Revealed: the most popular undergraduate courses of 2018/19

Emma Finamore
25 Jan 2019

Almost 354,000 people were accepted onto undergraduate courses in 2018...but what did they all want to study?

Placeholder — More than 353,960 people from across the UK were accepted to start an undergraduate course in 2018

Figures from UCAS reveal that more than 353,960 people from across the UK were accepted to start an undergraduate course in 2018. But which degrees were these people most likely to apply for?

Training and educational providers Theknowledgeacademy.com investigated UCAS January analysis results, which represent the number of applications submitted per subject of study, as well as the number of male and female students accepted onto each course for the September intake.

The results show that, when it comes to women, ‘Subjects allied to Medicine’ is the most popular undergraduate course with 208,460 female students accepted in 2018. This is followed by ‘Biological Sciences’ with 138,440 approved applications, while ‘Creative Arts & Design’ came third with 124,270.

At the other end of the scale, the least popular subjects with women included:

Technologies (1,260), Non-European Langs, Lit and related (2,780), European Langs, Lit & related (9,340), Architecture, Build and Plan (10,890) and Computer Sciences (12,350).

The Knowledge Academy then assessed trends among male students. The most popular subjects for applications in 2018/19 were:

Business & Admin studies (117,650), Engineering (87,000), Biological Sciences (82,480), Computer Sciences (78,940) and Social Studies (71,730).

The results show that, when it comes to women, ‘Subjects allied to Medicine’ is the most popular undergraduate course with 208,460 female students accepted in 2018.

However, similarly to women, the subjects least applied to by men were:

Non-European Langs, Lit & related (1,290), Technologies (3,140), European Langs, Lit & related (3,580), Veterinary Science, Agriculture & related (4,720) and Linguistic, Classics & related (10,340).

Simultaneously, Theknowledgeacademy.com has illustrated the most popular courses for both genders and the figures show the following:

Subjects allied to Medicine (254,150), Biological Sciences (220,920), Business & Admin studies (206,970), Creative Arts & Design (189,350) and Social Studies (181,190).

And as expected, the subjects found at the bottom of the list were:

Non-European Langs, Lit and related (4,070), Technologies (4,400), European Langs, Lit & related (12,920), Veterinary Science, Agriculture & related (23,490) and Architecture, Build and Plan (30, 370).

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