York St John Uni

[Nameychango]

Hi, anyone know about York St. John uni? DD looking at it as well as the main York uni but different UCAS tariffs etc, both open days are impossible for us unfortunately! It looks smaller and more central and those who i remember going in my youth are all teachers AND very Christian, not that that's a biggie

My friend's ds went there and was very happy and did extremely well.

My DD went there to study Theatre and was very happy. No noteable Christianity - she's a fervent atheist and would have mentioned it I'm sure.

I did my teacher training there, it's a lovely uni in a great location!

(I did go 18 years ago though 😱😱😱)

As with all the very "young" universities please be aware they are struggling financially. Depending on what they want to study I would be concerned they may not get "taught" out. The government has created a huge financial mess for these places.

My dd is at York, she has a school friend at YSJ. They’re both very happy, meet up regularly in town.

Not Christian at all. Which course? YSJ isn't that 'young', it's actually older than uni of York.

@WhatPostDoc it only became a uni in 2006 so it's a "young uni". It means they need to fund research etc.

Acheived uni status yes, but it's been an educational institution since the 1800's. Not impervious to the shit show of funding but more reserves than most.

We looked round it with DS about 3 years ago. It’s very pretty in fairly central York in a nice looking area. He didn’t put it down in the end as the uni seemed really small and he was looking for somewhere ideally bigger. It looked pretty good to me though just not his preference.

I went to YSJ, it's not religious at all any more, quite the opposite in fact!

Pros: very central, great social atmosphere and quite a 'party' uni but with tons of clubs and activities for anyone not so into nights out. I loved my courses (BA and MA) and the student support was great.

Cons: doesn't really compare to York uni when it comes to academics! York is a much 'better' uni and much more impressive to have on your CV. My degrees were really interesting and fun but not the most challenging.

If your child can get the grades for uni of York then that's where they should aim. But YSJ is fine and they would have a good time there.

Sadly financial difficulties are not restricted to the post-92s - plenty of plate glass and RGs in trouble too (including both York and YSJ).

@titchy yep it's a complete shitshow.

Parents do their research on REF and all sorts of ratings but rarely go look at the uni accounts!

york uni is also in trouble financially

Thanks loads to all of you, really useful, all depends on the grades she can get predicted I'm afraid 🫤, she wants to do Biomedical science, which has only been going there about 5 years I believe , where as at York it's well established but very popular! So grades asked for are high! 😬

Huge differences between the courses should govern that choice. Uni of York is very academic, class size of around 400, great for biomed research (academic or industry) but isn't actually accredited so couldn't go work in NHS without further qualification. YSJ smaller class sizes, newer, but very application based and is accredited and all about building that portfolio and work experience to get the accreditation to be able to walk into a hospital lab. They're hugely different degrees and for biomed its similar in many RG vs old polys. She needs to know which track she is aiming for. Both exceptional degrees for what they're intended to be.

Thanks! That's really helpful, she's really leaning more to industry than than NHS but wouldn't rule it out for a couple of years?!

YSJ will get her the HCPC registration if she wants that. It's required for lots of clinical BMS roles. They are starting to put more into research now so it doesn't close the door on further study, but YSJ isn't a name some of the very prestigious programmes will jump at. There are def ways around that like working as a tech for a couple years, which is often a big plus.

Uni of York with year in industry course would be a great door opener in industry. If she then wanted to go into those clinical roles she'd have to study and pay for the registration. But it's a really excellent academic course with options for MRes, PhD, and industry.

The two degrees really are just geared towards very different things.

There's also the NHS entry through STP but that's extremely competitive.

Thank you, really helpful! If only grades were no barrier! Also heard that many of the RG unis with a medical school end up with those who don't get in to medicine as oversubscribed, end up going for BMS instead which can mean it pushes up the grades asked for? Not sure how true that is? I know of someone recently who, despite being predicated and achieving top A level grades, didn't get into any medical school so has moved to study BMS!

I can't speak for uni of york, but that is a reputation for biology degrees in general. BMS, pharmacology etc are all feeder degrees for postgraduate medicine. I wouldn't say it's the majority.

Personally I have 2 main gripes about it.

1. I believe medicine should be graduate entry only. A lot of trained medics leave the profession as they went in at 17/18 with a very different view on life to their 22 year old selves and would not have done the degree as a postgrad. Imo it should be funded, graduate entry, with a contract whereby they need to work for a set time in NHS before leaving or they have to pay training costs.

2. Pretty much a degree is expected now and its kind of expected at 18/19/20 year old entry. They don't know what they want so they pick a subject that interests them. BMS is a very interesting subject that a lot of people can relate to. They have a grandparent that suffered dementia, or relative with cancer, or are interested in clinical genetics and why people are prone to certain diseases. Students that are picking the degree as an interst rather than as a strategic move towards a career does drive up numbers and grade requirements. Vast majority end up working in an entirely unrelated field. Student loan debts are over £50K now, with interest easily can hit £100K due to interest rates. Most students even if they walk into decent jobs pay off less than the interest accruing for years. It seems a shame that they get into all this debt rather than wait a bit, decide what they want then spend the money training in that.

Not directed at your daughter btw, just think the system is unsustainable and needs a rethink. All these students have £100K debts they never pay off from studying something they never used!

Absolutely agree with you on both points! I did a biological sciences degree followed by an allied health professional career in NHS 😬🫣... my dd does not have any desire to work with patients really, is very interested in microbiology or research/ lab work. She's like me and not massively into the plant side of biology is more interested in human biology and the medical side of things. She felt biomedical science was a broader course than her initial thought which was microbiology. I remember biomedical scientists in many of my lectures so I know there is quite an overlap, I guess she doesn't want to pigeonhole herself to early - definitely not desire to be on a course with a load of wannabe doctors really 🤦‍♀️😂, was looking at Surrey (where I went too)