The choice of course options open to you is enormous. However, you have to note that some higher education courses are clearly aimed at producing graduates for particular careers, while some jobs require graduates in a particular subject area. You have to give thought to the relevance of the degree or discipline to the career you have in mind. This does not mean, however, that you have to choose a subject that you do not enjoy. On the contrary, the course you pick must interest and stimulate you. What is important is to make sure that the chosen course does actually enable you to enter your preferred employment area.
You have to think long and hard about the career you hope to have and find out the links between your course of study and the career you hope to follow.
Access and foundation courses are designed to help you gain admission into universities in Australia and UK ( United Kingdom ). These courses provide a bridge between your current qualifications and what you need to study.
At the end of the course, you will get all the skills and confidence you need to move smoothly up the academic ladder.
Access and foundation courses are basically the same thing. The terms are used interchangeably but foundation is often used to refer to a foundation-level course at a university (where you then do your degree). On the other hand access is used to refer to a course taken at an institution separate from the university at which you will do your degree but has links with the university. Both are designed to prepare you for degree-level study. If English is not your first language, English Language Courses (ELICOS) are available for you so that you can achieve the standard of English needed to take UK university studies.
The majority of students complete their access or foundation courses within one or two years but this is flexible as well (some can be offered at an accelerated pace of 6 - 9 months). Access and foundation courses are a good way to find out whether degree study is for you and what you think of the routine, the people and the atmosphere of Australia and UK educational institutions.
An architect produces within a given budget an aesthetically pleasing design to the eyes but will stand up to wear and tear and suit the needs of those living or working in it. Architecture is the science and art of building.
Design work involves both artistic skills (producing something attractive) and scientific skills (producing something technologically feasible).
Architecture covers many exciting courses. It takes in everything from engineering and structural design through building techniques and project management to graphics and design, not to mention the history and social role of architecture. Most graduates are fairly satisfied with their courses.
At the degree level there are architecture, architectural computing, interior architecture, landscape architecture and environment and industrial design (focusing on the design of things rather than buildings or landscapes). Australia and UK have a formidable reputation in architecture and civil engineering. What may come as a surprise is the range of other subjects for study. Land management, urban studies, building, urban and regional planning, water resources management, forestry, geology, farm business management and rural estate management are some of the many opportunities available.
The above courses are the second largest university programmes after business and management. They include lots of courses and specializations within courses, different kinds of careers and many further study options.
There is a huge range of subjects to choose from. For example, if your interest is in languages, your options would include French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. You could also study English language or literature, history, drama, American history or art history or a combination. You could take a degree or double degrees in interdisciplinary human studies, combining philosophy with psychology, sociology and literature, or you could study creative writing or drama or even a combination with law, engineering, business etc. There are also interdisciplinary courses that focus on particular geographic regions, for example Australian studies, British studies, African studies, East Asian studies and Latin American studies.
A degree in the humanities is often the starting point for jobs in commerce - banking and marketing - or public administration or the arts. A second or third language would equip you to translate or interpret and the expansion in global trade and inter-governmental co-operation means that the demand for people with linguistic skills continues to grow.
Business is a world within the world of tertiary studies. It is the biggest field of study in Australia and UK and it has by far the largest enrolments of international students. There is a huge range of subjects to choose from.
For example, if your interest is in languages, your options would include French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. You could also study English language or literature, history, drama, American history or art history or a combination. You could take a degree or double degrees in interdisciplinary human studies, combining philosophy with psychology, sociology and literature, or you could study creative writing or drama or even a combination with law, engineering, business etc. There are also interdisciplinary courses that focus on particular geographic regions, for example Australian studies, British studies, African studies, East Asian studies and Latin American studies.
A degree in the humanities is often the starting point for jobs in commerce - banking and marketing - or public administration or the arts. A second or third language would equip you to translate or interpret and the expansion in global trade and inter-governmental co-operation means that the demand for people with linguistic skills continues to grow.
Communications encompasses many disciplines including media studies, broadcasting, advertising, communication studies, journalism, film-making and public relations. Communications courses have glamour.
It's hard not to see yourself in the press gallery throng, door-stopping the PM, or presenting national current affairs show.
A degree in the humanities is often the starting point for jobs in commerce - banking and marketing - or public administration or the arts. A second or third language would equip you to translate or interpret and the expansion in global trade and inter-governmental co-operation means that the demand for people with linguistic skills continues to grow.
The facts are that many communications jobs aren't in journalism at all, and many jobs for journalists are not in the mainstream media but in local vernacular newspapers. Some may be absorbed in the public relations or government departments - or get no job at all. Nevertheless, courses are popular, particularly with women, who make up nearly three-quarters of the students' body.
However, if you have chosen journalism, you should realize that journalism covers a wide variety of jobs in a variety of settings. Journalists may work on daily newspapers, local weeklies, magazines, trade papers, television and radio, and news agencies. Almost every journalist starts as trainee-reporter. A reporter's work is rather hectic, usually working at irregular hours. He/she covers any kind of events, from political meetings to fire to press conferences for visiting film stars. Reporters compose stories by asking questions and listening to interviewees' answers at press conferences. He/she may also conduct one-to-one interviews with individual
Dentistry is a small well-known and high-status profession. Perhaps that is why so many high academic achievers want to become dentists. There is only a small student contingent in Australia and UK . All courses are hard to get in and the duration is five years.
It is part of science of medicine dealing with the study and maintenance of good health of the teeth, the bone supporting the teeth and the soft tissues in and around the mouth. Modern dentistry requires specialist knowledge not only of the mouth but also a wide understanding of the whole body.
A dentist preserves teeth by filling, crowning, and scaling. He extracts teeth and designs and fits artificial dentures. He also does surgical operation on the jaws, orthodontics, which is the improvement of irregular teeth, mainly in children. But this is changing field of practice. Tooth decay has just about disappeared, thanks to fluoride, and dental therapists and other paraprofessionals who do most of the straight repair and health education tasks once done by dentists. Dentists now tend to spend most of their time on cosmetic and other specialist work۔
Engineering (and technology) covers a vast range of disciplines from electrical, electronic and marine engineering to metals technology, motor vehicle technology and industrial design and technology. Production engineering opens
doors in manufacturing and industry, and civil engineering sets you on the road (literally) to building bridges and roads.
You could go for just aerospace engineering, if the aircraft industry interests you, or engineering product design which covers the complete product life cycle from consumer need through to sale. Some universities even have their own manufacturing groups.
Thousands of courses are available which cater for every types of engineering and every application for technology. The standard engineering degree is BEng and most prospective engineers are now opting for MEng which is an enhanced and extended degree programme and takes a year longer to complete. (The MEng is now the educational standard required to become a Chartered Engineer in the UK ; BEng degree has to be topped up through further learning).
A problem related to engineering courses which crops up is that they traditionally turned out 'one-dimensional technocrats'. "Technically they are superb but when you get into an organization you need to know something about what reality in business is, about finance and project management and all those sorts of issues". 'Those sorts of issues' include good oral and written communication skills, being imaginative, taking the initiative, and simply knowing how to work with others. So our recommendation is: choose a course that teaches all these things probably through a good range of electives and/or work experience.
The health sciences and community services field is very large and diverse. Training is offered not only for doctors, nurses and midwives but also for all the other health professions such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, art therapy,
radiography, dietetics, orthoptics, prosthetics, orthotics and chiropody. Professional bodies regulate training in all these fields and their high standards enable members to work virtually anywhere in the world.
Complementary medicine is a growing field. Therapies such as chiropractic, acupuncture, osteopathy and homeopathy have regulatory bodies or councils that ensure the integrity of training programmes and standards in practice. It is now common for UK hospitals to offer some form of complementary therapy to their patients.
Many careers in health now require a degree and this is reflected in the range of programmes offered. You can take a degree in nursing, midwifery, chiropody, physiotherapy, radiography, occupational therapy or in any other health-related profession. Courses cover both theoretical and practical training and usually last three to four years. In nursing, for example, the degree route to qualification is increasingly popular, particularly with international student-nurses. Degree programmes are available in adult nursing, children's nursing, mental health nursing, learning disabilities nursing and midwifery.
To read law in Australia or UK will be most appropriate for you. English common law forms the bedrock of UK law and has, for historical reason, been used as the basis of legal systems throughout the world.
This is the case in the majority of Commonwealth countries in Africa and Asia, as well as the United States of America , Canada , Australia and New Zealand . If you come from any of these countries, many of the elements of UK law will have counterparts in your legal system at home.
Changing patterns in trade and political relationships around the world have led to a huge expansion in the practice and application of law. There are international agreements on everything from trading and tariffs to airline compensation and climate change, all of which have required considerable negotiation and legislation.
If you have made decision to study law, you need to take into account the requirements of the country where you plan to practise law. Before you enroll on a law programme, you should check with the appropriate body in the country you wish to qualify or practise that the qualification you will obtain is recognized and meets all the requirements. You should also find out if the course is accredited by the relevant professional body.
Do you pale at the sight of blood? Like being around people who are sick and injured? Care a lot about health and well-being? We ask these questions because too many young people choose medicine without realizing that they are also
choosing to be doctors (almost all medicine graduates go on to work as doctors).
And it's particularly tough on women, who more often than men are, try to combine study and career with family responsibilities. In some areas of specialization, they also have to cope with a deeply unsympathetic male culture.
A doctor's work is physically and mentally taxing; on one hand it calls for warmth, sympathy and an interest in people's well-being and on the other a strong grasp of scientific principles and their application to medical problems. Power of concentration, a sense of responsibility and self discipline are other qualities required. Doctors have to take sole responsibility for their decisions and the consequence they have on patients' lives. They must be prepared to work hard and face long and irregular working hours.
Getting into medical course is difficult as there are about 10 med schools in Australia and 27 in UK . However there is new programme that allows graduates from other disciplines to gain a degree in medicine in four years instead of the usual five. These are called graduate entry program (GEPs) and are offered by several Australia and UK med schools. Both in Australia and UK application should be made in the year preceding the year in which you wish to commence study and in Australia , you have to sit for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) or GAMSAT (Graduate Australian Medical School Admission Test) before you submit your application.
The expansion in the use of computer in the field of IT (information technology) related to many areas of human activities is the most single technological development of the last quarter century. The recent evolvement of internet and
multimedia is another phenomenal development.
The internet as the name denotes is a network of computers interconnected by telephone line. With most homes already having a telephone line and an increasing number of them owning personal computers, the internet is becoming the Global Resource Tool.
Multimedia is the convergence of the 3Cs, being computer, communication and content. IT (information technologies) have enable computers to store and transmit text, images and sound globally and functioning as a multimedia tool such as TV, video, telephone, fax machine, and information kiosk all rolled into one, which were formally performed separately by different media. Put simply, through IT multimedia have become a combination of text, graphic, sound, animation and video.
If you are interested in this field, you may already know quite a lot about it and perhaps even be in danger of becoming a full-blown computer nerd. Twenty years ago there were very few courses in this area. Now as the digital information and communication technologies merge, the range of specializations and employment opportunities keeps growing. They stretch from desktop publishing and interactive multimedia to computer technicians, engineers and programmers. Many courses blur over into business or engineering. Degree labels include bachelors of engineering, arts, applied sciences, business, information technology, and informatics.
Pharmacy is mainly concerned with the action of drugs on biological systems and their applications for human drug therapy. Students are prepared to take up the contemporary role of the pharmacist in society, to ensure patients utilize their medication optimally.
The curriculum contains relevant courses in the basic sciences including chemistry, physiology, biochemistry, anatomy, and statistics; applied pharmacy courses in the pharmaceutical sciences including dosage form design, drug discovery, biological fate of drugs and pharmacology; and courses in the practice and clinical areas of pharmacy including quality use of medications, data analysis and social and professional aspects of pharmacy.
Pharmacy offers a stimulating, challenging and varied career for persons interested in the rapidly developing science of drugs and medicines and who are keen to work for the well being of the community. The broad scientific base of the pharmacy programme provides the graduate in pharmacy with employment opportunities in community, hospital and industrial pharmacy not only in your home country but throughout the world.
Just like medicine or dentistry, pharmacy courses are available at only limited number of campuses. In Australia to become a pharmacist it takes four years full-time study of Bachelor of Pharmacy or Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours). Honours students undertake an additional advanced unit of study in each semester in the fourth year. Admission to honours is by invitation only and is dependent on a high level of academic achievement in the first three years of the course. In UK some of the universities offer MPharm Masters degree, with Honours in Pharmacy. MPharm replaces BSc (Hons) Pharmacy and it is a full-time four year programme.
Applied and pure sciences have a varied and fascinating field that covers applied, practical subjects such as acoustics, fisheries science, food and nutrition technology, applied biology, applied chemistry and analytical chemistry.
It also encompasses pure, theoretical sciences such as biology, physics and chemistry and sciences that lead to professional qualifications such as veterinary science and forensic science.
They may include anatomy, biochemistry, botany, geology, microbiology, pathology, physiology and zoology and lead to a BSc or similar qualification. Universities vary in the extent to which they allow you to mix and match science subjects with others. The advantage of science courses is that you can broaden your education and your career options.
Sciences, whether pure or applied, will give you an excellent start in your working life. If you are unsure which branch to pursue, you could do a Foundation Degree in Science. This will give you a thorough grounding in the essential scientific ideas from the life and environment sciences. It will also give you the opportunity to specialize in particular professional or technical area, for example laboratory science or scientific literacy.
People are spending more time and money eating out, travelling, training for health and fitness and participating in sports and leisure pursuits than ever before. Education institutions and universities in Australia and UK are the first few to
recognize the need for education and training in these areas. Many of the earliest courses in sport, leisure, hospitality and tourism began in these countries.
You can study a huge variety of subjects at all levels in Australia and UK . In sport, for example, you can study physical education, sports science, psychology, medicine, therapy or management. In leisure, you can take a general course in recreation and leisure management or you can do something more specific like therapeutic and community recreation. In the field of beauty, you can study subjects such as beauty therapy, hairdressing and make-up. In hospitality, you may choose to do baking and patisserie or hotel and restaurant management. In tourism, you can take a practical route, such as tourism management or a more theoretical route such as tourism studies
