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?

Off road automotive engineering at Harper Adams?

I'd recommend any of the mining engineering, minerals processing or geology degrees at Camborne School of Mines (University of Exeter, Penryn campus)... although I think they've paused recruitment for BEng Mining Engineering for next year :-(

I saw that @Cornishmumofone and I was a bit sad about that, given it is one of the premier mining engineering programs in the world. Do you know why that is? Have they struggled to fill the course in the last few years? I’m amazed if so…

Liberal Arts- lots of options , more like an American course

Disclaimer: I work there... but at Harper Adams University we have quite a few niche courses and as a result our graduates do very well.

Rural Enterprise and Land Management - to become a rural chartered surveyor and possibly end up managing huge country estates

Agricultural engineering- unique course and now veering towards farm robotics, drones, laser weeding and so on as well as traditional tractors etc

Zoology with entomology- only undergraduate course in the UK to focus on insect science

Veterinary physiothery, Clinical Animal Behaviour, etc etc

And many more. All specialised and designed to produce what employers need.

A graduate of Harper Adam here and would agree with pp that a lot of the courses are niche and very well run. 5 years post graduation and every single person I know who graduated in my class is working in their field somehow. Lots with great careers (I went for the love of animals and travel route so not me).
I also have a couple of friends who studied the Aberystwyth security course and it sounded fascinating I was very jealous of them while doing a Mres centered entirely around cow poo.

How on earth do teens find out about these things? I have a 14 yo who is a great all rounder with absolutely no idea what to do for a levels/degree…there are various here that might interest them but there isn’t enough time in the day to read all the course descriptions at all the uk universities to find these fabulous ones…

@titchy

Music Tech at Huddersfield or Salford. Tonmeister at Surrey.

My son is currently doing sound engineering and music production at Huddersfield. There is a foley option too, sadly he didn't choose it, which I was gutted about as although niche I personally would find it fascinating.

Dorothea, I agree this is an issue . You almost need to know you are looking for it!

One thing is to look at soem universities , buy a prospectus or look at their A_Z menu of subjects and they all pop up.

If you have a child who loves Kpop, kdrama, kmovies there are various universities that do Korean studies, some linked with TSOL, Japanese, linguistics, law, history etc.

Absolutely shamelessly place-marking as I have a display board in my classroom that will need redoing over the summer and this is PERFECT inspiration for Worthing a bit different!

Something 🤦

My degree is in Biomedical Engineering and Computational Biology.

In other words... I learnt about how to make new bodies, about scanning equipment and how to make computer models of biological tissues

Brilliant thread thank you op

@jb7445

Not as exciting as some mentioned here, but social policy at Bristol is great and attracts a really interesting mix of people!

Yes, I mentioned SP upthread as overlooked. Bristol does it 'with innovation' too.

Might PM you about Bristol if that's OK? DS has on his longlist!

I love this thread- wish I'd known about these courses when I was choosing a uni course but a) they probably weren't around then cos I'm really old and b) the careers advice I got was rubbish- ' your best at French, you should do a French degree and become a French teacher'- uninspiring

Bookmarking to show DS later!

Thank you so much for this thread. My DS is not sure what course he wants to do and I think something niche would really suit him.

He wants to be at a Uni on the coast somewhere and do something marine related.

@jb no that’s exactly the sort of recommendation I way! @jb7445
The trouble about flicking through online lists of courses as that they don’t tell you whether they are just cobbled-together modules from existing courses to attract applicants or really excellent and inspiring well taught courses that employers really rate, which is what I suspect we are all looking for.

@Piggywaspushed I would love to know if those “and innovation” courses at Bristol are as great as they sound on paper. Does anyone have any insight?

Not really niche but even things like OT I didnt even know what that was at 18 and looking back I would have loved instead of doing a straight academic degree.

Peace Studies at Bradford - that's always been a fascinating course. It covers international relations, political violence and conflict resolution.

Transport and Logistics at Huddersfield. Students get placements at multinational companies and pretty much a guaranteed well paid job afterwards. A friend of mine did it and was travelling the world earning a fortune within a year of graduation.

A friend of mine did marine photography at Falmouth university.

@GameofPhones

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.

Several unis do Liberal Arts or Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences courses where you can pick from a huge variety of modules to basically make your own degree. Most require a major subject, or pathway, but you can pick all the individual parts bar one or two compulsory (some have A level requirements, but many don't).

Exeter do a Flexible combined Honours degree as well where you can practically pick any two subjects to study (subject to having the right entry qualifications).

@popolvuh

A graduate of Harper Adam here and would agree with pp that a lot of the courses are niche and very well run. 5 years post graduation and every single person I know who graduated in my class is working in their field somehow. Lots with great careers (I went for the love of animals and travel route so not me). I also have a couple of friends who studied the Aberystwyth security course and it sounded fascinating I was very jealous of them while doing a Mres centered entirely around cow poo.

Have to say the idea of graduates from Harper Adams working ‘in their field’ made me chuckle slightly. I know it’s not all Young Farmers, but that was very much the stereotype for Harper Adams when I was growing up.