Most intellectually stimulating courses in the UK: subject rankings

History and philosophy courses are the most interesting and have the most enthusiastic teachers in the UK

November 30 2016

By Carly Minsky

History and philosophy are the most intellectually stimulating courses to study in the UK, according to new analysis of student satisfaction.

Over the past five years, more than 54 per cent of history and philosophy students in the National Student Survey (NSS) strongly felt that their subject was intellectually stimulating.

Staff enthusiasm seems to be an important factor in whether students enjoy their courses, since history and philosophy also recorded the highest proportion of students who said that their staff were enthusiastic about the subject they teach.

Business students are the least likely to say that their course is intellectually stimulating or is taught by enthusiastic staff.

Although a majority of students find law degrees intellectually stimulating, law courses drop down the ranking for enthusiastic teachers.

The analysis of NSS data from 2012 to 2016 was done by Scientia, which provides timetabling software to universities.

James Grashoff, head of sales and marketing at Scientia, says: “Student satisfaction is made of many constituent parts, from teaching through to organisation and management. Institutions need to understand all of those parts.

“That means they need to focus on the quality of their courses, make them stimulating and teach their students in the best manner possible, but it also means that institutions need to get the basics right.”

Although medicine degrees were judged to be stimulating and largely taught by enthusiastic staff, medical students were least likely to feel that their course was well organised.

Not one subject received a majority of students agreeing that their course was well organised, but history and philosophy, law, geography and languages came out on top.

Subject ranking: “My degree course is intellectually stimulating”

Data from the UK National Student Survey 2012-16

Rank	Subject	Percentage of students who strongly agree
1	History and philosophy	54.4
2	Law	52.6
3	Medicine	49.7
4	Languages	49.2
5	Architecture	43.9
6	Social studies	43.6
7	Science	43.1
8	Creative arts	42.8
9	Engineering	42.2
10	Geography	41.7
11	Education	36.5
12	Media and communications	33.5
13	Business	32.2

Subject ranking: “My teaching staff are enthusiastic about their subject”

Data from the UK National Student Survey 2012-16

Rank	Subject	Percentage of students who strongly agree
1	History and philosophy	59.0
2	Languages	55.9
3	Creative arts	54.5
4	Geography	51.7
5	Education	47.5
6	Architecture	46.5
7	Medicine	46.4
=8	Media and communications	45.3
=8	Social studies	45.3
10	Law	44.7
11	Science	42.9
12	Engineering	38.1
13	Business	37.1

Subject ranking: “My degree course is well-organised”

Data from the UK National Student Survey 2012-16

Rank	Subject	Percentage of students who strongly agree
1	History and philosophy	45.2
2	Law	43.3
3	Geography	42.9
4	Languages	42.4
5	Social studies	39.7
6	Science	39.6
7	Business	39.5
8	Engineering	36.8
9	Architecture	35.5
10	Creative arts	34.0
11	Education	33.8
12	Media and communications	33.7
13	Medicine	32.0