Combined/dual degrees - supportive unis?

[PermantlyExhaustedPigeon1]

DD2 is currently in Year 12 and considering applying for a combined degree. DD1 has friends at her uni doing this and they say the support and communication between departments is poor. Do any of you have a YP successfully and happily studying for a combined degree and could share which uni? Bonus points if you can comment on Sheffield, Durham, Birmingham or Royal Holloway. Thank you!

I have a child who looked into joint degree combinations in some detail (did not pursue in the end). Their take was that you would need to be proactive from the outset and effectively get involved to ensure you were on top of things/able to mitigate issues. They did probe at Open Days and used the 'chat to a student' online feature on many uni websites to do a bit more digging.

I suspect experiences are specific to the combinations being considered and the staff responsible for co-ordination, rather than uni x does it well and uni y does not. Note there is usually a lead department even if a potential 50:50 split and that may have a bearing.

My DS started a degree across three departments at Birmingham and swapped to a single honours. He found it chaotic. Happy to share degree if you could give more detail.

What do you mean by combined degree?
DD1 did a joint honours at royal Holloway (English lit & Spanish) and there was really no need to have communication between two subject.

both were separate courses

I am guessing Liberal Arts or similar. Durham does combined honours degrees as does Exeter.

Joint honours is likely to be straightforward as it’s a well trodden route. Liberal arts needs more planning and do dc actually get what they want? Not sure. I’d look at joint honours and not spread the course too thinly.

Thanks for the replies. To clarify, yes I mean a joint honours degree, apologies if that was unclear. Specifically she’s looking at languages (does two for A level but undecided which at uni) and music. Durham doesn’t offer this combination so it would be Liberal Arts there, but the other unis she’s looking at do.

I have just completed a combined degree at St Andrews. There was no communication between any of the departments and i didn't expect there to be. What you have to be able to juggle is being part of its of different departments with all their different rules about essays, referencing, models of practice etc. I was simultaneously or concurrently an Art history, English literature, history, anthropology, philosophy and at one point computer science student. They do have a lot of subject matter in common but come at it from different angles and it can be a lot to get your head around.

I hope you get some more information hete, OP.

However DD can also join the online forum The Student Room and directly engage with students in the degree programmes that she is considering. Most of the answers are pretty forthright.

My dc is doing an x with y degree and only negative seems to be no timetable co ordination, she physically can’t get to some lectures as they are back to back but 15 mins walk apart. She prioritises her main subject and watches the secondary subject online. She also had a reading week one subject and not other.

I will add that those are fabulous unis for music!

I think the music and MFL degree at Birmingham is quite well established so may run more smoothly than my DS's newer degree.

Birmingham itself is a supportive university with good structures in place and I hear the same of Sheffield.

Sheffield's halls of residence have music practice rooms as a bonus point.

@PermantlyExhaustedPigeon1Hmm. I think those subjects are a lot of work. DD has joint MFL degree and really would not have wanted music on top! What gives? You have a lot of language learning plus lots of reading and essays for 2 MFLs. Then 2 locations for year abroad. It’s more work than some degrees. Can music not be for pleasure or via external exam? What’s the goal in 4 years? Plus some unis don’t have great MFL departments any more and options are limited. I suspect this could be why there’s a short list with this subject combination.

These are definitely all things she’s considering. Most unis that offer the subject combination only allow one language, which is completely understandable. Her main indecision at the moment is whether to combine MFL with music, or do an MFL degree with music as a hobby, or a straight music degree…..

Thank you for the positivity!

Thank you, I’ll suggest she looks at proximity of departments on open days!

I think career outcomes can be very different @PermantlyExhaustedPigeon1 and I think I would look very carefully at what outcome she wants in terms of employment. Music is an art and salaries are often low - and what job does she aspire to? MFLs do have greater breadth I believe. Music and one MFL sounds reasonable or 2 MFLs. One Department with MFLs so no conflict at all one would assume. Really depends if music is an all consuming passion I think .

There is if it means clashing seminars/tutorials or exams.

I agree with the workload for MFL. DD houseshared with a couple of MFL students and she said that their workload was even heavier than that of her STEM degree.

When I did my degree at St Andrews every one took 3 subjects in 1st year and either 3(arts) or 2 (scientists) in second year before progressing on to honours.

We had the joy (30 years ago) of a 15 minute walk between our 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock lectures plus subject specific reading weeks - which were in consecutive weeks!

I loved it. I did 3 subjects in first year (2 familiar from a levels) and 2 second year subjects (one from alevel, plus the other new subject i'd picked up) and a first year subject in my second year.

My friends who were linguists took 2 languages, plus something else that interested them (one did medieval history, the other did philosophy) in first year and then carried on their languages and picked up something else (I think another language) in 2nd year just for fun. They then continued with joint languages to honours.

Either she was spectacularly lucky, or there had at some point been an awful lot of communication between departments at some level? Otherwise,why shouldn't both departments decide e.g. to timetable lectures for a compulsory module at 2pm on Tuesdays?

DD did IR with French at Birmingham (graduated 2023). I don't remember her complaining about clashes (which doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't have them. She may just have sorted them out (or not) and got on with it).

I've done a dual hons degree at Sheffield, graduated last year. Mature student so can't comment on accommodation etc. I did literature and Philosophy. Was absolutely fine and they complemented each other very well. I know another student did literature and music and was really happy.

Sheffield is a brilliant city to study at. It's buzzy and friendly and fairly cheap to live. The uni is brilliant. Tell her to check out the modules for her course and what optional modules she can take. I seem to think you can do languages whatever degree you are doing, for one module per year? So she wouldn't get the degree in it, but would be on her records as having completed the module.

They are very close together at Birmingham.

The longest walk between any building would possibly be music and some social sciences or science buildings and that would be possibly an 8 minute walk. The teaching campus is compact.

Here is a site map:

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/contact/directions

Lancaster has the minor system so most students do two or even three subjects in the first year, so they’re used to making it work. And I knew a lot of people who continued into second year with dual honours and I don’t remember anyone saying they had issues with it

There is a Durham map here and it looks like a 15 minute walk between music and the main teaching area:

https://www.durham.ac.uk/media/durham-university/visit-us/documents/open-days/September-Session-Locations-and-Maps.pdf

Going back a few years I did French and music joint honours at Leeds.

Back then most of us were doing joint honours so it was well set up for all of us, no real issues that I remember except it was our responsibility to make sure no timetable clashes- I don’t recall this being a serious issue.

ETA
there wasn’t any communication between departments that I recall, but not was there any need for it