Facilitating Subjects — What Universities Prefer

What Are Facilitating Subjects?

In 2011, the Russell Group — a collection of 24 leading UK universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester, and others — published a guide called Informed Choices. This guide introduced the concept of facilitating subjects: A-Level subjects that are required more often than others for entry to degree courses at Russell Group universities.

The facilitating subjects are:

• Mathematics
• Further Mathematics
• English Literature
• Physics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Geography
• History
• Modern and Classical Languages (French, German, Spanish, Latin, Greek, etc.)

The idea behind the term "facilitating" is straightforward: these subjects facilitate — or make possible — the widest range of degree course options. A student who takes two or three facilitating subjects will find that more university doors are open to them than a student who takes none.

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Why These Subjects?

The facilitating subjects are not an arbitrary list. They share certain characteristics that universities value:

1. They Have Long Academic Traditions