School subject choice warning

SOME students may be putting themselves at a disadvantage when applying to university by studying A-level subjects that they think will help them in their career, according to research.

A new study suggests youngsters who want to work in industries such as law, accounting or business may take A-levels in these subjects believing it will help them reach their goal.

Instead, these courses could hinder their chances of winning a place at a prestigious university and they would be better off studying traditional academic subjects such as maths, science or history.

Catherine Dilnot, of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL’s Institute of Education, used information on nearly 475,000 English students who went to UK universities with three A-levels in 2010, 2011 and 2012, examining the subjects they studied and the universities they attended.

The findings show that students taking A-levels in subjects such as law, accounting and business were less likely to attend a highly selective institution, those with high entry requirements, than those who had studied subjects such as science, maths or languages.

The Russell Group, which represents 24 leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, publishes information on the “facilitating subjects” that are often preferred, or required more often, by these institutions

Subjects on this list include English, maths, science, languages and history.

The study concludes that for accounting, business and law degree courses, studying more “facilitating subjects” at A-level was linked with attending a university that scored higher on league tables.