Least Popular Undergraduate Courses

When you're applying to university, picking a course can feel like a minefield of options that all sound slightly similar, but also have completely different prospectuses and course requirements.

And then you have to take into consideration how competitive the course is, how likely you are to get a place, and whether the syllabus is exactly what you want to study. Pretty stressful, right?

Interestingly, The Knowledge Academy have taken a look at figures from the Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2016/17, to pull out the least popular undergraduate courses in the UK.

The least popular undergraduate courses:

·      Veterinary science – 5,460 students in 2017

·      Agriculture & related subjects – 9,240 students in 2017

·      Architecture, building & planning – 32,095 students in 2017

·      Mathematical sciences – 36,590 students in 2017

·      Mass communications & documentation – 39,490 students in 2017

They found that Veterinary Science is the least popular course for both male and female students, with only 1,110 male students partaking on the course in 2017 and 4,345 females, while Agriculture and Related Subjects only had 2,770 male students and 6,470 female students.

As for the most popular undergraduate courses.  Probably somewhat less surprising:

·      Business & administrative studies – 232,805 students in 2017

·      Biological sciences – 178,700 students in 2017

·      Subjects allied to medicine – 169,835 students in 2017

·      Social studies – 160,910 students in 2017

·      Creative arts & design – 154,610 students in 2017

The most popular subject among male students is Business studies, with 119,515 enrolled in 2017, while the most popular among females is subjects allied to medicine, with 136,215 students enrolled in 2017.