Reprinted from: People’s Daily Overseas Edition

A view of the campus of the University of Oxford, UK. Photo by Li Ying, Xinhua News Agency.

Data from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) shows that the number of mainland Chinese students studying in the UK in the 2021–2022 academic year rose by 5.47% year-on-year, accounting for the largest share among all international students. The number of Chinese students choosing the UK as their study destination has maintained an upward trend in recent years. What are the application trends and difficulty levels for different majors when applying to study in the UK?

Recently, EIC Education released the 2023 UK Study Abroad Report. A set of undergraduate application statistics for UK universities in the report shows that applications for general engineering, management and business programmes saw a notable rise in 2022. Applications for the traditionally popular Accounting and Finance major fell by roughly 28% year-on-year, yet it remained the most applied major.

In addition, applications for humanities and social science programmes all increased, with law seeing the most prominent growth. As the birthplace of the common law system, the UK offers abundant scholarships at many universities. For instance, the University of Leicester launched new scholarships for law applicants, with two tiers of £3,000 and £5,000 per year based on academic performance to attract more students.

“Among undergraduate applications, there is a marked rise in Chinese students applying for interdisciplinary programmes,” said a representative from Durham University’s International Office. “Applications for Durham’s undergraduate liberal arts programme have surged over the past three years. This programme covers three streams: natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Students may pick 2 to 4 subjects in their first year, and such programmes have drawn growing attention from students and parents.”

The UK’s G5 universities have long been highly sought-after by Chinese students. The group comprises five top institutions: the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London (UCL) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). According to the 2022 undergraduate admission reports released by Oxford and Cambridge, Computer Science, Economics and Mathematics have relatively low acceptance rates and fierce competition, while humanities and social science programmes are comparatively less competitive.

In terms of undergraduate course offerings, Imperial College London mainly focuses on Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering and related disciplines. LSE specialises in business and humanities subjects, complementing Imperial College. Its business school has highly specialised branches, ideal for students pursuing advanced business studies. UCL offers a comprehensive range of majors. Its departments of Mathematics, Law, Economics and Medicine explicitly reject applicants with retaken A-Level subjects.

Experts from EIC Education recommend that students explore different majors through various activities during their planning phase. For example, academic competitions can strengthen overall competitiveness. Well-known contests include the Senior Maths Challenge (SMC) and the UK Chemistry Olympiad (UKCHO). Apart from competitions, internships also help students deepen their understanding of their target majors.

For postgraduate applications, HESA data indicates that among full-time postgraduate intakes in 2022, Business & Management, Social Studies, and Engineering & Technology were the top three subject areas. Computer Science recorded an especially sharp year-on-year increase.

A representative from the East Asia Office of Heriot-Watt University commented: “With social development and changes in the job market, popular majors for UK study applications have shifted in recent years. Although Finance, Education and other programmes still attract many Chinese applicants, applications for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects have kept rising year by year, especially Computer Science, Engineering and Biology.”

As for PhD applications, a report by Universities UK shows that the most popular subjects for international doctoral students in the UK in 2021 were Business & Management, Computer Science, Engineering & Technology, Social Sciences and Medicine.