[kevin6767]

The Russell group of the 20 largest research based universities in the country have published their list of generally preferred subjects in an attempt to aid student A level choice.
Dr Wendy Piatt said: "All students - particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds - must have access to appropriate information and guidance about the choices that will maximise or reduce their opportunities and life chances from an early age.

"It is really important that students do not disadvantage themselves by choosing a combination of subjects at A-level which will not equip them with the appropriate skills and knowledge for their university course or which may not demonstrate effectively their aptitude for a particular subject.

"Informed Choices emphasises the importance of 'facilitating' subjects, such as maths and English, which are particularly effective in equipping students with the skills they need for a large number of competitive courses and in increasing a student's chances of getting on to those courses."

Basically due to the tuition fee increase and government pressure they have issued a list of the subjects they consider hard and soft or as she put it traditional and vocational based. This many be of use to those that are considering applying to some of the top universities and haven't yet finalised your further education choices.

The list of courses they like i.e. more theoretically based, give the greatest flexibility or "facilitate" in the admissions processes are as follows:

Mathematics and futher mathematics
English
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geography
History
Languages (modern and classic)

List of generally more vocational based qualifications they mention as less preferred include:
Photography
media studies
Art and design
Business studies

But they do say there is not set definition of a soft or hard subject just ones that provide more flexibility than others.
Full explanation can be found by following the link to the russell group page below. It is stressed that those of you who have a portfolio of 2 or more faciliating subjects combined with 1 "softer" subject generally don't experience any difficulty in the admissions process. If you like art and design as something creative, combine it with 2 of the subjects in the more traditional category and you will be fine for example. In the link you will find a 5 point plan they set out and general information about general qualification needs of different fields for example there is The Scientist and The linguist.

Please note that although these are specific examples given they do not cover all the subjects available. The guide also mentions economics and politics being preferred but they are more field specific i.e. politics may not be as preferred for a science based course as it is for history for example. Sociology and Psychology are often referred to as being "mid-range".

There is a comprehensive breakdown of undergraduate courses with entry requirements in the report as well, you know what you want to study so read the report and see what information is relevant to and will help you get on the course you want to study.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12365050

http://russellgroup.ac.uk/russell-gr...study-choices/

The report:

http://russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/In...es-final_2.pdf


TO THOSE OF YOU BELOW THAT HAVE TAKEN THIS AS A PERSONAL ATTACK ON THE SUBJECTS YOU CHOSE TO STUDY, IT IS NOT. IT IS A REPORT DESIGNED TO HELP DISPEL POOR CAREERS ADVICE TO THOSE WHO OTHERWISE HAVE NO POINT OF REFERENCE. AS RESEARCH LEAD UNIVERSITIES THEY ARE TRYING TO PROVIDE INFORMATION IN ONE PLACE AS TO THE BEST SUBJECTS TO STUDY TO GET A PLACE ON A COURSE AT ONE OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS. THEY DO NOT DEFINE SOFT OR HARD SUBJECTS JUST FACILITATING AND LESS FACILITATING TO GAIN A PLACE ON A COURSE WITH THEM. AN ENTIRE SECTION IS DEVOTED TO ART, MUSIC, MEDIA STUDIES AND SO ON. AT LEAST READ THE REPORT BEFORE YOU DISMISS EVERYTHING IN IT AND WHAT IT IS AIMING TO DO.

[spyka]

Full article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12365050

They 'advise' people to study two A levels from a list of 'facilitating subjects' which are:

English, maths (and fm), physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history and languages (classical and modern)

"If you plan to take more than one perceived 'soft' subject, some caution may be needed."

It lists these soft subjects as those "with a vocational bias" such as media studies, art and design, photography and business studies.

*que 10 page discussion on why subject X is/isn't a soft subject*

[chrislpp]

I think if you have a fair idea of what you want to study at university right before your GCSEs (I personally didn't) then you know what subjects to take, it's not rocket science (so to speak) and the universities normally show their preferred subjects on the online prospectuses. But personally I wasn't very well informed, so I can see why it's good that unis publish this. Many people don't want to take a hard subject right after GCSEs, I'd probably have failed!

IMO there is an awfully bad attempt made by some schools to get students thinking about this. Personally my careers advisor was absolutely horrific and advised me against what I really wanted to do, and hadn't a clue of how I could start doing it, and if you said ''well I guess I like maths'' (many people can say this, or any subject for that matter) he would simply say ''cool, well do maths at uni then!''

retard...

The irony is taking career advice from someone who hasn't got one. Labour's shambles of a government thought just ship anyone off to university would solve all our generation's problems, what did they do? Just reduced the quality of a typical Bachelor's. Mickey Mouse courses which are nowhere parallel with the real world, and many people haev no chance of getting into their preferred industry/trade.

It's now a business for universities to attract students leading them to think they can actually get a job in the media, music, <insert topic> industry.

It's REALLY high if 40% get a job in their preffered industry these days for these types of subjects.

[kevin6767]

(Original post by chlobofro)
I lol'd at it really. Like it matters.
So what if you wanted to do an Art Degree? Art A Level wouldn't be helpful? *facepalm*

No that is mentioned under the field specific section in the report. As few russell group universities offer degrees in art then it wouldn't be appropriate for them to devote large sections of the report to the subject. These are researched based universities and offer advice on how to achieve a place with one of their 20 members.

[IlexAquifolium]

In other news, bears **** in woods. It's nice of them to make this information freely available for sure, but sadly I suspect the kids that this would actually help probably won't read it.

[chlobofro]

(Original post by kevin6767)
No that is mentioned under the field specific section in the report. As few russell group universities offer degrees in art then it wouldn't be appropriate for them to devote large sections of the report to the subject. These are researched based universities and offer advice on how to achieve a place with one of their 20 members.

They act like these subjects aren't hard and they really are. Stupid. I'd like to see them try Art A Level.

[pianofluteftw]

Is Music a soft subject? Funnily enough it hardly ever comes up on publications like these as it is rather difficult to place, as it is a combination of both academic and talented study. According to an admissions tutor (I'm applying for Physics) they liked the fact that I did music as well, as few people study it to A level and it demonstrates a wide range of skills and talents and an interesting candidate

[Stratos]

(Original post by chlobofro)
I lol'd at it really. Like it matters.
So what if you wanted to do an Art Degree? Art A Level wouldn't be helpful? *facepalm*

You don't need a degree to make art...

[kevin6767]

(Original post by chlobofro)
They act like these subjects aren't hard and they really are. Stupid. I'd like to see them try Art A Level.

If you check out the report you will see, as I mentioned, they refuse to put a general definition of soft or hard subjects. They are research lead institutions primarily in sciences. All they are saying is if you want to come to one of our universities we prefer these subjects because they are more relevant to the courses we offer. For example maths, biology and chemistry would be relevant to the study of biochemistry, art would not as it provides no knowledge relative to the subject. It is a question of relevance to the needs of their courses.

[chlobofro]

(Original post by kevin6767)
If you check out the report you will see, as I mentioned, they refuse to put a general definition of soft or hard subjects. They are research lead institutions primarily in sciences. All they are saying is if you want to come to one of our universities we prefer these subjects because they are more relevant to the courses we offer. For example maths, biology and chemistry would be relevant to the study of biochemistry, art would not as it provides no knowledge relative to the subject. It is a question of relevance to the needs of their courses.

Yes but isn't that ridiculously OBVIOUS to an intelligent person? Christ, Nanny State Britain.

[Einheri]

(Original post by chlobofro)
They act like these subjects aren't hard and they really are. Stupid. I'd like to see them try Art A Level.

I agree. I'm a pretty good artist but got a D at AS in Art. It's insanely hard.

[chlobofro]

(Original post by Stratos)
You don't need a degree to make art...

You don't NEED a degree to write a book or do Maths.

[kevin6767]

(Original post by pianofluteftw)
Is Music a soft subject? Funnily enough it hardly ever comes up on publications like these as it is rather difficult to place, as it is a combination of both academic and talented study. According to an admissions tutor (I'm applying for Physics) they liked the fact that I did music as well, as few people study it to A level and it demonstrates a wide range of skills and talents and an interesting candidate

As I said above they do not give a definition of what is a soft or hard course, it is a question of relevance to their needs. You didn't apply to study physics without doing physics at A level or an equivalent further education qualification otherwise you wouldn't have been accepted. There is a whole section devoted to subjects like media studies, music, drama, art and so in the report.

[Einheri]

(Original post by Stratos)
You don't need a degree to make art...

But if you want to be an art critic, dealer or curator you'll need a degree in Fine Art and/or Art History.

[spyka]

(Original post by chlobofro)
They act like these subjects aren't hard and they really are. Stupid. I'd like to see them try Art A Level.

It's nothing to do with them being hard or not, it's to do with them being useful. An A level in art is great for Art, but that's about it. (Ok a few other things like graphic design and whatnot, but generally very limied)

An A level in Maths or a Science however can be applied to hundreds of degrees

[chlobofro]

(Original post by spyka)
It's nothing to do with them being hard or not, it's to do with them being useful. An A level in art is great for Art, but that's about it. (Ok a few other things like graphic design and whatnot, but generally very limied)

An A level in Maths or a Science however can be applied to hundreds of degrees

Funny how they call them "hard" or "soft" subjects.

[FlobberDobber]

I agree that in most cases it should just be common sense.......

[Mr Inquisitive]

Art is devalued because of instances such as this.

"The invisible painting"



Ludicrous.

[juliewho]

This sort of advice needs to be extended into schools, not just available via internet really.
My careers advice was absolutely shockingly bad - I told them I originally wanted to be a doctor and they advised me to take the health and social care btec.
Lots of kids don't have access to some of the more traditional subjects either, and especially at my old school, which is failing and based in a low income area, there was no motivation for people to do harder or traditional subjects - the majority of my friends are now doing drama, english language etc. Obviously great for some degrees, but it doesn't help when careers advisors don't have a clue what they are talking about and there isn't any motivation or goal presented whatsoever.

[mimimimi]

Meh, big deal. I go to a Russell Group uni and I have a feeling that 4/4 of my A Levels would be considered 'soft'. Obviously I'd never apply for anything like Medicine or Law with them, but for a lot of courses they don't care too much. This is what I've deduced from being at Manchester, anyway.