The Hardest Degrees in the UK: Ranking and Analysis

Deciding which degree to apply for is a serious decision, with many factors to weigh. Among the most important considerations is the difficulty of the course. A university education should be challenging and demanding, but you will learn the most when you are stretched without being overwhelmed. To help you navigate this decision, we have compiled an analysis of the hardest degrees in the UK.

This guide draws on official data from sources like the Higher Education Policy Institute and Higher Education Statistics Authority, as well as independent analysis conducted by Dukes Plus. Considering factors like workload, entry requirements, and degree results, our investigation suggests that Medicine, Economics, and Engineering are the hardest degrees to study in the UK.

Read on to see the detail behind our verdict and how other subjects rank for difficulty.

Hardest by workload

One of the key reasons why students might find a degree hard is because of the workload.

Which degrees will have you spending the most time in labs, lectures, and libraries? Anecdotally, many students would say those studying Medicine, Engineering, and lab-based sciences have the most work.

But does the data bear this out? Every year, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) runs its Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES). In it, they ask students how much time they spend working every week.

Here are the findings for 2026:

Degree	Hours worked per week
Subjects allied to Medicine	42.30
Medicine and Dentistry	39.19
Education and Teaching	36.72
Engineering and Technology	35.50
Veterinary Sciences	34.54
Physical Sciences	33.38
Architecture, Building and Planning	33.04
Mathematical Sciences	32.31
Biological and Sport Sciences	31.71
Computing	30.43
Creative Arts and Design	30.27
Law	30.12
Business and Management	29.45
Social Sciences	29.39
General and others in Sciences	29.32
Agriculture, Food and related studies	29.15
Geographical and Environmental Studies	29.15
Language and Area Studies	28.51
Communications and Media	28.36
Combined and General Studies	28.36
Humanities and Liberal Arts (non-specific)	26.77
Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies	26.69
Psychology	25.49

As we might expect, Medicine tops the list, at around 40 hours work per week – the same as a full-time job. Dentistry, Vet Med, Engineering, Physics, and Architecture are all near the top, confirming the impression many students would have.

Perhaps surprising is Education and Teaching, in third place at nearly 37 hours per week.

The smallest workloads are in Psychology, Languages, and Humanities subjects. Students on these courses do 10-15 hours per week less work than those taking degrees at the top of the list.

In general, we can see that STEM subjects tend to have greater workloads than Arts and Humanities subjects. Does that make them harder? One thing to consider is that most of STEM students’ work will be scheduled: timetabled labs and lectures. Some students find it harder to have to do their own research and manage their own time, as students taking humanities subjects do, partly as it’s such a big change from the way you are used to working at school.

So in terms of raw amount of work, STEM subjects generally make for ‘harder’ degrees – but what you find hard may differ, depending on your working style.

Hardest by entry requirements

Another way of working out which are the hardest degrees is to look at their entry requirements. Universities set demanding standards for entry partly to make sure that applicants are capable of keeping up with the difficulty of the material. So the harder the entry requirements, the more challenging the degree. Plus, if you get on to a degree which requires exceptional grades from applicants, then all your peers will necessarily be academic high-achievers too, which will raise the overall standards in your classes and coursework.

There are nearly 12,000 individual courses you can apply for via UCAS. We at Dukes Plus have carried out independent analysis to work out which subjects have the highest average entry requirements.

To do this, we’ve used the number of UCAS tariff points required for entry. UCAS points are a way of converting different post-16 qualifications into a numerical value – e.g. an A* at A Level is worth 56 points, while an A is worth 48 points. A course with entry requirements of A*AA would therefore equate to 152 UCAS points.

Here are the average UCAS points required for each subject across the whole of the UK:

Degree	Average UCAS tariff points required
Classics	135.5
Physics	130.6
Modern languages	129.5
Mathematics	128.0
Materials science	125.7
Statistics	124.5
Dentistry	124.4
Politics	123.9
Geology	122.8
Economics	122.7
Veterinary medicine	122.3
Medicine (general and para-medical)	121.9
Linguistics	121.9
Art history	120.9
Philosophy	120.8
English	120.1
Law	120.1
History	119.5
Geography	117.7
Engineering	117.6
Biology	117.4
Chemistry	115.9
Biochemistry	115.9
Biomedical sciences	115.2
Architecture	114.9
Anthropology	114.7
Data analysis	114.6
Sociology	113.4
Computer science	112.3
Human sciences	112.0
Psychology	110.1
Drama studies	108.1
Business and management	104.5
Fine art	102.1
Music	100.8
Education	100.3
Theology	98.3
Filmmaking	97.7
Fashion	96.3

Classics degrees have the highest entry requirements on average in the UK, followed by Physics, Modern Languages, Maths, and Materials Science. The lowest entry requirements on average are in the creative arts subjects (Music, Art, Filmmaking, and Fashion), Education, and Theology.

But before we crown Classics the hardest degree to get into, a word of caution. Because Classics is offered at many Russell Group and other selective universities (where the entry requirements are higher anyway), and more rarely offered at less selective universities, its average tariff points required may be misleadingly high.

At more competitive universities, entry requirements are often higher for sciences than for arts and humanities. At Oxford, for instance, the standard arts and humanities offer is AAA and the standard STEM offer is A*AA, while at Cambridge, it’s A*AA for arts and humanities and A*A*A for sciences.

In addition, this entry requirements data is only based on A Level and equivalent qualifications. It doesn’t factor in admissions tests or interviews. These are required for Medicine, for instance, which means it is harder to get into than its comparatively modest 12^th place on this table would suggest.

Most Competitive Degrees at Oxbridge

We can also look at the offer rates of different degrees at the two most prestigious universities in the UK: Oxford and Cambridge.

At Cambridge, these are the courses with the lowest offer rates:

1. Computer Science
2. Economics
3. Engineering
4. Architecture
5. Land Economy (now Environment, Law, and Economics)

At Oxford, it’s these:

1. Economics and Management
2. Computer Science
3. Mathematics and Computer Science
4. Biomedical Sciences
5. Medicine

Economics and Computer Science are in the top two on both lists. This suggests that these are some of the hardest degrees in the UK, particularly at more selective universities.

Hardest by degree results

Another key consideration when analysing the difficulty of different degrees is to look at students’ final results: which are the hardest degrees in the UK to get a first in?

(For context, a first-class degree is the highest classification of degree in the UK university system – in other words, the best result you can get.)

The HESA publishes data on degree results by subject. Here are the latest figures, for 2024/25:

Degree	% of students awarded first-class degree
Law	20%
Business and management	24%
Social sciences	26%
Psychology	26%
Agriculture, food and related studies	27%
Biological and sport sciences	27%
Media, journalism and communications	28%
Historical, philosophical and religious studies	28%
Geography, earth and environmental studies (social sciences)	29%
Geography, earth and environmental studies (natural sciences)	30%
Architecture, building and planning	30%
Education and teaching	30%
Language and area studies	31%
Combined and general studies	31%
Subjects allied to medicine	33%
Design, and creative and performing arts	33%
Engineering and technology	37%
Physical sciences	39%
Mathematical sciences	40%
Computing	42%

Note: excludes Medicine and Veterinary Sciences, as these are usually unclassified degrees (i.e. you are just given a pass or a fail).

Law, Business, Social Sciences, and Psychology have the lowest rates of firsts, between 20% and 26% – well below the UK average of 30%. By contrast, Engineering, Physics, Maths, and Computing have the highest rates of firsts – between 37 and 42%.

Overall, 34% of science students get firsts vs only 27% of non-science students.

What does this mean? There are a few possible explanations:

1. These STEM degrees do just tend to be quite easy, and Law and the social sciences harder.
2. Subjects where there are clear, objective right and wrong answers lend themselves to more students scoring high marks.
3. There’s a self-selection process at work: clever students choose to do the hard sciences, and that’s why those subjects give out lots of firsts, while the more wishy-washy humanities subjects attract less able students, so they give out worse results.

Option 2 seems the most persuasive. Subjects which use more objective assessments may make it easier for high-performing students to access the top end of the marking scale. By contrast, markers of essay-based subjects often give out a narrower band of mid-to-high marks. In the sciences, there’s nothing to prevent a student from getting full marks for a correct solution. In the arts and humanities, markers are making subjective judgements of the strength, originality, and structure of arguments, and good work is often given a mark in the high 60s or low 70s rather than the 90s.

This data shouldn’t be read straightforwardly as evidence that STEM degrees are easier or that non-STEM students are weaker. Remember, too, that each university is its own awarding body – there’s no nationally agreed standard of what constitute a first-class performance, so comparing across the UK like this is not totally reliable.

The Hardest Degrees in the UK

Here is our list of the hardest degrees in the UK. Bear in mind that, for the reasons we have discussed in this guide, the difficulty of a degree is subjective and varies from one university to another.

But if you study one of these subjects at university in the UK, it’s likely that it will be hard to get onto the course and that the workload will be cognitively difficult and time-consuming once you’re there.

1.     Medicine

Medicine students work longer hours than any other students in the UK. They have to go through a gruelling application process, including UCAT and interview, and if they’re lucky enough to get a place, the hard work is only just beginning.

Medicine degrees last six years (rather than the standard three or four in the UK), and they’re made up of challenging theoretical content and intense hospital placements. Plus, what you learn at medical school may be a matter of life and death. Medicine truly deserves to be named as the hardest degree in the UK.

2.     Economics

Economics requires the advanced numerical and analytical skills of a mathematician or statistician, as well as the critical thinking and essay-writing abilities of a student of Politics or History. In other words, you need to be brilliant at understanding both how numbers work and how people do. There are not many students who manage one, let alone both – though many try: Economics & Management is the most oversubscribed subject at Oxford and Economics is the second most at Cambridge.

As part of the Social Sciences, it has the third lowest percentage of firsts awarded of any degree in the UK, at just 26%. What’s more, to get in in the first place, you need better A Levels on average than you do for Medicine.

3.     Engineering

Engineering is theoretically complex and practically rigorous – there’s a reason it’s the third hardest subject to get into at Cambridge. The curriculum is demanding and the hours are long (the third highest for any subject in the UK). With a mixture of lab work, projects, and advanced calculations, it’s one of the most challenging subjects to study at university.

4.     Physics

Physics is the fourth hardest degree in the UK. The content spans topics that will be familiar to your peers in Engineering (like mechanics and thermodynamics), Maths (like differential equations and linear algebra), Chemistry (like atomic structure and spectroscopy), and areas that are unique to Physics itself (like quantum mechanics, relativity, and particle physics). That means it requires a flexible mind – one that can handle rigorous analysis, demanding theory, and high-level abstraction.

Physics degrees in the UK have the second highest entry requirements on average, reflecting just how intellectually demanding the subject is. The workload is also substantial, ranking 6th out of 23 subjects in the UK for hours spent studying.

5.     Law

A Law undergraduate degree (often called an LLB) contains huge amounts of wide-ranging content – from Torts to Criminal and Company Law, and from legal history to the law of modern entities like the EU. It is also often an interdisciplinary subject, interacting with a diverse range of fields including philosophy, criminology, politics, and history.  

A Law degree may require you to understand the minutiae of complex contracts one week and to ask questions about the nature of justice the next. You’ll need a great memory, rigorous attention to detail, formidable logical skills, and the ability to write a compelling answer or construct a persuasive argument. It’s little wonder that fewer Law students get firsts than anyone else in the UK.

6.     Computer Science

Sixth on our list of hardest degrees in the UK is computer science. It’s the hardest subject to get into at Cambridge and second hardest at Oxford, which shows how challenging the content is. Together with Engineering, Computer Science students also work the fourth most hours on average of any degree.

It’s a rapidly evolving field, which brings its own challenges: English or History students, for instance, could never say that something they learned in first year is no longer true in third year, but you have to deal with that instability and unpredictability on a Computer Science degree.

7.     Maths

Maths degrees in the UK have the fourth highest entry requirements on average, and it’s easy to see why: university-level Mathematics is a world away from anything encountered at A Level. Where school maths rewards learning and applying a set of problem-solving techniques, a university Maths degree demands rigorous logical proof, abstract reasoning, and a willingness to approach genuinely unsolved (and sometimes unsolvable) problems. When you get to university, it sometimes feels like what you thought was Maths was actually Physics, and Maths is something more philosophical and altogether stranger than you realised.

The workload is also considerable, ranking 8th out of 23 subjects in the UK. For those with the aptitude, it is deeply rewarding. But make no mistake, Maths can often be one of the most intellectually unforgiving degrees on offer in the UK.

Why drop-out rates are irrelevant

Several articles online about the hardest degrees in the UK use drop-out rates as a key metric. The thinking seems to be that the hardest subjects will be too difficult for some students, causing them to drop out – so the higher the drop-out rate, the harder the degree.

The Highest Education Statistics Agency (HESA) last reported on drop-out rates by subject for the 2019/20 academic year. Here is what they found:

Degree	Drop-out rate
Subject	All qualifications
Computing	7.7%
Combined and general studies	7.4%
Creative arts and design	7.0%
Communications and media	6.8%
Biological and sport sciences	6.6%
Business and management	6.6%
Architecture, building and planning	5.7%
Engineering and technology	5.3%
subjects	5.3%
Agriculture, food and related studies	5.1%
Social sciences	5.1%
Education and teaching	5.0%
Psychology	4.8%
Subjects allied to medicine	4.7%
Humanities and liberal arts (non-specific)	4.6%
Law	4.3%
Language and area studies	4.2%
Historical, philosophical and religious studies	3.3%
Physical sciences	3.2%
General and others in sciences	3.2%
Mathematical sciences	3.1%
Geographical and environmental studies	2.9%
Medicine and dentistry and Veterinary sciences	0.8%

But the problem with this metric is that drop-out data actually tells you very little about how difficult a degree is. It is only an indicator of the hardest degrees if you assume that students mainly drop out because their degree is hard – but that isn’t the case.

Drop-out Rates by University

To illustrate this, here are the drop-out rates by university, according to Debut Careers.

These are the top 10 universities with the lowest percentage of students withdrawing:

Rank	University	Drop-out rate
1	The University of Cambridge	1%
2	The University of Oxford	1.2%
3	Royal College of Music	1.5%
4	Courtauld Institute of Art	1.6%
5	The University of Bath	1.7%
5	Royal Academy of Music	1.7%
6	The University of Bristol	1.9%
6	University of Durham	1.9%
6	The University of Exeter	1.9%
6	The Royal Veterinary College	1.9%
6	St George’s, University of London	1.9%
7	Glasgow School of Art	2.1%
7	The University of St Andrews	2.1%
8	London School of Economics and Political Science	2.4%
9	The University of Birmingham	2.5%
10	The University of Sheffield	2.7%

As you can see, Oxford and Cambridge have the fewest students drop out. Also in the top ten are some high-ranking Russell Group universities, like Bristol, Durham, Exeter, and LSE, as well as top non-Russell Groups like Bath and St Andrews.

If hard degrees caused students to drop out, we would expect these universities to have the highest drop-out rates, not the lowest.

And in fact, when we look at the universities with the highest drop-out rates, these generally rank much lower in the league tables and are usually considered less academic than the likes of Oxbridge, LSE, and St Andrews.

Rank	University	Drop-out rate
Rank	University	% of Students No Longer in Higher Education
1	London Metropolitan University	18.60%
2	The University of Bolton	15.40%
3	University of Bedfordshire	15.20%
4	University of the Highlands and Islands	14%
5	University of Suffolk	13.60%
6	SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College)	12.90%
7	Middlesex University	12.60%
8	Plymouth College of Art	12.50%
9	The University of Wolverhampton	12.20%
10	University of Abertay Dundee	12.10%

Reasons why students drop out

So if students don’t drop out because of the difficulty of their degree, why do they? In the HEPI’s Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES) , they ask students who have considered dropping out their reasons for doing so.

Here are their findings for 2026:

Reason for considering leaving university	% giving reason
My mental/emotional health	30%
Financial difficulties	14%
Family or personal problems	6%
My physical health	5%
Difficulty balancing study and other commitments	4%
I have found this level of study difficult	4%
The wider student experience is not what I was hoping for	4%
I don’t feel connected with my fellow students	4%
I might have chosen the wrong institution	4%
The way the course is delivered is not what I expected	4%
The content of the course is not what I expected	4%
There is too much work	3%
I am finding it difficult to balance my studies with time spent in paid work	3%
There is not enough support for my learning	3%
There is not enough support for personal issues	2%
This level of study is not challenging enough	2%
There is not enough interaction with teaching staff	2%
There is not enough work	1%
Other	2%
Prefer not to say	1%

From this data, we can see that more than half of students consider dropping out because of mental or physical health, financial difficulties, or personal problems. Only 7% of potential drop-outs are closely related to the difficulty of the degree:

• I have found this level of study difficult (4%)
• There is too much work (3%)

And in fact, 3% said they considered dropping out because the degree was too easy or there wasn’t enough work.

In summary, drop-out rates are of little to no use when trying to find the hardest degrees in the UK. That’s why we haven’t included this data in our analysis.

How Dukes Plus Can Help

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