Subject lines

Table 2.1 shows the top ten preferred subject lines for all IB applicants.

Table 2.1 Preferred subject lines IB

Subject Line	Applicants	% Applicants
M1 - Law by Area	323	7.0
N2 - Management studies	321	7.0
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	268	5.8
L1 - Economics	194	4.2
C8 - Psychology	158	3.4
L2 - Politics	144	3.1
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	131	2.8
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	123	2.7
N1 - Business studies	115	2.5
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	109	2.4
All other subject lines	2,713	59.0
Grand Total	4,599	100.0

n=4,599

For all IB applicants M1 - Law by Area and N2 - Management Studies were the most popular subject lines.

Tables 2.2-2.4 show the preferred subject lines by UK, EU and non EU IB applicants (derived from the applicant region field),

Table 2.2 Preferred subject lines UK IB

Subject Line	Applicants	% Applicants
M1 - Law by Area	79	6.8
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	62	5.3
C8 - Psychology	53	4.5
Q3 - English studies	49	4.2
N2 - Management studies	44	3.8
V1 - History by Period	37	3.2
Y Combs of languages with arts/humanities	34	2.9
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	34	2.9
L1 - Economics	31	2.7
C1 - Biology	31	2.7
All other subject lines	714	61.1
Grand Total	1,168	100.0

n=1,168

Table 2.3 Preferred subject lines EU IB

Subject Line	Applicants	% Applicants
N2 - Management studies	138	7.8
M1 - Law by Area	115	6.5
L1 - Economics	79	4.5
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	79	4.5
L2 - Politics	76	4.3
C8 - Psychology	68	3.9
N1 - Business studies	65	3.7
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	54	3.1
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	54	3.1

Subject Line	Applicants	% Applicants
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	44	2.5
All other subject lines	991	56.2
Grand Total	1,763	100.0

n=1,763

Table 2.4 Preferred subject lines Non EU IB

Subject Line	Applicants	% Applicants
N2 - Management studies	139	8.3
M1 - Law by Area	129	7.7
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	127	7.6
L1 - Economics	84	5.0
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	64	3.8
L2 - Politics	50	3.0
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	50	3.0
H8 - Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering	43	2.6
N1 - Business studies	38	2.3
C8 - Psychology	37	2.2
All other subject lines	907	54.4
Grand Total	1,668	100.0

n=1,668

Whilst M1- Law by Area was overall the most popular preferred subject choice for all IB applicants (7.0%) and IB applicants domiciled in the UK (6.8%), for both those IB applicants domiciled in the EU and non EU, N2 - Management Studies was the most popular subject line (7.8% and 8.3% respectively). N2 - Management Studies was a less popular subject line amongst UK domiciled IB applicants (3.8%).

Table 2.5 presents the ranking frequencies of subjects appearing in tables 2.1-2.4 to give an overall picture of the popularity of subjects across all IB applicants.

Table 2.5 Applicants Ranking Frequency of Subject Lines IB

Code	Subject line	All	UK	EU	Non EU
M1	Law by area	1	1	2	2
N2	Management studies	1	5	1	1
A1	Pre-clinical medicine	3	2	3	3
L1	Economics	4	9	3	4
C8	Psychology	5	3	6	10
L2	Politics	6		5	6
LL	Combinations within Social Studies	7		8	6
H3	Mechanical Engineering	8		10	5
N1	Business Studies	9		7	9
Y	Combinations of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	10	7	8
Q3	English Studies		4
V1	History by period		6
Y	Combinations of languages with arts/humanities		7
C1	Biology		9
H8	Chemical process and Energy Engineering				8

There was a difference in the most popular subjects dependent on the region IB applicants were domiciled in. Engineering was more popular with non EU and EU applicants with arts and humanities more popular for UK domiciled applicants.

Table 2.6 shows the number of applications made by IB applicants to the top 10 subject lines.

Table 2.6 Applications by Subject IB

Subject Line	Applications	% Applications
M1 - Law by Area	1,820	7.0
N2 - Management studies	1,722	6.6
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	1,097	4.2
L1 - Economics	1,207	4.6
C8 - Psychology	912	3.5
L2 - Politics	889	3.4
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	866	3.3
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	689	2.6
N1 - Business studies	997	3.8
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	904	3.5
All other subject lines	14,921	57.3
Grand Total	26,024	100.0

n=26,024

7.0% of all IB applications were for M1: Law by Area, a further 6.6% were for N2 - Management studies. It should be noted that A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine appears a less popular choice for applications (4.2%) compared to applicants (5.8%). This may to due to the number of applications (4.2%) to Medicine per application being limited to four.

Tables 2.7-2.9 show the subject lines of applications by UK, EU and non EU IB applicants (derived from the applicant region field).

Table 2.7 Applications by Subject IB UK

Subject Line	Applications	% Applications
M1 - Law by Area	442	6.6
C8 - Psychology	313	4.7
Q3 - English studies	286	4.3
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	259	3.9
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	253	3.8
V1 - History by Period	234	3.5
N2 - Management studies	226	3.4
Y Combs of languages with arts/humanities	223	3.3
L1 - Economics	199	3.0
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with languages	184	2.7
All other subject lines	4,091	61.0
Grand Total	6,710	100.0

n=6,710

Table 2.8 Applications by Subject IB EU

Subject Line	Applications	% Applications
N2 - Management studies	767	7.7
M1 - Law by Area	641	6.4
N1 - Business studies	532	5.3
L1 - Economics	521	5.2
L2 - Politics	438	4.4
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	413	4.1
C8 - Psychology	390	3.9
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	382	3.8
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	333	3.3
K1 - Architecture	250	2.5
All other subject lines	5,295	53.2
Grand Total	9,962	100.0

n=9,962

Table 2.9 Applications by Subject IB Non EU

Subject Line	Applications	% Applications
M1 - Law by Area	737	7.9
N2 - Management studies	729	7.8
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	511	5.5
L1 - Economics	487	5.2
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	364	3.9
N1 - Business studies	352	3.8
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	332	3.6
L2 - Politics	315	3.4
NN - Combinations within Business & Admin Studies	280	3.0
H6 - Electronic and Electrical Engineering	246	2.6
All other subject lines	4,999	53.5
Grand Total	9,352	100.0

n=9,352

In terms of applications, M1 - Law by Area was the most popular subject choice for UK and Non EU applicants, with N2 - Management Studies the most popular subject choice for EU applicants. N2 - Management Studies was less popular with UK applicants (3.4% of applications and 3.8% of applicants preferred subject line).

Table 2.10 presents the ranking frequencies of subjects appearing in tables 2.6-2.9 to give an overall picture of the popularity of subjects across all IB applications.

Table 2.10 Applications Ranking Frequency of Subject Lines IB

Code	Subject line	All	UK	EU	Non EU
M1	Law by Area	1	1	2	1
N2	Management studies	2	7	1	2
A1	Pre-clinical Medicine	4	5	9	3
L1	Economics	3	9	4	4
C8	Psychology	7	2	7
L2	Politics	8		5	8
LL	Combinations within Social Studies	9		8	7
H3	Mechanical Engineering	10			5
N1	Business studies	5		3	6
Y	Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	7	4	6
Q3	English studies		3
V1	History by Period		6
Y	Combinations of languages with arts/humanities		8
Y	Combinations of Social Studies/bus/law with languages		10
K1	Architecture			10
NN	Combinations within Business & Admin Studies				9
H6	Electronic and Electrical Engineering				10

In terms of applications, engineering was more popular for non EU applicants with arts and humanities again more popular for UK applicants.

Table 2.11 shows the decision from institutions by most popular subject line for all IB applications. Chart 2.1 shows the percentage of applications to each of the top ten subject lines by the decision of the institution applied to.

 

Table 2.11 Whether Applications Received Offer by Subject IB

Subject Line	Received Offer	% Subject Line	Unsuccessful	% Subject Line
M1 - Law by Area	1,117	61.4	703	38.6
N2 - Management studies	1,277	74.2	445	25.8
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	184	16.8	913	83.2
L1 - Economics	810	67.1	397	32.9
C8 - Psychology	683	74.9	229	25.1
L2 - Politics	636	71.5	253	28.5
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	558	64.4	308	35.6
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	612	88.8	77	11.2
N1 - Business studies	787	78.9	210	21.1
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	542	60.0	362	40.0
All other subject lines	11,100	74.4	3,821	25.6
Grand Total	18,306	70.3	7,718	29.7

n=26,024

Chart 2.1

70.3% of applications from IB applicants received offers, with 29.7% of applications unsuccessful. In the case of H3 - Mechanical Engineering, 88.8% of applications received an offer.  A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine received the lowest proportion of offers with 83.2% unsuccessful applications.

Table 2.12 Whether Applications Received Offer by Subject IB UK

Subject Line	Received Offer	% Subject Line	Unsuccessful	% Subject Line
M1 - Law by Area	238	53.8	204	46.2
C8 - Psychology	238	76.0	75	24.0
Q3 - English studies	167	58.4	119	41.6
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	159	61.4	100	38.6
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	72	28.5	181	71.5
V1 - History by Period	127	54.3	107	45.7
N2 - Management studies	160	70.8	66	29.2
Y Combs of languages with arts/humanities	150	67.3	73	32.7
L1 - Economics	139	69.8	60	30.2
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with languages	142	77.2	42	22.8
All other subject lines	3,103	75.8	988	24.2
Grand Total	4,695	70.0	2,015	30.0

n=6,710

Chart 2.2

Table 2.13 Whether Applications Received Offer by Subject IB EU

Subject Line	Received Offer	% Subject Line	Unsuccessful	% Subject Line
N2 - Management studies	546	71.2	221	28.8
M1 - Law by Area	342	53.4	299	46.6
L1 - Economics	343	65.8	178	34.2
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	31	9.3	302	90.7
L2 - Politics	294	67.1	144	32.9
C8 - Psychology	281	72.1	109	27.9
N1 - Business studies	422	79.3	110	20.7
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	223	58.4	159	41.6
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	225	54.5	188	45.5
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	216	88.9	27	11.1
All other subject lines	3,838	72.4	1,464	27.6
Grand Total	6,761	67.9	3,201	32.1

n=9,962

Chart 2.3

Table 2.14 Whether Applications Received Offer by Subject IB non EU

Subject Line	Received Offer	% Subject Line	Unsuccessful	% Subject Line
N2 - Management studies	571	78.3	158	21.7
M1 - Law by Area	537	72.9	200	27.1
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	81	15.9	430	84.1
L1 - Economics	328	67.4	159	32.6
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	331	90.9	33	9.1
L2 - Politics	250	79.4	65	20.6
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	229	69.0	103	31.0
H8 - Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering	225	93.0	17	7.0
N1 - Business studies	279	79.3	73	20.7
C8 - Psychology	164	78.5	45	21.5
All other subject lines	3,855	76.0	1,219	24.0
Grand Total	6,850	73.2	2,502	26.8

n=9,352

Table 2.15 presents the ranking frequencies of subjects appearing in tables 2.11-2.14 to give an overall picture of the popularity of subjects across all IB applications receiving offers.

Table 2.15 Applications Receiving Offer Ranking Frequency of Subject Lines IB

Code	Subject line	All	UK	EU	Non EU
M1	Law by Area	2	1	4	2
N2	Management studies	1	4	1	1
A1	Pre-clinical Medicine	10	10	10	10
L1	Economics	3	8	3	4
C8	Psychology	5	2	6	9
L2	Politics	6		5	6
LL	Combinations within Social Studies	8		8	7
H3	Mechanical Engineering	7		9	3
N1	Business studies	4	5	2	5
Y	Combinations of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	9
Q3	English studies		3
Y	Combinations of languages with arts/humanities		6	7
Y	Combinations of social studies/bus/law with languages		7
V1	History by Period		9
H8	Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering				8

In terms of applications receiving offers, engineering was again more popular amongst non EU and EU applicants with UK applicants favouring arts and humanities.

Chart 2.4

Although 61.4% of all IB applications to M1 - Law by Area received offers, 72.9% of non EU IB applications received offers, compared to 53.4 % of EU applications and 53.8% of UK applications. A Chi squared test was carried out on applications for M1 – Law by Area with the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the way applications from IB applicants from across the globe were treated. This resulted in a test statistic of 79.4 with two degrees of freedom and the null hypothesis was rejected ie there is a statistically significant difference in the way applications to M1 – Law by Area were treated.

A similar position can be seen for N2 - Management Studies where overall 74.2% of IB applications received offers, 70.8% of UK IB applications received offers, 71.2% of EU IB applications received offers but 78.3% of Non EU IB applications received offers. A Chi squared test was again carried out with the same null hypothesis that there is no difference in the way applications from IB applicants from across the globe were treated. This resulted in a test statistic of 11.5 with two degrees of freedom and the null hypothesis was again rejected ie there is a statistically significant difference in the way applications to N2 – Management Studies were treated.

The disparity in the treatment of applications from IB applicants outside the EU for these two subject areas may be related to the difference in fee status attributed to the applicants.

Considering A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine there was a converse position, whilst 16.8% of all IB applications received offers, only 9.3% of EU IB applicants and 15.9% of Non EU IB applicants received offers compared to 28.5% of UK IB applications. Again, a Chi squared test was carried out with the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the way applications from IB applicants from across the globe were treated. This resulted in a test statistic of 38.3 with two degrees of freedom and the null hypothesis was rejected ie there is a statistically significant difference in the way applicants to A1 – Pre-clinical Medicine were treated. This may be caused by the fact that medical schools are limited in the numbers of overseas students they are able to admit due to financial constraints (source: Council of Heads of Medical Schools).

Table 2.16 shows the number of accepted applicants by the top ten preferred subject lines, the proportion of all accepted applicants by each subject line and the percentage of applicants accepted to their preferred subject line.

 

Table 2.16 Accepted Applicants by Subject IB

Subject Line	Accepted Applicants	% Applicants Accepted	% Accepted Applicants
M1 - Law by Area	236	73.1	7.3
N2 - Management studies	233	72.6	7.2
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	140	52.2	4.3
L1 - Economics	132	68.0	4.1
C8 - Psychology	110	69.6	3.4
L2 - Politics	112	77.8	3.4
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	95	72.5	2.9
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	89	72.4	2.7
N1 - Business studies	74	64.3	2.3
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	86	78.9	2.6
All other subject lines	1,945	71.7	59.8
Grand Total	3,252	70.7	100.0

                                                                                                                              n=3,252

For all IB applicants, those applying to Y Combinations of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities were the most likely to be accepted with 78.9% of applicants being accepted. Applications to L2 - Politics were the second most likely to be accepted, with 77.8% of applicants accepted. For A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine, only 52.2% of applicants were accepted.

Due to the large numbers of applicants to M1 - Law by Area and N2 - Management Studies, these subjects had the highest proportions of accepted applicants.

Table 2.17 Accepted Applicants by Subject IB UK

Subject Line	Accepted Applicants	% Applicants Accepted	% Accepted Applicants
M1 - Law by Area	68	86.1	6.8
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	53	85.5	5.3
C8 - Psychology	47	88.7	4.7
Q3 - English studies	39	79.6	3.9
N2 - Management studies	37	84.1	3.7
V1 - History by Period	33	89.2	3.3
Y Combs of languages with arts/humanities	29	85.3	2.9
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	29	85.3	2.9
L1 - Economics	28	90.3	2.8
C1 - Biology	31	100.0	3.1
All other subject lines	601	84.2	60.4
Total	995	85.2	100.0

     n= 995

Table 2.18 Accepted Applicants by Subject IB EU

Subject Line	Accepted Applicants	% Applicants Accepted	% Accepted Applicants
N2 - Management studies	105	76.1	8.5
M1 - Law by Area	82	71.3	6.6
L1 - Economics	56	70.9	4.5
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	26	32.9	2.1
L2 - Politics	64	84.2	5.2
C8 - Psychology	49	72.1	4.0
N1 - Business studies	43	66.2	3.5
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	39	72.2	3.1
Y Combs of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	40	74.1	3.2
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	36	81.8	2.9
All other subject lines	699	70.5	56.4
Grand Total	1,239	70.3	100.0

                               n=1,239

Table 2.19 Accepted Applicants by Subject IB Non EU

Subject Line	Accepted Applicants	% Applicants Accepted	% Accepted Applicants
N2 - Management studies	91	65.5	8.9
M1 - Law by Area	86	66.7	8.4
A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine	61	48.0	6.0
L1 - Economics	48	57.1	4.7
H3 - Mechanical Engineering	43	67.2	4.2
L2 - Politics	32	64.0	3.1
LL - Combinations within Social Studies	32	64.0	3.1
H8 - Chemical Process and Energy Engineering	33	76.7	3.2
N1 - Business studies	23	60.5	2.3
C8 - Psychology	14	37.8	1.4
All other subject lines	555	61.2	54.5
Grand Total	1,018	61.0	100.0

      n=1,018

 

Considering Tables 2.17-2.19 there appear to be marked differences in conversion rates of application to acceptance by subject line between UK, EU and non EU IB applicants. This apparent disparity is most noticeable in A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine (85.5% UK, 32.9% EU and 48.0% Non EU) and C8 - Psychology (88.7% UK, 72.1% EU and 67.8% Non EU), illustrated in Charts 2.5 and 2.6 below.

Chart 2.5

Chart 2.6

A Chi squared test was carried out for A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine with the null hypothesis that there was no difference in treatment of IB applicants from across the globe. This used the number of applicants with A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine as their preferred subject choice (from Tables 2.2-2.4) and the numbers of accepted applicants from Tables 2.14-2.16). The test statistic was 40.2 with two degrees of freedom and the null hypothesis was rejected. A Chi squared test was also carried out for C8 - Psychology with the same null hypothesis using data from the tables as above. The test statistic was 27.0 with two degrees of freedom and again the null hypothesis was rejected. In other words, the proportion of applicants accepted on to A1 - Pre-Clinical Medicine and C8 -Psychology significantly differs for IB applicants from the UK, EU and non EU.

It should be noted that the preferred subject line was allocated on the basis of the original applications made by applicants rather than the subject they were ultimately accepted. For example, of all accepted applicants with the preferred subject line A1 - Pre-clinical Medicine (140), only 75 were actually accepted for A1, 25 were accepted for subjects allied to medicine and a further 40 were accepted in to other subject areas. Of the 100 applicants that were ultimately accepted for C8 - Psychology, only 82 had applied with this as their preferred subject line.

Table 2.20 presents the ranking frequencies of subjects appearing in tables 2.16-2.19 to give an overall picture of the popularity of subjects across all IB accepted applicants.

Table 2.20 Accepted Applicants Ranking Frequency of Subject Lines IB

Code	Subject Line	All	UK	EU	Non EU
M1	Law by Area	1	1	2	2
N2	Management studies	2	6	1	1
A1	Pre-clinical Medicine	3	2	10	3
L1	Economics	4	10	4	4
C8	Psychology	6	3	5	10
L2	Politics	6		3	8
LL	Combinations within Social Studies	7		8	8
H3	Mechanical Engineering	8		9	5
Y	Combinations of social studies/bus/law with arts/humanities	9	9	7
N1	Business studies	10		6	9
Q3	English studies		4
V1	History by Period		6
C1	Biology		7
Y	Combs of languages with arts/humanities
H8	Chemical Process and Energy Engineering				6

 

In terms of accepted applicants, engineering was again more popular amongst non EU and EU applicants with UK applicants favouring arts and humanities.

---

Previours page      Contents     Next page