Seven funky university courses now on offer

FORGOING the usual business degree for one on surfing or ethical hacking might sound crazy, but it could mean you can convert your passion into your profession.

SWEET TREAT DEGREE: A Spanish university offers a Masters in Contemporary Patisserie and Sweet Cuisine but it's not for the faint-hearted. Photo: Warren Lynam / Sunshine Coast Daily. Picture: Warren Lynam

FANCY getting a university degree is surfing, The Beatles, sweet treats or bike building?

I thought so.

They all sound so much more interesting than accounting, the law, dentistry or marketing.

So when you are warming through yet another lecture on something you can't see yourself ever using in your day to day life, why not consider a new career via;

1. CYCLING - If cycling is your passion but you'll never be a Cadel Evans or Anna Meares, then head over to Minnesota State College Southeast, located 64km down the Mississippi River from Saint Paul, will accept the first cohort of students in its Bicycle Design and Fabrication program in 2019.

2. SURFING - When Edith Cowan University offered a Bachelor of Science (Surf Science and Technology) in 2001 at its Bunbury campus located half-way between Margaret River and Mandurah on the south-west coast, it was saw a surge of local, national and international students enrol. Now many are working across the surf industry.

3. DESSERTS - It might sound like a sweet treat but the Master in Contemporary Patisserie and Sweet Cuisine at GASMA in Spain includes 530 hours of external practice in restaurants and bakeries and encompasses a knowledge of raw materials, manufacturing processes and techniques will provide the foundation to foster creativity and innovation.

4. BAGPIPING - If the skirl of the bagpipes in ACDC's rock anthem Long Way to the Top gets your hear racing then think about making this Scottish instrument your major in the four year undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Philadelphia, US.

5. TIME - If a TARDIS and Dr Who's manipulation of time intrigues you then consider a Batchelor of Horology at Birmingham University in the UK where you can dissect the theories behind clocks and watches, and develop specialist skills in a course with strong industry links to Swatch, Rolex, Christopher Ward, Time In Hand and the Richard Higgins Conservation and the British Museum.

6. ETHICAL HACKING - It might sound like a double negative but this innovative course at Scotland's Abertay University was launched in 2006 it's graduates have been at the forefront of new developments in cybersecurity, producing highly-skilled (read well-paid) and in-demand graduates.

7. JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & RINGO - At Liverpool Hope University you can study for a masters in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society. "This MA will examine the significance of the music of The Beatles in the construction of identities, audiences, ethnicities and industries, and localities; by doing so it will suggest ways to understand popular music as a social practise, focusing attention on issues such as the role of music in the construction of regional identities, concepts of authenticity, aesthetics, meaning, value, performance, and the use of popular music as a discursive evocation of place. Furthermore, in a consideration of popular music as a text, popular music semiotics will also be employed." Yes. Really.