University Courses
Which Universities do which courses?
If you know what subject area you are looking for you should go to the official UCAS website – Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
Enter the students pathway and carry out a course search using the ‘Subject and location’ options.
Note: Try not to be put off by the range of courses available and don’t expect to find the perfect course on your first search.
WARNING!!
The major flaw in this site is that it does not offer alternative names for similar courses. E.g. If you were interested in ‘Computer Games Design’ and you search under that name you may not find many courses. So you should then search for ‘Interactive Entertainment Technology’ Or ‘Creative Visualisation’ Or ‘Multimedia Technology’ etc. Which should suggest other possible courses.
You may be confused by entry requirements for some universities appearing as a points score. This is because UCAS uses a tariff. Here is a table showing how grades convert to points:
AS
| Grade | A | B | C | D | E |
| UCAS Points | 60 | 50 | 40 | 30 | 20 |
A2
| Grade | A | B | C | D | E |
| UCAS Points | 120 | 100 | 80 | 60 | 40 |
And now A* are available at 140 points
Remember that you do not get points for AS results in subjects you are continuing to A2 because they are included in your final A2 grade. If you have completed an AS and gained a grade but are not taking the subject to A2 level those AS points do apply separately.
The UCAS website provides access to all the websites of higher education institutions which recruit through UCAS. However an alternative route to ‘HE websites’ can be found here. Click on the name of the institution on the list and their location will be shown on the map. Then click on the homepage link on the right hand menu. Don’t just look at the online prospectus, also search for specific subject/department pages.
A good general site for students can be found at The Student Room. This has sections about Higher Education as well as topics such as Health and Relationships and Revision Notes.
If you want to know what current and ex university students think about the universities they attended visit www.Whatuni.com.
WARNING!!
University and college websites differ greatly in quality of information and ease of use. Try not to be put off by this and search out courses of interest in relevant prospectuses. These also differ in quality but all are primarily ‘Marketing Booklets’ full of happy people, excellent facilities and sunny weather!
If you want to see what graduates think of their university experience you can look at the results of the National Student Survey. Log onto www.unistats.com and register. This will enable you to view your subject at HE institutions you are considering and compare their ratings.
To find out when you can visit universities you should log onto www.opendays.com.
Most universities offer a virtual tour. Find out if the niversity offers a virtual tour by searching the university website, if the tour is not advertised on the homepage.
Another useful website which will help you in your decision making can be found at www.studentuk.com.
If you are interested in finding out more about applying to Oxford and Cambridge a useful website can be found at www.oxbridge-admissions.info
More Advice
If you are wondering what you can do with a particular degree subject then look at www.prospects.ac.uk. When you go to this site you should click on ‘options with your subject’. All sections of this website are useful for your longer term planning. Take some time to explore it.
A useful website written by students for students is www.push.co.uk, this looks at the ‘Why, Where, What and How’ of studying.
Note: Beware of strongly biased views and check out the information on ‘facilities’ with the official prospectuses as these are not updated as regularly as they could be.
Help with your UCAS application
Two useful websites to help you with your UCAS Personal Statement, etc can be found at www.studential.co.uk and www.target-10000.org (click on Applicant Tools).
Accommodation
In addition to the accommodation sections of individual University websites two other useful sources of information can be found at www.accommodationforstudents.com and www.homesforstudents.co.uk. These include private accommodation.