Study of how to think about ideas and ask questions about truth, right and wrong – includes ethics, history of philosophy, logic

What will I learn?
If you wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats wondering what life is all about, then a philosophy degree should sort you out. Or at least point you in the right direction.

Philosophy tackles questions and concepts that others tend to take for granted. What is the difference between a reason and a mere rationalisation? What does it actually mean to say that one event causes another? What does it mean to describe some ingredients as "natural"? What is private property? When can a scientific theory become a scientific fact?

Students studying philosophy can also find themselves engaging with modern social and political concerns, while confronting questions of personal value systems, social critique and moral life.

Philosophy is a subject to ponder (for example, 2,000 years ago, Pontius Pilate was supposed to have asked the question: "What is truth?", and we still haven't formed a satisfactory answer), giving students the space to debate the views of others and formulate their own opinions.

You can expect to study different thinkers and traditions of thought, from Plato and Aristotle through to Marx, Kant, Nietzsche, Russell and Derrida – philosophers who academics say have helped shape western thought.

Modules you are likely to cover include critical reasoning, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics and political philosophy, as well as the philosophy of science, literature, mind, religion language and maths. Philosophy also addresses questions that most of us think about but have a hard time discussing: Am I really free? What is the meaning of death? Do we ever really know what other people feel or think?

Philosophy connects with many other subjects and can be studied as a joint degree, so you could pair it up with history, politics or law, for example, which could offer an interesting focus for your philosophical musings.

What skills will I gain?
A good philosophy course teaches you how to think about issues systematically. You will develop important key skills in areas such as oral and written communication, critical reading, constructing and defending an argument, and independent research. Whatever your future choice of career or sphere of activity, the skills you acquire alongside the intellectual and imaginative challenges you will tackle through your studies will prove incredibly valuable to you in any field.

Completing a philosophy course shows employers you are an all-rounder – a mature, thoughtful, rational and articulate individual.

You will also have learned a significant body of knowledge that spans thousands of years.

What job can I get?
Recent research into graduate prospects shows studying philosophy develops skills that are highly valued by employers, such as verbal reasoning, creative thinking, presenting a clearly formulated and coherent argument, analysing dense and difficult written material, distinguishing the relevant from the irrelevant, and carrying out independent inquiry.

Philosophy graduates pop up in a whole range of fields including consultancy, journalism, publishing and law, local administration, project management, teaching, librarianship, the civil service and banking.

And then there's the creative professions. Hollywood is crawling with former philosophers: Bruce Lee, Susan Sarandon, Harrison Ford. The composer Phillip Glass studied philosophy; so did film-maker Joel Coen.

The financial sector is another common destination for philosophy students. The American businessman George Soros studied philosophy, and Aristotle famously reported that Thales (celebrated as the "first philosopher") managed to corner the local market in olive oil!

Studying the philosophy of law could open doors to the legal profession, while business ethics modules could serve you well in the City.

Some graduates go on to further study and a career in academia and research. Others undertake further training to become schoolteachers.

What will look good on the CV?
• The ability to analyse in a multidimensional way
• The ability to think creatively
• Self-motivation.

Study of what influences income, wealth and wellbeing, and how this can be implemented into policy

What will I learn?
It is not essential to have a maths A-level before embarking on an economics degree, but it might ease the pain. As a social science, economics may sit alongside education and media studies, but sooner or later you will find yourself ploughing through statistics and formulating your theories – after all, how can you understand Keynesian economics if you don't get the maths?

That said, your degree will incorporate a range of other subjects – such as psychology, anthropology, politics, history and law – so there will be plenty of opportunities to put the calculator away.

Economics students will study how wealth is created, or lost, what influences income, and how all of this information can be used to influence policy. You'll study the work of some of the world's most high-profile economists, researching how and why their ideas were developed and how successful they were, and get the chance to think through a few of your own. You might even start to understand the present crisis and how it developed, if not how to solve it. Economics students can focus on particular areas of the subject, such as money, banking and finance, international economics and the EU, industrial policy, or public services such as health and education.

If you don't want to play it straight, then taking economics as part of a joint degree, perhaps with politics or history, could be an option.

What skills will I gain?
You may not be able to step straight into the chancellor of the exchequer's shoes, but you should have a better idea of what he does behind closed doors.

You will have a greater understanding of the financial markets and economic welfare, know what is meant by the phrase "balance of payments", and will be quicker to realise how much the taxman is taking from your salary.

You will learn how to assess expenditure decision, both in government and the private sector. You should learn to express your ideas cogently, confident that you have become part of a considerable intellectual tradition.

What job can I get?
Economics graduates enjoy some of the best job prospects and the highest earnings, so you'll probably be among the first wave of graduates to start paying off your student debts after you leave university.

You'll be a good catch in business, banking and accountancy. If you want to feel you are shaping the nation, then a job in the Treasury is a good bet – after all, chancellors need advice too.

What will look good on the CV?
• The ability to analyse and reason
• The ability to communicate results concisely
• The ability to draw on economic policy and know the constraints.

Study of how we communicate – includes information services, publicity studies, media studies, publishing, journalism and mass communication

What will I learn?
If you think a media degree means spending your day watching television – or at least try to justify doing it as part of your course – think again.

Courses in this field examine how we communicate and how this shapes society. At some point expect to be asked the question: does the media reflect society or does society reflect the media? You might want to start thinking of answers now.

What you're taught will depend on the course you choose. Some degrees take a more theoretical line, developing understanding of how we communicate (expect to touch on linguistics and semiotics), and how that fits into a cultural, political and historical context.

Other degrees will be more vocational, where you'll be expected to test out the theory with a bit of practice, perhaps writing news stories or working in a studio to produce audio and visual work. These courses are more for those who are considering careers in journalism, photography or film.

What skills will I gain?
Media degrees aim to produce graduates with an informed, critical approach to understanding the media and mass communication – all things which media employers like in their workers.

The more practical media degrees should let you test new technology (editing suites, video cameras) and develop your creative side through written, visual or audio work. So you might learn how to direct and film an interview, record some dialogue, or have an idea of how to write a feature.

A spot of work experience during your course should have sharpened these skills further. There is no substitute for getting out there and having a go. Writing a news article at a local paper or magazine is a lot different from writing one in the library or in your bedroom.

You should have some awareness of how to organise and manage group work and independent projects.

What jobs can I get?
Getting a job in the media is tough. It's a popular career choice among graduates, which means competition for positions is fierce and getting that full-time job could involve weeks, or even months, of unpaid work experience. And then when you actually do draw a salary you could find yourself on short-term contracts for a while.

While a media degree will give you an insight into the industry, you won't necessarily find yourself better placed to get a job than someone with an English or history degree, so you need to apply for placements during your summer holidays, pitch story ideas to papers or magazines, or get a job as a runner for a television company to put something a little extra on your CV.

If you want to get into journalism, be prepared to do a specific postgraduate course to hone your skills and get a grounding in media law, public administration, writing, filming and shorthand – still an essential tool for journalists.

Graduates are also found in publishing, marketing, advertising and teaching.

What will look good on the CV?
• An understanding of how identities are constructed and contested
• An understanding of how people engage with cultural texts and practices
• The ability to work flexibly and creatively.

Study of contemporary social, political and economic problems – such as poverty, inequality, crime, unemployment, healthcare, education and housing – and potential policy responses to them

What will I learn?
Social policy has a long history as a social science subject but expanded rapidly in the UK after the creation of the welfare state in the 1940s. You will draw on theoretical ideas from across the social sciences – including sociology, political science, psychology, economics and management – but also learn how to apply them to the analysis of real-world social problems and with a view to developing better mechanisms for addressing those problems.

These degrees explore heavyweight social and political issues of the day such as health reform, unemployment and crime. In some programmes, there is a strong international dimension too, exploring the influence of global forces on contemporary social problems, and comparing the responses different countries adopt to issues such as poverty and inequality.

You will receive a broad introduction to social science disciplines, study how social policies are made, and gain a grounding in social research methods. You will also have the opportunity to specialise in specific policy areas. For example, you could focus on how policy affects children and young people, contemporary policing and crime in the city, environmental policies, disability, drug use, housing policy, migration and the rights of asylum seekers.

In many universities it is possible to combine the study of social policy alongside one of the core social science disciplines – sociology and social policy is a popular option – and many institutions also offer it as part of a broadly based programme such as applied social science or social and political sciences.

Your course will be taught in seminars and lecturers, but you will be expected to do a fair amount of independent reading and research.

What skills will I gain?
Once you graduate you will have a good grounding in a range of social science disciplines, up-to-date knowledge of contemporary social problems and an ability to bring robust evidence into policy focused debates. You should be able to effectively engage in policy debate and with sensitivity to other views.

You will have the skills to carry out independent research, as well as work in a team and assess the merits of competing theories and explanations.

What job can I get?
Social policy graduates have high employment rates and many choose to build careers in the public sector, working in local or central government helping to formulate policy or manage key services. You would also have the skills to pursue work in the field of criminal justice or campaigning organisations with a focus on social issues. And you will have developed the skills to work in a number of other areas, such as management, consultancy, the media or for a charity.

What will look good on the CV?
• The ability to use theoretical perspectives and concepts, and to apply them to social life
• The ability to analyse, assess and communicate empirical data
• Appreciation of the complexity and diversity of social situations.

For the full range of skills you can develop through a degree in social policy, click here (pdf).

Exam board OCR apologises for errors that affected GCSE and A-level grades

Four examiners have had their contracts terminated and 78 others have been ordered to improve their performance after mistakes were made in calculating pupils' scores in GCSE and A-level papers from last summer.

The exam board OCR has apologised for marking errors that affected GCSE and A-level grades. Exams regulator Ofqual said it could not be certain that all candidates had the grades they deserved.

Channel 4 News said David Leitch, a senior supervisor at OCR, found wrongly calculated final scores in 100 papers from last summer that schools had referred for checking. A wider search found "hundreds more" mistakes by the same markers but Leitch claims he was instructed to inform only schools which had requested paid-for remarking.

Dissatisfied with a review ordered by regulator Ofqual, the programme reported, he emailed 30 schools directly to alert them to errors and has now been suspended by OCR pending a full inquiry.

Ofqual's director of regulation, Fiona Pethick, said questions remained over the accuracy of marks. Asked if she could be personally sure that no pupil still had a lower grade than they should, potentially affecting a university place, she told the programme: "I'm not satisfied yet. That's why we will be continuing to look into this matter and if we find OCR to be negligent we will take action."

The errors related to examiners totting up marks from traditional pen and paper scripts. The exam board said its investigation had found 16 cases where pupils had received a lower grade than they should – eight AS-levels, two A-levels and six GCSEs.

It resulted in the termination of four examiners' contracts, while 78 others out of 13,000 - "almost all" teachers and ex-teachers with relevant degrees - were ordered to improve their performance.

Mark Dawe, OCR's chief executive, said: "Any error in the exam process is unacceptable and we have taken action to implement more robust processes. This included terminating the contracts of weaker examiners. Students taking exams in the spring and this summer can be assured that mistakes of any sort will not be tolerated."

The exam board's qualifications director, Clara Kenyon, said OCR had not been made aware of the existence of further errors. "We were not told of the existence of these additional scripts with mistakes on them until schools contacted us," she said. "This is of course a concern and we are processing them in the usual way and will make grade changes, if required, and inform schools."

The board was confident that new safeguards would provide "a high level of clerical accuracy" in future, she said, pointing out that marks for three in four papers were calculated electronically.

All papers are due to be handled electronically by 2014.

"Students taking exams both in the spring and this summer can be assured that mistakes of any sort will not be tolerated and we have taken the necessary measures to guard against them," Kenyon said.