What subjects can give me the most options?
Many courses at university level build on knowledge which you will gain while at College. Where this is the case, universities need to make sure that all the students they admit have prepared themselves in the best way to cope with their chosen course. For this reason, some university courses may require you to have studied a specific subject prior to entry, others may not. However, there are some subjects that are required more often than others. These subjects are sometimes referred to as facilitating subjects.
Subjects that can be viewed as ‘facilitating’ subjects are:
• Mathematics and Further Mathematics
• English
• Physics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Geography
• History
• Languages (Classical and Modern)
WARNING!
If you wish to study Music or Art at university advanced level qualifications in Music or Art are usually required. Some Mathematics courses may require both Mathematics and Further Mathematics.
By choosing facilitating subjects at advanced level, you will have a much wider range of options open to you at university. An advanced level qualification in any facilitating subject will keep open to you a number of degree courses. At some universities, a qualification in the subject is a requirement for entry to the course. At other universities, it may not be a requirement for the course, but will still be useful to gain entry. Of course, by choosing facilitating subjects you are not restricted to applying for degree courses which require those subjects. For example, even if you study three facilitating subjects at advanced level, you would still be able to apply to study Law at university (for which most universities do not require any specific advanced level subjects). So, by choosing facilitating subjects you are keeping open as many options as possible.
For information about the different degree courses open to applicants with each of the facilitating subjects listed above, you can refer to the UCAS website and university websites.
ATTENTION!
Although they may not be specified as required subjects, many successful applicants to the above courses do have advanced level qualifications in at least two of the facilitating subjects. Some of these courses may still have a preference for some of the facilitating subjects and one or two universities may be more prescriptive in their subject requirements – check the Entry Profiles on UCAS Course Search.