserved worldwide reputation for the high level of academic quality and standards. ... one that asks for the highest entry grades? It is tempting to think that the best courses will be the ones that ask for the highest entry grades. However, while they will certainly attract the most highly qualified students it doesn't necessarily guarantee that they are offering "the best course". They might require high entrance grades because the institution has a high public regard or a reputation for a fantastic student social life and is wildly oversubscribed. In the latter case, high entrance grades are purely in response to demand in order to limit eligibility to entry. .... one that is well-structured, with excellent lecturers? Even if a course is regarded by students, professionals or academics as "the best", perhaps the actual content or the way it is studied at a particular institution wouldn't suit you or the way you work best.
Perhaps a course in the same subject at a less prestigious university or college of higher education has livelier lecturers and is more interesting?
All of that said, certain universities and colleges do get good reputations for good reason for certain subjects (although this can change as academics move on).
Your subject teacher or careers advisor (if you are still in tertiary education) may be able to help you here, although some teachers are better than others at keeping up to date with where the centres of excellence in their subject are. {/slide} {slide=Academic standards and quality} 'ACADEMIC STANDARDS' and 'teaching quality' or 'academic quality' are both natural considerations when choosing a higher education course.
This page explains the distinctions between both these terms and how each is measured and assessed. What do academic standards and academic quality mean? The phrase academic standards refers to the level of achievement that a student has to reach to gain an academic award – a degree, for example.
For similar awards, the threshold level to reach the a particular standard (a first or upper second classification, for example) should be comparable across UK institutions. Academic quality or teaching quality describes how well the learning opportunities available to students are managed to help them to achieve their award. It is about making sure that appropriate and effective teaching, support, assessment and learning opportunities are provided. Both these areas need to be considered when choosing a course as a student's learning experience is shaped by a broad variety of factors.
Academic matters such as the curriculum, assessment and teaching delivery, all have an obvious effect, but also very important are the support services, such as library and information services, welfare and careers services. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) advises higher education providers on academic standards and quality via its code of practice. You can view this code here on the QAA website.
The various higher education funding councils also advise and issue advice and recommendations on best practice. Where can I find out information on academic standards and academic quality? A range of information is available on academic standards and academic quality but you need to understand how this is measured as there have been a lot of changes in the last 10 years or so. Universities and colleges have their own 'internal quality assurance' mechanisms to ensure the academic standards and quality of their own awards meet required standards and are consistent. In addition, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) also judges how reliably the universities and colleges fulfil this responsibility. This is known as 'external quality assurance'. Since the early 1990s, both external and internal quality assurance processes have evolved and been adapted for different parts of the UK. The QAA publish external reviews which concentrate on institutional-level management, with some scrutiny at subject level. These institutional review reports contain a summary of the review team’s findings, which highlight good practice and strengths and, if necessary, areas for improvement. It is this part of the report that you are likely to find most useful as a potential student. The reports also contain a judgment on the reliability of the information each university or college publishes on standards and quality, including their information on courses and the quality of teaching. In addition, NHS-funded healthcare courses in England, are subject to comprehensive review by QAA in partnership with professional bodies, as is higher education provided by further education colleges and foundation degrees. Our University finder profiles contain links to QAA reports at institutional and subject level. The Unistats website also contains key information on academic standards and academic quality. The site also contains the results of the National Student Survey which asks students what they thought of their courses. How important are academic standards and quality when choosing a course? Academic standards and academic quality are undoubtedly important but you should take into account a much wider range of considerations when choosing a course.
Ideally you should use reports and other information on academic standards and quality to guide your choice – not make it for you. Career decisions WHILE MANY people will choose a higher education course purely on the basis of exploring a subject that interests them, it's also worth thinking about your long-term career goals too.
Making the right choice will give you the right foundations to enter the jobs that interest you. I have an idea of my future career, how important is this when choosing a course? If you know you want to be a doctor, then you take a degree in medicine, and if you want to work in fashion, there would not be a lot of point in doing an engineering degree. Some jobs do demand a specific subject degree, particularly in the fields of science and engineering while others recommend a degree in a broadly-related area.
The Graduate Prospects website contains lots of useful advice and allows you to profile different careers and the qualifications recommended for them. You can also view the career profiles on the Aimhigher website. A career I'm interested in requires a professional or vocational qualification. What do I need to bear in mind? Courses that lead to a professional or vocational qualification are often accredited by a professional, statutory or regulatory body.
A professional body is set up to oversee the activities of a particular profession, for example the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. A statutory body is set up through Act of Parliament, so that there is a legal requirement for a body to have oversight of a particular area, for example, the General Medical Council. A regulatory body is recognised by the government as being responsible for the regulation or approval of a particular area. This form of accreditation for students may lead to a right to practice a profession, exemption from professional examinations and/or membership of a professional body. As an example, the General Medical Council accredits programmes in medicine. So if you know you want a specific professional job, contact the relevant professional body, which will be able to tell you the courses they accredit, the skills they require and where you can study these courses. Do this before you make your final choice. There are higher education courses available where the subject area matches the title of the career I'm interested in - must I take this course to persue this kind of career? Some degree courses sound like they are necessary for a specific job – law or journalism, for example – but actually aren't. You can gain access to these kinds of jobs with different degrees after graduation.
The career profiles on the Aimhigher site may help you find out qualifications are required to progress in a particular career.
Obviously degrees in related areas may well prove more useful in your future career than others. Conversion law courses exist for graduates of any discipline, which take a year and give you the opportunity of studying a course you particularly fancy beforehand; some law firms prefer people who have studied a non-law degree first. There are also postgraduate courses in teaching, social work, journalism, publishing and even medicine which you can go on to study from a wide range of degree types. Some employers also provide specialist training for graduates – accountancy, banking, IT and the civil service, for example. Getting on for two thirds of graduate vacancies are not dependent on the course studied. Although a degree does provide you with in-depth specialist knowledge of a subject, the process of studying for that degree and the skills it teaches you, plus the wider social experience of university or college life, are what many employers want. So, unless you know that you need to study a particular subject for a particular career, the choice is yours. {/slide} {slide=University & College Course Syllabus} EVEN COURSES with the same name can differ in terms of content and structure from institution to institution. This is why it's really important to check out exactly what you will be studying as part of your course and how you will be studying towards your qualification.
Information on course content is available from universities and colleges in the form of a course syllabus and can also be found as part of the entry profile information on the UCAS website. Why do courses differ from institution to institution? Courses differ in this way because the typical content of individual subject areas is decided and agreed by the academics and professionals studying, teaching, researching and working in these areas.
These people are unique individuals with ideas and strengths which vary, so they are not going to offer exactly the same things to study at every institution. A course syllabus will provide detailed information about what you can expect to study as part of your course. What guidelines are there to say what will be covered in my chosen course? There are some basic guidelines for each major subject area, which will give you a good idea about what to expect as part of your course.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) provides a broad description of the typical content of more than 50 subject areas to produce what are known as subject benchmark statements which you can find here on the QAA website. Benchmark statements are not a national curriculum in a subject. They have been written in a way that allows ample scope for diversity in content amongst courses. Universities and colleges are able to customise the content and adapt the title of an individual course it offers to reflect its particular strengths in that subject area, and to give students a good range in the types and content of courses available. But the title must reflect the contentand follow some basic rules about describing the level and type of qualification the course leads to. In this way, the statements also help to ensure that the standards of honours degree courses across the UK meet an agreed level. How do I know for certain what will be covered in my chosen course? Universities and colleges must have written programme specifications for each course/programme offered. These specifications should give more detailed information about the content, teaching and learning methods used, assessment and support available to students for each course. Some programme specifications have been written specifically for students, while others are more suitable for professional higher education staff. Where can I find out other information about my chosen course? Another way of learning more about an individual course is to look at University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) entry profiles which you can find online for many courses. You can find out more information here on the UCAS website. These profiles give details about entry qualifications, selection criteria and desirable personal characteristics, much of which was not previously available. All of this is essential for making fully informed choices about entry to higher education.
Your institution will also be able to answer any queries you have about courses and many publish comprehensive information online or in their prospectuses. {/slide} {slide=Course information and entry requirements} ONCE YOU START investigating which institutions offer which courses you will inevitably find out more about the requirements for entry to the course. What do institutions require for admission to higher education course? In assessing your eligibility for admission onto a higher education course, some universities and colleges only ask for certain exam grades, possibly supplemented with an interview, the submission of written work or their own test.
However, many universities and colleges are operating on the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) tariff system, which recognises a wide range of academic achievements and extra-curricular ones, such as music grades, in a numerical score.
Some institutions use a mix of grades and points so that they can be more flexible with the offers they make for admission to a course.
Each course has its minimum requirements, whether these are described as grades or tariff points and you can see these on the UCAS website, in The Official Universities and Colleges Entrance Guide – commonly known as the Big Guide – and in university and college prospectuses.
Remember that the requirements in paper publications are collected a year in advance and they can change.
All offers are unique and applicants with identical tariff points or exam grades may be treated differently because one has more to offer than another, perhaps in terms of extra-curricular activities or raw potential. Why do entry requirements for similar courses differ? Entry requirements will differ from course to course and institution to institution because higher education is a market.
Some courses are very popular and each year they receive many more applications than there are places available while others are not oversubscribed in this way.
Setting different entry requirements for different courses is one way for universities and colleges to manage the demand for different courses.
When there is low demand, the entry requirements are generally lower, and when there is high demand, they are higher. Why do some institutions or courses require additional admissions tests? Additional admissions tests are set in subjects like medicine, veterinary science and law, but even history tests are being introduced by a few institutions. Applicants are tested for different aptitudes and skills, depending on the subject. For example, the Bio Medical Admissions Test (BMAT) is designed to evaluate thinking skills, and admissions tests for history will ask applicants to apply ideas or propositions from supplied text to an historical situation. Oxford and Cambridge universities routinely set admissions tests for some subjects, as well as interviewing candidates and asking for written work. Most institutions, however, don’t set tests but rely on the UCAS tariff or exam grades. Will my previous qualifications, skills and knowledge be taken into account when assessing eligibility? Students with previous qualifications above and beyond those asked for at entry, and/or those students who are able to demonstrate that they already have the equivalent skills, knowledge and understanding that will be covered by a part of the course, may be able to have this previous learning formally recognised through the university’s or college’s accreditation of prior (experiential) learning scheme (recognition of prior learning (RPL) in Scotland). Also, Access to Higher Education courses are designed to prepare mature students who have few, if any, qualifications for higher education. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) regulates the way 'authorised validating agencies' recognise individual courses or award certificates. More information on the accreditation of prior learning (APL) can be found on the QAA website. {/slide} {slide=Employment and work experience opportunities} SOME DEGREES INCORPORATE work experience as an integral part of the course. If your career aspirations lie in a particularly competitive field you may wish to explore the work experience opportunities that might be available to you as part of your course choices. What kind of courses are most likely to include some work experience? You are most likely to have some kind of compulsory work experience component in 'job-related' courses. In addition, sandwich courses include an extra year (or part of each year) in which you are placed with an employer. How can I find out which courses offer or require work experience? Check the entry profiles of courses that sound interesting to see what they say about work experience. If there is no information, call or e-mail the university or college to find out what’s on offer. Ask how work experience is arranged, and have a look at the programme specification for the course and any feedback from current or former students about their work experience.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) advises institutions on placement learning as part of its code of practice. This includes guidelines on good practice for universities and colleges and covers work experience that contributes towards final qualification. What alternatives are there to courses that offer work experience? An alternative would be to consider taking a two-year Foundation Degree. These courses are specifically designed by universities, colleges and employers together to include work-based learning. How can I find out about graduate employment rates for my institution or course? To find about graduate employment rates for your chosen institution or course, ask the university or college and the department in question. Some of the newspaper league tables do include employment rates among their criteria, so you could look at that too. Additional data will also appear on the Unistats website. Graduate Prospects produce a survey of graduate destinations - What do graduates do? 2005 - which might also prove useful. Are there other ways of getting work experience or developing my skills? It's worth looking into whether or not a university or college offers the opportunity to be involved in an institution-wide skills development scheme – one which is not an integral component of a course although, of course, you can get work experience by taking term-time employment, as many students do.
Lots of universities and colleges offer work on campus and some have job agencies of their own. The vast majority of jobs taken by students to help costs are low grade, but all kinds of work experience can help to enhance your ‘employability’ – that set of skills good employers want. This means confidence in your ability and understanding; communication – reading, writing, speaking and listening; analysis – numerical and literal; problem solving; decision making; teamwork; flexibility/adaptability; self awareness; willingness to learn. Without this full set of skills, your career possibilities may be limited. {/slide} {slide=UK University and college league tables} A number of organisations produce university league tables MANY ORGANISATIONS produce rankings of UK universities and colleges offering higher education courses but there are no official UK league tables.
Those tables that are produced, such as The Sunday Times University League Table, use a variety of data sources which may or may not have had input or support from the universities themselves.
As a result, the position of a university or college in a league table can vary enormously depending on the criteria used to work it out and the different weightings used.
One national newspaper website allows you to change the method of calculating the subject tables so that you can decide which criteria are most important to you and, as a result, different institutions change places easily up or down the table.
Seeing how easy it is to reorganise the rankings should tell you that the criteria a newspaper uses to select the best places to study a subject may not necessarily be the criteria you might use.
What part of the country a university or college is in, for example, might be a very important factor for you and if that was put into the criteria, your favourite course may come top!
That said, very few people will resist casting an eye over league tables and some universities actually encourage it by drawing attention to their position if it’s particularly good.
Just remember league tables can be useful as long as you read them with a critical eye and a healthy dose of scepticism.
To help you do this, the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes a helpful booklet called How to Read League Tables.
There are no centrally controlled course curricula, so it is difficult to compare the achievements of different institutions. Some universities have many departments and the standards and quality provided by each department can vary. League tables might help a bit, but they might not. What will help you choose is thorough research on the university or college website, looking at independent reviews of teaching and research, such as those provided by Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), and information available on the Unistats website.
Don't forget, a visit to a university or college and asking lots of questions when you're there can tell you a lot more that is relevant to you as an individual than a league table can. {/slide} {slide=Recognised UK degrees and register of education and training providers} 
There are a number of ways of checking whether your institution is bona-fide WHEN CHOOSING a course you should be sure that the course (and your eventual qualification) are provided by a bona-fide UK institution. Thankfully, there are a number of safeguards to help you ensure that this is the case. Use of the 'university' title To use the title 'university' in the UK, permission of the Privy Council is required. It is not possible for UK individuals, companies or institutions to use this title without this permission. See the Privy Council website for general information and this page for information on the Council and higher education.
Of course, non-UK institutions that are legally called universities in their own country are not affected. Upon receipt of an application, the Privy Council forwards the submission to the relevant territorial minister with higher education responsibilities. In practice, this means that an application is either forwarded to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department, the National Assembly for Wales, or the Department of Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.
Applications are then sent to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) for advice. The Agency's remit is to offer confidential guidance on the application, through the appropriate territorial Minister with higher education responsibilities, to the Privy Council. Recognised UK degrees - Recognised and listed bodies The UK authorities recognise those institutions that can offer degrees by virtue of their own degree awarding powers (recognised bodies) or those powers of another institution (listed bodies).
Not all organisations that appear to be UK HE institutions are permitted to award UK degrees.
If you are in any doubt about the validity of the course you are applying for, check the legal basis on which the course is being offered with the institution and check that the degree will be one from a recognised body. The Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills (DIUS) produces a recognised UK degrees website that contains the definitive list of recognised bodies and listed bodies.
The site also includes a list of recent changes in the titles or powers of recognised UK institutions and a list of other kinds of award that have been designated by the Secretary of State as recognised awards. Genuine education and training providers The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) produce a list of genuine education and training providers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Genuine providers are defined as those assessed and validated by DIUS as part of the registration process.
The registration process is one of continual assessment and those failing to maintain such standards will be subject to review. Failure of continuing compliance with the criteria may lead to removal from the register.
The register is used by DIUS as a means by which to record the details of all genuine education and training providers. It is also made available to the Home Office in order to help tackle immigration abuse in the education sector and may also be shared with other government departments.
Since 1 January 2005, the Home Office has not granted leave to 'enter' or 'remain' in the UK as a student, or leave to study to an overseas student national wishing to attend a course of study at a provider not on the register.
The register does not quality assure or accredit in any way the learning provision of any registered providers. Registration does not imply quality standards and should not be used in marketing. DIUS reserves the right to remove organisations from the register for such use.
Institutions who wish to apply to be included on the register can find full details on the DIUS providers register site. {/slide} {slide=Research credentials} 
There are lots of ways you can find out more about the research credentials of universities and colleges UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES put emphasis on different aspects of higher education. Some put a lot of emphasis on the research they carry out, others put more emphasis on teaching and learning. But all students at honours degree level and above should be engaging with current research, and the department prospectus or UCAS entry profile will give you some guidance about the type and level of research activity you can expect. Carry out a course search to find out more. Think about what you need or want from your time in higher education. If you think you need or want less support and guidance than other students, or you think you will eventually undertake postgraduate research, then you may well prefer a university or college that concentrates on research. If you’ll find the support and guidance of a teaching-led university more suitable, then go for that. The teaching staff should be up to date on the subject they teach, even if they haven’t done the original research themselves. The higher education funding councils conduct external review of research in universities and colleges through the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The RAE assesses the quality of UK research and the funding councils use the results to help them decide how they distribute public funds for research in universities and colleges. Related Pages  Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) The RAE is not about teaching or indeed any links between research and the teaching on individual courses. The last RAE was completed in 2001. The next RAE is due in 2008. As you can imagine, some of the information from the last RAE is getting a bit out of date, particularly because many universities have made a big effort in the years since the last one to develop their research, so will now have stronger research teams. Don’t be afraid to ask departmental staff questions before you make your final choice. Think about the subjects that interest you most and serve your longerterm educational and career interests, as well as the research record of a particular department. {/slide} |
