Particularly fantastic less-conventional undergrad degree courses

[Delphigirl]

I would be really interested in hearing what people think are really interesting and perhaps less considered degree courses available to undergrads at UK universities. I don’t really mean a list of unis that people thinks are great for chemistry, but rather those slightly niche courses run in fantastic departments that maybe people don’t generally know even exist, or in any event are outside the usual A level departments.

So I’m thinking of, for example, War Studies at Kings College London - internationally renowned, different to what you might think of from the name, highly attractive to employers.
I would add Landscape Architecture at Sheffield - the best course in the UK, probably in Europe, a jewel of a department with fabulous teaching and cameraderie, extremely high employment rates, probably not thought about by kids who re attracted by architecture but arguably can lead to a better paid and more fulfilling career.
Also Oceanography at Southampton - world-leading and world-respected, broad ranging multidisciplinary science/geography/ and environmental degree leading to a number of different careers, becoming more topical by the day re climate change.

Or

I’m sure there are lots of others - what degrees/departments can you recommend which are out of the ordinary run of things, for our kids to think about? Particularly hearing from employers who hire out of particular courses - what makes those kids so employable?

DD is doing an MBiol at Oxford; not especially unconventional although her cohort will be the first to graduate with an Oxford MBiol next year and her fourth year is based partly at Kew .
DD's bf has just graduated from the Security and Intelligence course at Aberystwyth and loved both course and Aber.
DS is reading Land Economy at Cambridge (Economics, Law and the Environment). The department website does claim to have the highest employment rate of any Cambridge course.

Horology at Birmingham City University

I wish I was young again so I could do this course: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/degrees/icelandic-ba/ A year in Iceland? 😍

Strathclyde offers Naval Architecture and Heriot-Watt offers Brewing and Distilling.

Both highly regarded.

@Delphigirl AvocadoPlant is your DS working in aerospace now? Or space?

Yep, he works with cutting edge technology in the aerospace/edge of space arena.
Like all his friends on this course he had a grad role lined up before graduating and now 5 yrs post grad he manages his own team and has been promoted 3 times since finishing the 2 year grad scheme at his company. More importantly he loved the degree and the challenge of designing craft to work in space or zero gravity terrains.

Incredibly cool @AvocadoPlant

But what does one do with a degree in Icelandic @RomComPhooey?! I suppose it would probably guarantee you an interview for grad schemes from sheer curiosity alone.

Lancaster had at one time a degree course where you could choose your own modules from throughout the university. I think it was called 'independent studies', don't know if it still exists.

Aviation Technology with Pilot Studies and Management at Leeds University. You get your private pilot license as part of the course & most graduates go on to become commercial pilots.

Strathclyde do MSc Environmental Entrepreneurship - have produced loads of eco-friendly companies...

sports engineering at loughborough, with lots of involvement from Adidas. Kit design, equipment design. A neighbour's daughter doe sit and it sounds brilliant.
I've been looking at US university courses today with DD and they are phenomenal - create your own. All the Ivy League schools offer a major in Jewish studies which I'm not aware of in many UK unis; on the other hand, only a couple do range of geography majors. Really interesting.

@Delphigirl I think you’re missing the point here. There is a year in Iceland and an increased chance of shacking up with an Icelander post-graduation. Employability? Meh.

Is hot Icelanders a thing?

Forensic Anthropology at University of Dundee

Mechatronic at University of Birmingham

Sounds amazing but don't know what it's actually like...

Possibly every undergraduate's parents' home has a small prototype moving dinosaur gathering dust somewhere, though? My first experience of Mechatronics was at the Natural History Museum. Although a young DS1, our resident dino-freak, was unexpectedly so traumatised by the T Rex that we all had to be ushered out of the display area half way round through the emergency exit.

On the subject of which, Palaeontology and Evolution, Bristol:
www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/palaeontology-evolution/bsc-palaeontology-and-evolution/

I love this thread - so many of these look like fab courses. I will show the DCs who will need to think about uni in the next couple of years but who haven’t yet landed on any traditional choice.

It is a great and uplifting thread - thanks delphi. It is so great to read an HE thread where literally no one is sneering at any degrees. Take note, Gavin Williamson!

Aww thanks
I just think that there are so many great courses that kids might do if they only knew a) they existed and b) they were good/well run etc
And in this country you need to think about these in advance so early, when choosing A levels. If you want Titchy’s Tonneister course the requirements are strict - Maths, Physics and Music A levels… you need to know that by year 11 to aim for it.
I do hope other people add to the thread because there are other pockets of excellence.

Eg Plymouth University degree in Ocean Exploration and Surveying. Anything Marine at Plymouth is pretty much world respected but this is one of the few undergrad hydrography degrees out there, and most also come out with professional diving qualifications too. A highly practical and hands on adventurous yet scientific course with a professional career at the end of it.

Any more?

I almost applied for Ergonomics at Loughborough. I’m not sure if it’s more widely offered now, but at the time that was the only place offering it.
That was decades ago and I still wonder whether the course would have been as interesting as the description suggested.

I’m quite taken by that Brewing and Distilling degree at Herriot-Watt… did anyone ever lose money distilling gin?!

I suppose a bit similar to the Tonmeister idea is Live Event Technology at Solent,which obviously is about festivals and OBs. Very cool degrees and careers out there for techy types these days!

I have a friend who did acoustic engineering for the automotive industry making sure fancy cars purr. He had a degree in acoustics.

My DS has just graduated from Liverpool John Moores with a Bsc in Forensic Science which is a really interesting subject on its own but it overlaps with the Forensic Anthropology course which blew me away on the open day! I found the the talk fascinating but DS was fixed on Forensic Science .

And he's just been offered a job in a financial crime unit so will be using his degree - I'm so proud of him, I want to tell everyone, even strangers in the street (but I don't!)!

@Iamanunsafebuilding that’s so lovely to hear, well done to your DS!

The Tonmeister course at Surrey has an excellent reputation and this has been the case for a number of years. By coincidence 3/7 of last year's A level group in my subject are now completing their 1st year there!

Go to Uni in Oban on the Scottish west coast - BSc in Marine Science with Artic Studies or Marine Science with Oceanography and Robotics?