Can't choose between two courses? Think about a joint honours

Joint honours degrees produce multi-skilled graduates. Photograph: Alamy

If you found making three A-level choices difficult, you may well struggle to choose just one subject to take at university. Dedicating three years to a single field of study is a daunting commitment – especially if you're not sure what you'd like to do after graduation.

But fear not. If you're an accomplished all-rounder, or perhaps just a little indicisive, a joint honours course could be the answer to your dilemma.

A joint honours degree, sometimes called a combined degree, allows students to study two or more subjects during the same time frame as a single honours course. Last year, around 18% of undergraduates did so, according to data collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency – a figure that has remained fairly constant over the past five years.

Dave Baldwin, admissions manager at Leeds University said joint honours courses are popular because they allow students to get the best of both worlds. "The greatest advantage is that you study the core topics of two or more subjects and graduate with two subjects named in your degree title. You don't have to sacrifice a subject that you're passionate about – which makes your degree all the more interesting and means you're likely to achieve your best."

Having more strings to your bow is also valued by employers, he added.

Vince Peart, an advisor at the National Careers Service agreed: "Studying a combined degree can be a good idea, particularly if the two courses go well together and the student wants to keep their options open. When you start your graduate career you'll often have to deal with different subjects and styles of tasks – a joint honours course might prepare you for the rigours of the workplace."

"The only downside is that students will not be able to study their subjects in as much detail as those taking single honour courses."

The amount of time students dedicate to each of their subject areas depends upon the set up of their joint honours programme. Some institutions offer a fixed number of established joint honours degrees – these have their own Ucas code and are usually 50:50 combinations.

Students may sit a "cornerstone module" which encourages them to see the overlap between their two fields of study. But for the most part, the two halves of their course are completely distinct.

Other universities offer a pick and mix approach to joint honours, advised Mike Dobson, director of the University of Exeter's flexible combined honours degree programmes.

"At Exeter, we also allow students to build their own degree programmes by selecting two subjects that they are interested in, then we name it appropriately. For example, they might study military history and ancient ethics. This subject wouldn't be registered on the Ucas website because the student has created it themselves."

"Some combinations are fairly predictable – for example, English and history – but the most unusual we had was animal behaviour and English. In her Ucas form the student wrote that she wanted to write stories about animals."

Students can also use this flexible arrangement to adjust the amount of time they dedicate to each of their chosen subjects.

Sophia McCrea, who studied French and philosophy at the University of Bristol said she enjoys the variety that her degree offers, but adds that studying two fields is hard work: "To undertake a joint honours degree, you have to be incredibly organised. My two departments didn't co-ordinate deadlines, and so I could find myself with weeks with very little work set, then weeks with a very heavy workload, with maybe three essay deadlines on the same day."

The style of work expected by different subjects is also likely to vary. "Each department required different things from our work, and it was only really in my final year that I became comfortable juggling that. The essays I wrote for each subject differed greatly from one another, both in content and in style."

If you'd prefer to take a course which integrates your two areas of study, it might be worth veering away from the traditional joint honours programmes on offer, recommended George Jones, head of international business and modern language courses at Aston University.

"With most joint honours courses you have a piece of one degree stuck next to a piece of another degree. Obviously there isn't a conenction with the other side the individual student is taking, because that course is also available to many other students.

"Teaching on our international business and modern langauges course is integrated. In the first year students are taught international business in English, then in the second year they're taught business in French (or whichever langauge they're studying). It means students make simultaenous progress both in subject knowledge and linguistially."

If you're not convinced that a joint honours programme is right for you, it's worth investigating if your university will allow you to take an elective module from outside of your normal department.

"If a student wanted to do a single honours – for example, in French – but also had an interest elsewhere in another course or subject at Leeds, they'd be able to use discretionary modules and elective to purse an intersst in a subsidiary subject," adds Baldwin.

"You wouldn't graduate with a two-subejct degree title, but this does give you more flexiblity."

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