Decision Making Top Tips
Whether you are trying to decide on your five university/degree course choices during your application or you are trying to decide which university offer to accept, here are some decision making top tips...
OPEN DAYS / UNIVERSITY COURSE ADMINISTRATION
These are a fabulous ways to find out not only about the university and the degree course but also their support and facilities such as accommodation, shops, bars, cafes, careers advice, counselling service, learner support, sporting facilities, clubs and societies and much more.
To find the date for university open days check out their website or use the UCAS Open Day Finder.
Sometimes you may have more detailed questions regarding the degree course or the support the university can offer, in these situations then the best person to contact is the course's administration team who will usually be working through out the year.
COMPARISON WEBSITES
One way to decide between universities and courses is to compare and contrast a number of university/courses so that you can see the pros and cons of each individual university and course. The following websites will allow you to do this:
Unifrog (make sure you have your login and password to hand, emailed to you by Unifrog in September)
Discover Uni
QUALITY STANDARDS
Comparison websites will use recognised quality standards to rank universities and their courses, but you can do this independently using the following:
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Friends and family who have been to universities you are interested in, or know other people who have been to these universities, can be great sources of information. They will be able to tell you what a university or course is like from the experience of having been their and studied the course. Higher education has changed enormously over the last few decades, so those people who have studied been more recently will be more reliable witnesses.
Health Warning: Other peoples' experiences of universities or courses can be swayed by negative experiences, or out of date information. So please don't use this information on its own to make a decision, always use it in conjunction with other information contained within this lesson.
PROFESSIONALS WHO CAN HELP AT PETROC
Here at Petroc there are a number of professionals you can talk to to help you with your decision making. They are:
Careers Education and Guidance Adviser (based in the Advice and Guidance Centre)
Advice and Guidance Centre staff
Tutor Support Coordinator
Academic Progress Lecturer
Teaching staff
Outside of Petroc you could try talking to:
University Careers Services sometimes offer 'pre-entry' guidance - check with the universities of your choice
Someone who is in the profession you aspire to
PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Many occupations have professional associations whose websites can include a list of degree courses that are valid for their professional status, and also provide careers information on routes into, and career progression within, that profession. This isn't an exhaustive list but here are some examples:
Accountancy - ICAEW
Architectural - RIBA
Human Resource Management - CIPD
Marketing - CIM
Medicine - BMA
Nursing & Midwifery - NMC
Psychology - BPS
Law - Law Society
NB: Law training is changing from Autumn 2021, to find out more click here.
If the job you are interested isn't here try doing an internet search on the job title attaching to the search string the following words: professions, associations, societies.
EMPLOYABILITY
Although getting a job may seem a long way off, it is important to consider this when applying for university for a number of reasons: some jobs require you to study a specific degree, some require you to achieve a certain class of degree, some universities have a better track record of their graduates finding employment than others, and knowing what jobs you can do with your chosen subject may will help prevent you from making the wrong decision.
University employment record
The following website will help you to find graduate employment information on any UK university over the past few years:
DLHE (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education)
Graduate jobs that link with your degree subject
Knowing which degree subjects, degree classification or other qualifications specific jobs or employers want is a great way to help you with your decision making. This is because often the decision is made for you by the employer as they will specify the degree subject and/or classification of degree (e.g. (1st, 2:1 or 2:2). For example The Spencer Group are looking for a Graduate Design Engineer and would accept a 2:1 degree in the following engineering subjects: transport, mechanical, environmental, construction or civil.
Click the following to find:
a list of jobs by degree subject
a list of jobs by industry/sector