When should you specialise?

When should you specialise?

library imageStraight out of school or sixth form college, armed with your A-level results, you may not yet know what profession you want to enter. British degree courses are far more specialised than those in many other countries. If you are studying for Single Honours, in other words a degree course concentrating on one subject, you may find you cannot study anything else on that programme. Joint Honours courses permit you to concentrate on two subjects in roughly equal proportions.

Some degree programmes will allow you to combine two or more subjects through a modular, credit based scheme. You will have a number of compulsory units, but after that you can make up your programme more or less as you wish, depending on your qualifications, the timetable and the university's guidelines. Similarly, many courses will offer you a fairly broad first year with an increasing amount of specialisation later on if you want it.

Top Tips

Unless you know from the outset exactly what you want to do:

  • It is far better to start off in a fairly general way, until you know where your career is going, before specialising. Get as much advice as you can to help you before making any decisions.
  • Don’t let current job market conditions force you into choosing a course you think may get you a position at the end of it.  By the time you finish your degree, the situation may have changed markedly.