How to Compare Courses With Discover Uni Before You Apply
Discover Uni puts official data on every UK undergraduate course in one place. Here is how to use it to compare your options before you commit to any of your five UCAS choices.
Before you spend an evening filling in your UCAS choices, it helps to see the official numbers behind each course. Discover Uni is the UK’s official site for searching and comparing undergraduate courses, and it pulls survey results, continuation rates, fees and graduate outcomes into one place. Used well, it shows which shortlisted courses deserve a closer look and which raise questions to ask before you apply.
What Discover Uni is and where its data comes from
Discover Uni brings together official information about higher education across the UK. The Office for Students, the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland, Medr (which oversees tertiary education and research in Wales) and the Scottish Funding Council run the site together. It replaced Unistats in September 2019 and is still in public beta, so the organisations behind it welcome feedback on how it works.
The course figures sit in the Discover Uni dataset, assembled with the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), now part of Jisc. It combines:
- details universities and colleges submit about their own courses
- results from the National Student Survey, which asks final-year students about their experience
- results from the Graduate Outcomes survey, sent to UK graduates 15 months after finishing
- Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data, which links education records to tax and benefits data
- information about quality assessment and standards
The site is refreshed annually, and smaller updates can land weekly when providers change their submissions. The current dataset covers courses running in the 2027-28 academic year, so check you are looking at the right year for your application.
Step 1: Search for your subject and build a shortlist
Start on the Discover Uni homepage. Type a course name into the search box, add institutions already on your mind, and filter by whatever matters to you, such as location or study mode.
As you browse, use the save button on any course worth a second look. Saving is what makes the rest of this process work, because saved courses feed straight into the comparison tool. If you have not yet settled on a subject at all, it helps to read how to choose a degree course in the UK first, then come back with a shortlist in mind.
Step 2: Read the course page and entry requirements
Open each saved course page and work through it properly. Alongside links to the university or college’s own website, where you can find module lists and teaching details, you will see:
| What you see on a course page | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Student views on teaching, assessment, academic support and more | National Student Survey |
| How many students continued into their second year | Provider submissions to HESA |
| What jobs graduates went into after the course | Graduate Outcomes survey |
| Qualifications and UCAS tariff points of accepted students | Provider submissions to HESA |
| Professional accreditations | Provider submissions and quality information |
The entry qualifications figure deserves attention. It shows what previous students had when they were accepted, which is often more useful than a bare grade offer, because it reveals the typical profile of people who got in. If your own qualifications are unconventional, remember that admissions teams sometimes treat mature or returning applicants differently from school leavers, and it is always worth contacting them directly.
One label to watch for: courses delivered under a franchised arrangement, where another provider teaches all or part of the course on the university’s behalf, are flagged on the site. If that applies to a course you like, look into who actually delivers the teaching.
Study tip
Check the fine print under any figure. When there is not enough data for a specific course, Discover Uni shows numbers covering related courses at that provider instead, and the page says so.
Step 3: Compare fees and accommodation costs
Discover Uni course pages link through to the provider’s own pages on fees and funding, so use those for the detailed numbers rather than relying on memory or hearsay. Tuition fee limits and loans for students from England are covered in our guide to Student Finance in England, but accommodation is a separate cost that varies enormously between institutions and between catered and self-catered halls.
Course data alone will not tell you what a room costs. Check what each provider charges for its halls, compare catered and self-catered options, and factor in travel if you plan to commute. When your comparison table is in front of you, add your estimated annual accommodation cost next to each course so you compare the true yearly cost of attending, not just the fee.
Step 4: Read graduate outcomes and survey results with care
This is the part most people skim, and where careful reading matters most. Discover Uni shows what graduates were earning 15 months, 3 years and 5 years after finishing, alongside what they went on to do and how they feel their course has affected their work. The 15-month figures come from the Graduate Outcomes survey, which every UK graduate is invited to complete.
Keep several caveats in mind:
- Earnings data is published as experimental statistics, meaning new official statistics still undergoing evaluation. It is drawn from tax records and shown as a median with an interquartile range, at subject level rather than for a single course.
- Surveys reflect a point in time. The same students might answer differently on a different day.
- Final-year students surveyed in the National Student Survey in 2024 had experienced disruption before and during their studies, including recovery from Covid-19 and, for some, industrial action affecting teaching and assessments.
- Data drawn from more than one year covers more students, but also students from different year groups, and every cohort differs.
Small courses are especially prone to jumping around, because a shift of one or two students can move a percentage noticeably. A lower satisfaction score at a large course may mean more than a high score at one with a dozen respondents. And a graduate in further study or travelling may appear as neither working nor jobseeking, so read what the categories cover.
Step 5: Use the data alongside open days and prospectuses
Once your shortlist is saved, go to saved courses and pick as many as seven to display next to each other in the comparison tool. Seeing the figures together makes gaps obvious: one course may have stronger continuation rates, another may show happier students, a third may attract entrants with very different grades.
But the comparison tool is a shortlisting device, not a decision-maker. The data is a snapshot, and your experience may differ from previous students. Use it to decide which open days to attend and which questions to ask, then weigh the numbers against the modules on offer, the teaching style and the place itself. Ask admissions tutors about anything odd in the data, such as a dip in continuation or a missing survey result.
Before finalising your choices, double check the basics too, including how to confirm a university or course is recognised, then build your application using our UCAS application guide for 2027 entry.
Common mistakes when reading official course statistics
- Comparing courses that are not alike. A part-time course and a full-time course in the same subject are not directly comparable, and neither are different subjects or levels.
- Assuming missing data means a bad course. New and small courses often lack figures simply because not enough students have taken part yet.
- Reading earnings as a prediction. The figures describe what earlier graduates of a subject group earned, not what any individual will earn.
- Ignoring the sample size. A percentage based on a handful of respondents can swing wildly from year to year.
- Treating one survey as the whole picture. Discover Uni itself advises treating the data as a useful guide, alongside prospectuses, open days and direct contact with providers.
Related guides
- How to Check a University or Course Is Recognised: make sure any course you shortlist leads to a recognised qualification.
- Student Finance in England: Loans, Repayment and the 2027 Changes: understand what the fees and living costs on your shortlist mean for your own budget.
- Before You Sign a Student Tenancy: once accommodation costs have shaped your shortlist, know what to check before committing to a contract.
The short version
- Discover Uni is the official UK site for comparing undergraduate courses, run by the higher education funding and regulatory bodies.
- You can save courses and compare up to seven of them side by side using the comparison tool.
- Course pages show survey results, continuation rates, graduate outcomes, earnings and the entry qualifications of previous students.
- Treat every figure as a snapshot at a point in time, and read it alongside prospectuses, open days and provider websites.
- Some figures cover similar courses rather than the exact course, and small courses can produce misleading numbers.
Questions students ask
Is Discover Uni the same as Unistats?
Discover Uni replaced Unistats in September 2019. It is still in public beta, so the organisations behind it actively invite feedback from users.
Why does a course sometimes have no data on Discover Uni?
Official figures are only published when enough students have taken part. New and small courses often do not have enough data yet, which does not mean anything is wrong with the course.
Can I trust the graduate earnings figures?
The earnings figures are experimental statistics based on tax records, shown as a median and an interquartile range for a subject group rather than a single course. They describe what earlier graduates earned, not what you will earn.
How many courses can I compare at once?
Save the courses you are interested in, then go to saved courses and select up to seven to view side by side in the comparison tool.
This guide is general information for students in the UK. Dates, fees and rules change, so always check the latest details with UCAS, GOV.UK, Student Finance England or your university or college before making decisions.
