Why counsellors need to take care of business

How often do you hear your students say, “I want to study business studies at university because I want to be a businessman/woman”?

As university counsellors, we are very familiar with our students telling us that they want to study “business”. For example, more than 25 per cent of international students’ applications to UK universities in the 2023-24 application cycle were for courses under the Ucas “business and management” classification.

I don’t try to dissuade students from applying for business degrees. Rather, I want to try to find out why they want to follow this route and what their goals are – and, most importantly, to open their eyes to the whole range of business-related courses available.

The spectrum of business

I can divide my students’ reasons for wanting to apply for “business” into two broad categories:

• “I enjoy studying business studies at school.”
• “I want to (or my parents want me to) study something that will give me good job prospects.”

The first of these, based on their own experiences, is generally an informed decision – these young people understand that studying a business-related course encompasses a wide range of topics and disciplines.

We would hope that students in the second category also base their decisions on research. But at this point it is important to explore what they understand by “business”. It is often the students whose parents are driving the decision who are not as aware of the whole spectrum of business-related options, from mathematics-based economics, accounting and finance degrees through to courses that have science or tech elements (management, IT), to those that incorporate some elements of creativity, such as marketing.

Getting straight down to business

In my experience, international students need more guidance about career opportunities than their home-based counterparts, who might understand that skills gained in, say, a science or humanities degree are as relevant to employers as a business-focused degree. Perhaps more so.

Often, international students who want careers in, say, banking might look only at banking and finance degrees. And if they hope to start their own businesses, they decide that pursuing business studies or entrepreneurship is the best route.

So my job is to reinforce the focus on skills and careers, rather than simply on the name of a degree course. This is best done with younger age groups, rather than those about to start their university applications.

It is also worth reminding students that businesses work because they sell goods or services, so an in-depth understanding of a particular discipline is as valuable as a knowledge of business. If you want to work for a tech company, then a degree in something such as software engineering might be the best way to follow this path. Want to start your own fashion business? Study fashion and marketing.

One way to get the students to broaden their horizons is to point them towards university websites to find graduate case histories that highlight the range of routes that alumni followed to achieve their successes. The exercise is a useful way of showing them the multiple paths that can lead to rewarding careers.

Business studies: what’s in a name?

Getting our students to look beyond the name of the degree is important. What is the difference between business studies and international business, or between business management and business with management?

Encouraging students to look in more detail at the course content and at options for choices of modules in the later years of a degree course is a valuable exercise, showing them that they can steer their degree studies towards chosen careers after they have started their courses. This can also reassure parents that their children can target specific careers at a later stage of their studies.

Students are surprised to learn, for example, that as part of a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of Melbourne, there are “breadth” options that include acting, ecology, music and landscape architecture; or that in the third year of the University of Bristol’s business and management degree, optional modules include digital marketing, organisational crime and corruption, and social entrepreneurship. Again, getting the students to research unusual options and then present them works well as part of a careers programme.

Built-in bonuses

For those committed to a business-related course, another important step is to understand the structure of the course. As well as looking at the flexibility within the course, what about internship opportunities, a sandwich year, a year abroad? Other options are joint honours degrees or double degrees. All these will demonstrate skills above and beyond the basic understanding of business, finance or management.

As we know, the world of work is changing at an ever-increasing pace, so equipping our students with the skills to have flexibility in their future careers should be at the forefront of our work.