Business and Management Studies

More students enrol on business or management courses than any other university course now, with often over six applicants for every place. And there are a lot of places, with around 60,000 students currently enrolled on a business or management course. So you won't be lonely.

But you may be bewildered by the choice. Almost all universities will have a programme that falls under the general heading of "business", although the titles of the programmes vary considerably across different institutions - business management, commerce, or business administration. Many degrees also suggest a more specialist focus, such as finance, marketing, retail management, tourism management or international business. And this doesn't take into account joint honours degrees...

But there are certain common building blocks to all business degrees, such as finance, marketing and human resource management. Most courses will also touch on business strategy, operations, supply chain and production management. Students are expected to be numerate, so most degrees will have courses in quantitative methods and statistics.

It's a broad generalisation, but there tends to be a difference in approach between the traditional universities and the newer institutions. The latter tend to be more vocationally orientated, with the older courses more likely to be based on theory. A lot of the new universities, and some of the traditional ones, have modular programmes which work on a credit accumulation basis and, therefore, offer a wide range of flexible programmes and option choices. Whichever you choose, most institutions are pretty flexible about what A-levels you need.

Let's face it, much of the reason for doing a degree like this is that you will get a job afterwards. While you have to bear in mind that most people in senior management roles at the moment don't currently have a business management degree, it is true those jobs - in finance, management, marketing - tend to pay well. So by the time it's your turn for that top post, and it turns out that you're up against a Latin graduate... well, who would you choose?