Which Uni's offer good Chemistry degrees?

[neomneomneom]

My lovely DD is keen to pursue her love of chemistry and do a degree. She has just started to look into courses but we wondered if there are any good online sources of info regarding searching for universities which offer good chemistry degrees.

At this stage she doesn't wish to specialise so a general chemistry degree is what she's thinking. She particularly likes the idea of a year abroad or a year in industry.

Do any of you wise people have any recommendations as to good places to go / universities which offer good courses, please?


Any other tips gratefully received as we are literally starting out in a field we are very unfamiliar with.

Thank you.

[Cornishmumofone]

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/chemistry

[Cornishmumofone]

www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2019/jun/07/university-guide-2020-league-table-for-chemistry

That's a couple of starting points for you

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

There are lots of universities which offer good Chemistry courses. However, university is about more than the course so she might want to think about other aspects eg campus uni vs city centre, distance from home, etc. When unis are open again I would really encourage her to go to open days to get a feel.of whether she would be happy there for 3 or 4 years

[Toilenstripes]

Take a look at Exeter, Sheffield and Durham. I’ve had a couple of colleagues who have looked at those for their dc interested in chemistry. I also have a brilliant friend who is a biochemistry lecturer at Exeter.

[RoryGillmoresEvilTwin]

UEA

[MoltoAgitato]

Imperial.

[sylbunny]

Durham, Reading, Oxford

[Fifthtimelucky]

I have a niece very happy doing chemistry at York.

[titchy]

Nottingham, Imperial, Liverpool. What grades is she likely to get? Is Oxbridge an option?

[janetmendoza]

Ds did chemistry at Nottingham. They were very supportive and have a super reputation

[DailyLaundry]

If you go here you can search for courses, bookmark them then compare on various measures and information, such as student satisfaction etc
discoveruni.gov.uk

[ITonyah]

I thought Exeter had stopped offering chemistry

[RowenaCoxwell]

York-excellent modern labs

[LizzieMacQueen]

Happy to see Heriot Watt (Edinburgh) in that list above. My daughter's been happy studying there. Small classes, campus uni.

[neomneomneom]

Thank you so much for all the replies.

I will show her this thread tomorrow.
Lots for her to look into and explore.

Thank you Mumsnetters

[MarchingFrogs]

thought Exeter had stopped offering chemistry

The university closed its Chemistry department in ?2006. It currently offers Biological and Medicinal Chemistry.

search.exeter.ac.uk/s/search.html?collection=all-exeter-uni&search_param=all&query=Chemistry+

[Freedobby]

Hi, when reviewing degree choices it is worth checking if the degree is accredited by the RCS

www.rsc.org/Education/courses-and-careers/accredited-courses/index.asp?logtype=&uid=&ucid=&q=&sortdir=&p=1

[ErrolTheDragon]

The guardian league table is frankly bonkers.

[ErrolTheDragon]

In normal times, chemistry is one of the subjects where I'd really recommend going to open days to look at the labs - maybe see if any have 'virtual tours'.

[ITonyah]

The guardian league table is frankly bonkers

That's what I thought. What on earth are the criteria? Equally as mad for the course dd wants to do next year.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Sorry my thoughts are coming in dribs and drabs.... DH and I are both chemists, in very different fields. Him industrial, me purely in silico ... computational stuff.

We're a bit unconvinced by the 'year in industry' idea, and what that means in practice. It seems a lot more sensible to us to get properly qualified, probably including at least a masters nowadays, but many of the most interesting jobs also need PhDs. (Which if you're really into chemistry is a positive not a negative!)
There's just not so much you can really do after only the first two years. Obviously internships for some experience with two or three different companies/institutions is a very good idea.

There are many good solid chemistry degrees available, with different entry requirements. So it would be useful to know your DDs a level subjects and predicted grades.

[VanCleefArpels]

Your first starting point is predicted grades. No point in looking at eg Exeter if she’s unlikely to get in there. The Whatuni website is great because you can filter by predicted grades and subject and it gives a list of achievable universities. Then you need to consider

Location - how far away from home? How would you get to/from? How expensive/ convenient will that be?

City or Campus - this is a “feel” thing

Accommodation - not all universities have accommodation for all first year students. What’s available, how much does it cost? How does this compare with likely maintenance loan? Can you make up the difference? If not how?

Other factors: is sports important? Theatre? Access to gigs and clubs?

[ErrolTheDragon]

What on earth are the criteria?

3 types of 'student satisfaction' metrics... which may be small samples and depend how easily satisfied the students are. 'Value added' score, which is somewhat meaningless as some unis award more firsts than is reasonable. No research metrics... maybe that's ok for some degrees but really not for chemistry.
The spend per student column may be of some interest as presumably that gives some guide to facilities (labs, equipment) which are important.

Sorting on individual columns from the various guides and comparing them can extract some clues.

The guardian guide seems to totally omit Natural Sciences so Cambridge is absent from their chemistry and physics tables ... whoever compiled it apparently thinks 'natural sciences' means 'biosciences'. bonkers.

[Needmoresleep]

Agree with Errol. Student satisfaction has too many variables.

London Universities tend to do less well, partly because of issues around being a student in London, but also because at somewhere like Imperial you are expected to work very hard indeed. (And emerge with a well respected degree.) Yet some students, especially those who are very course focused, will enjoy London more than the might enjoy somewhere like Exeter.

Some years Bournemouth does very well on the Guardian chart (they probably dont offer chemistry). I would guess a correlation between satisfaction and number of hours of sunshine!

[BillywigSting]

Dp and sil both did chemistry at Liverpool. Sil also did her chem PhD there.

There was always a fair bit of the university of Liverpool chem students looking down on the John moores chem students because they were on a much better course (and had more often than not achieved higher a levels across the board not just in chem).

Also a brilliant city to be a student in, especially financially