What you need to find is a degree in a subject you will enjoy and be good at, and a university in which you will feel challenged academically.
As with revising for exams, there is no quick fix when choosing your perfect course. Time and effort are required. Those of us who were told that if we put textbooks under our pillows at night, their contents would magically transfer to our minds, must have realised it was nonsense, but how many gave it a go just in case? Similarly, a particular university is not necessarily the best place for you because it is offering a free laptop to allcomers or an unlimited number of £1,000 scholarships to anybody with grades of BBC (as two have done this year).
Thorough research is the only course of action. Don’t just amble along to the open day and absorb all the positive PR. Pop into the campus bar and have a chat with current students. Find out from your school whether any past pupils are studying at the universities or on the courses you are considering, and get in touch with them.
Through the university websites or admissions tutors, find out who teaches on your course and what research they are doing or books they have written.
It is also worth digging deeper to discover whether the main tutors actually have time to teach. With research bringing in important funding, part-timers and postgraduates are often drafted in to teach while core tutors work on research projects.
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Universities have always competed to attract the brightest students but the new tuition fees system has created a far more commercial environment. Appointments of celebrity chancellors and the bestowing of honorary degrees upon famous faces are a common promotional practice.
But even if Stayin’ Alive is your favourite song and Manchester University has made the Bee Gees honorary doctors in music (which it has), think hard about whether it is best for you — even though it is our university of the year for 2006.
The new climate among universities has sharpened the focus on decision-making about degrees. And that’s a good thing, says Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham. “A lot of students at the moment are happy to go into any course. They think it’s three years away from home and a rite of passage. But if you’re going to spend three years doing something, you want to spend that time wisely. It deserves careful thought.”
The options are many and it is your responsibility to go into a degree knowing what to expect. Consider, for instance, whether you want a general academic course or something vocational; combined honours or a sandwich course with a year abroad.
The advice from Smithers is to keep your options open by studying a core subject rather than taking a vocational course. Even medicine, the degree that brings with it such a revered position in society, should be treated with caution. “A lot of people get into medicine because it has high prestige, and then they find they don’t want to spend their lives with sick people. They just got the A grades and thought, I’m bright, this is what I’ve got to do,” he says.
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If you do decide to follow a vocational degree such as accountancy or engineering, find out whether the course offers the professional qualifications to go with it.
A few universities are charging fees of £2,000, rather than £3,000, but this shouldn’t be a big deciding factor. The money saved doesn’t represent a huge amount over the duration of your working life. It is, however, worth considering the big scholarships offered to the brightest students by some universities; £10,000 is not to be sniffed at.
Smithers likens undergraduate degrees to “the arterial road for the rest of your life”. Which, to continue the theme, makes choosing your course a crossroads. And it always pay to read the signs carefully.