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University faculties: All you need to know

The transition from high-school to university is very daunting. As a first year student you come across so many new things and terms which you had no idea existed while you were in high school. This is why this article is so important. In this video we will be explaining the different faculties you find in universities.

We’ll look into what they are, what academic skills they require and a few careers you can get into based on your faculty. Lastly, the high school subjects you should take if you’re interested in a particular faculty.

What are university Faculties?

So, in universities, the term faculties is a broad term used to group similar disciplines together. Within each faculty you could find a lot of areas of study but the idea is that they are similar.

This article will be explaining 7 faculties which are usually found in all universities. This is just a broad overview and you could find that in other universities the faculties are different or are referred to in different terms.

Commerce faculty

So the first faculty which I will explain is the commerce faculty. This faculty deals with disciplines related to business such as economics, accounting, finance and many more. The main skills you’ll need if you want to be in this faculty include maths, accounting and maybe business. So if you love numbers and love entrepreneurship, then this is definitely the faculty you can look into.

Some of the career options you can consider if you’re in this industry include, marketing, business owner. Actuarial scientist, accountant. The skills which you learn from this faculty tend to be very broad and can be applied into different career paths.

So for example if you go into economics, you could find that you can be an analyst, you can work at a bank or a company. It’s just really broad and can open a lot of doors for you in terms of career options
Humanities faculty

This faculty primarily focuses on understanding how humans exist in society. Within this faculty you find disciplines such as social sciences, psychology, media, languages, art, philosophy and more. To excel in this faculty you’ll need strong reading and writing skills, and also very good comprehension.

This is because this faculty has a lot of content and you’ll be reading a lot of academic papers and trying to understand a lot of theories which explain how humans work. With a degree in the humanities, you can pursue a lot of careers based on what you choose to major in.

For example if your major is psychology, you can work towards becoming a psychologist. If you majored in media studies you can become a journalist, if you majored in theatre you can become a theatre performer.

The most important thing when choosing a degree in the humanities is that you choose a major which you will enjoy, one which really interests you. And if your favourite high school subjects are English, History, and Life Orientation then you may be interested in the degrees offered in this faculty.

Law faculty

Third on the list is the faculty of law. So the faculty of law has to do with law obviously. The faculty has to do with learning about policies, laws, the justice system and more. To do well in this faculty you would need great comprehension skills but also you’ll need to learn how to apply what you’ve learned, so you have to be good at understanding how to use the information you’ve learned to solve problems and come up with solutions.

You also have to love the law and enforcing rules. With a degree from this faculty, you can become a lawyer, of course there are different streams of law like commercial law or criminal law. You can also be a legal counsellor for corporations giving them legal advice. Because this faculty has a lot to do with reading, it’s also good for people who enjoy English as a subject.

Science faculty

This faculty has disciplines which explain how the world we live in works. So for example our environment, chemistry and physics. The skills you’d need for this are primarily analytical skills. You’d need to have strong comprehension skills but also you need to be able to make meaning out of what you understand.

You also have to be curious about how things work and eager to find out. The science faculty is very broad and you can pursue different degrees based on the major which you choose and which particular thing interests you.

You can become a scientist, working in hospitals, you can work at factories where they develop products, you can become an environmental consultant. This faculty just has so many options that are broad and differ vastly from one another so it’s really up to you and what you can imagine yourself becoming.
If you enjoy physics in high school, geography, life sciences then you could definitely enjoy some of the degrees offered in this faculty.

Engineering faculty

This faculty is all about designing and building, for example learning how a car works but not only gaining an understanding of that but being able to implement what you’ve learned yourself.

It also focuses on building and understanding what goes into building or making certain things like in civil engineering. They learn how to build bridges and roads and so much more.

The skills you’d need to do well in this faculty is a sharp understanding of systems. You would need to know how to analyse things, design things and build things.

So an overall understanding of maths, physics and English would be very helpful when pursuing a degree in this faculty. The career which you end up in when you get into this faculty depends on the specific type of engineering which you choose depending on what your interests are.

So, if you like construction you may look into civil engineering if you like chemistry, you may look into chemical engineering, it really all depends on you and what your interests are.

The engineering faculty is for people who enjoy EGD, technology, maths and physics as that is what you will come across in most of your courses.

Health Sciences faculty
This faculty deals with science related to physical health. Everything that has to do with understanding how the human body works, diseases and how to cure them. So, when you think of health sciences, I want you to think of hospitals and everyone who works in hospitals.

The skills you’d need to have if you want to do well in this faculty are primarily analytical and problem-solving skills. But more importantly, you need to have figured your studying technique since the courses in the faculty usually have a lot of content.

So, I would suggest learning how to be disciplined enough to go through all the content. In terms of careers, people who study in the health sciences faculty usually become doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiologists, dentists. Think of people who make up the broad group of professionals who work in the hospital.

For high-school subjects, usually you’d need to enjoy life sciences, physics and maths, as these subjects demand intense analytical skills.

Some universities require you to have done Life sciences to get into the faculty.

Education faculty

Lastly, we have the faculty of education. In some institutions, education falls under the humanities so it differs from institution to institution.

This faculty has to do with studying the subject of education. It consists of training like training students how to be teachers and educators.
It also has research whereby you research things like curriculum development and also policy making , so becoming someone who develops or manages the policies of education systems.

The skills you’d need to have to excel as a student in this faculty include, practical learning skills. Knowing how to apply knowledge you’ve learned, sharp reading and writing skills and overall skills that would make it easier for you to learn how to be passionate about being an educator.

For this faculty, any and every high school subject you do matters, for example if you want to become an English teacher then you have to do well in English and that applies to all the other subjects as well. Overall, this faculty focuses on teaching students how to be passionate educators.

This is a brief summary of the main university faculties that can be found in most institutions.

We truly hope that you have a clear understanding of how faculties work and which faculty to look into based on your current interests a high-school scholar.