Students in the UK Choosing “Wrong Degree” Due to Lack of Information About Study Choices, Report Shows

The University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) has revealed that two in five university students claim they would attend a preferred subject of degree if they were exposed to adequate information and advice in high school, based on “Where next?” the latest UCAS report.

Consequently, one in five students wasn’t able to attend a degree subject of their choice since they didn’t have the required subjects to progress.

According to the report, this occurrence is more critical for some degree courses such as medicine, economics, and language since applicants for these fields of studies are required a specific set of skills or subjects to be eligible to apply.

The report issued by UCAS also emphasized the impact of an early engagement in career information, advice and guidance, since only one in three students understood that pursuing higher education was an option for them at primary school, Erudera.com informs.

Chief Executive at UCAS, Clare Marchant, has acknowledged the study findings highlighting that “no student should unknowingly close the door to their career aspirations.”

“UCAS data shows that just under half of the registered applicants would like more information about apprenticeship opportunities. Despite this, nearly one in three students have told us that they did not receive any information and advice about apprenticeships from their school,” Chief Marchant asserted.  

Commenting on the findings of the report, the Higher Education Liaison Officers Association (HELOA) Chairman, Jonathan Atkinson, stated that HELOA is working to enhance students’ individual choices when it comes to picking their careers.

“HELOA members work collaboratively to enhance our knowledge; our best practice sharing enables us to focus on the individual needs of students helping them to make an informed decision about their future options,” Chairman Atkinson claimed.

The USCAS report also reveals that 83 percent of students choose their degree study subject by subject preference rather than university, stressing the importance of a subject-focused approach.

Almost 99 percent of participating students in the study claimed that they would choose their schools based on how much they liked the study degree subject, which results to be the main factor for the degree choice.

Over 50 percent of respondents also claimed that high graduate employment rates impact their school choices more since the COVID-19 outbreak.

While two in five students affirm that if more information was provided to them in earlier stages of education, they would have had it easier to make the right study decision, one in three students claimed they were not provided with any information about apprenticeships from their school at all.

Since schools reportedly did not provide enough information for students to make their preferred school choices, parents were a big help in determining their degree choice.

Study shows that students with a parent with a career in farming are almost 20 times more likely to study related subjects such as veterinary and agriculture.

A similar probability occurs with parents in medicine, whose children are eight times more likely to study medicine or dentistry. Students with a parent involved in arts are three times more likely to study arts or design courses.

UCAS is an independent organization that provides information, advice, and admission services aiming for the improvement of the United Kingdom education process. The organization is customer-focused, accountable, collaborative, service excellence and has successfully handled 2.79 million university applications from the UK, EU, and international students.

Recently UCAS has revealed that nursing programs in the UK have increased by 32 percent, with 60,130 students applying to this program since the COVID-19 pandemic has occurred.