Beware
Same name, different game
Okay, so having decided what you want to study, everything’s straightforward, right? Wrong. Could life ever be that simple?
A course might have the same name at different universities and be just as different as the universities themselves. We’re not just talking about different lecturers, different rooms and stuff.
Take English, for example: one university’s course might be focused mainly on the novel, giving you a choice of options to study ranging from the nineteenth century novel to postmodern American fiction. You can even submit creative writing as part of your work. Another university also has a course called English. Theirs stretches a bit further back, taking in options in classical dramatic traditions, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Old Norse, Chaucer through to Shakespeare, and also looking scientifically at language itself and how it evolves.
Neither university necessarily offers a better degree in English than the other, just different. It’s down to you whether you’re more excited by the prospect of studying Beowulf or Bridget Jones.
Then there are the subsids. Most single honours courses allow or require students to take subsidiary courses but, while English at one might offer you a particular buffet of side dishes to accompany your main course, at the other you might find a wider choice, a narrower choice or even no choice at all. Maybe you won’t be allowed to take a subsid, even if you want to (often the case with joint and combined honours courses). Maybe it’ll have to be a language or a science or an arts subject or a computing or vocational qualification.
All these things can differ and a lot else besides. It depends on the university.
Prospectuses are the most reliable place to fill in the details beyond the course title. Failing that, you can try websites or a quick phone call to the department to ask what options are available in the course. (The list of options may well change before you get there, but it’ll give you an idea.)
Different approaches to teaching,
Different approaches to getting marked,
Other differences
Last updated on: 01 May 2008