Anatomy (the structure of the body) and its close cousin physiology (how living organisms and their parts function) are both life sciences, concerned with the study of the body and the relationship between its structure and its functions.

Dentistry is one of the most well-paid, young (more than half of all dentists are in their 20s and 30s) and progressive professions in the UK. Even in the NHS, net earnings are around £60,000 a year, with private practitioners able to set their own fees.

The medical school business is booming, with new schools launched and established places enrolling mature and even former arts degree students in response both to demand and to the perception of medics as white and middle-class.

Nursing is a profession requiring a wide range of skills and aptitudes. Caring and compassion, for instance, share equal importance with theoretical knowledge, and communication and teamworking skills are as important as technical expertise.

Nurses do most of their training on placements in hospitals, so it will be crucial to ask where the placements will be. Does the hospital have a good reputation and is it near enough to make the travel manageable? You may want to have a quick look around the university's hospital "partners" as well as the university itself.

When it comes to choosing courses for pharmacology and pharmacy, what I want to say is that the mechanism for choosing is pretty much the same for both courses. Firstly check the learning and teaching facilities - the labs, the state of the medical library and the IT facilities are all important to your everyday work, so you'll need to be happy with the availability and quality. Read on for more detailed information in the following article.

Pharmacologists study right down to single cell level and learn how they combine in an organ such as the liver or kidney, and how disease changes the normal condition, plus the effect of drugs on those different conditions. If you are considering studying this major during university, you should read this article for references.

Pharmacy is seeing a healthy rise in applicants, partly because the unemployment levels for the industry are very low, but also because the perception of the role of the pharmacist is changing. Whether it be in a community or hospital setting, the government is increasingly acknowledging that pharmacy is one of the primary health professions in the NHS, and that pharmacists are an integral part of most people's experience of NHS care.

Say you do psychology; and people get a bit twitchy, worrying that you're going to psychoanalyse them and reveal the hidden horrors of their sick, dirty, twisted minds. Sadly, it's not quite like that. These days, you're less likely to dabble with Freud than with the everyday workings of the human mind, both normal and abnormal, calculating why people think as they do. You're l...

All psychology degrees involve training in statistics, and all require the writing of essays, dissertations and projects, so ensure that these appeal. You'll need to write up empirical findings and present them to other students. Just because this is the sort of subject that will always create some good conversation in the pub, it doesn't mean this is an easy option.

For most students, a veterinary degree is preparation for an attractive (and sometime lucrative) career in private practice, but the broad, scientifically based curriculum provides an outstanding background for a wide range of careers in biological and medical fields, in research and in agricultural and food policy roles nationally. Read on for more detailed information in the following article.