University open days! Which were you impressed by

[mumma24]

We've booked our 1st open day to Surrey Uni for my son and hoping to book some more. He like to study accounting and finance. Preferably in the south east as doesn't want to be too far from home. Any recommendations?

Didn't know Surrey had a university!

It's in Guildford

It's in Guildford and became a university in 1966!

Ah its recent then

Look at travel time rather than 'south east' as depending on where you are whizzing round M25 to West Midlands universities can be quick .
London has excellent universities but living costs are preposterous so bear that in mind.

Sussex is lovely. Also Exeter.

I quite liked reading to be honest. My daughter didn't pick it, but I thought it was lovely.

Exeter isn't in the South East! 😂

Sussex is our closest Uni 👍🏻 I heard Reading was good 😊

Exeter Uni. open days are always brilliant. (I work alongside the Higher Education adviser at our secondary school so have visited quite a few open days in the last few years). But that's a bit far for you, OP.

Have you considered Sussex or Kent? Also Reading?

I'll say it again, Exeter is not on the south east 🙄

2014 agreed! If you are going to travel 4or 5 hours to Exeter you can open up South Wales , East Anglia and the midlands at least!

2014 please calm down. We all know where it is.

Depends on what grades he's expecting. No point being recommended AAA tariff universities if he's predicted CCC....

Look at league tables if you want an idea of comparative performance.

Also look at accreditation and sandwich years.

What suits one student definitely doesn't suit another. dd has hated some places that her friends love, for the same course.

It's quite hard to narrow it down at first.The best way to do it we've been advised is:

1. choose the course.
2. Find a range of places at his predicted grades, some aspirational places (be realistic) and some insurance places.
3. work everything else out from that point, campus or city, location, etc....

Thank you everyone for your help

Surrey Uni has doubled the number of firsts it gives out over the last 5 years. Last year a whopping 41% of students got awarded first. This will probably improve student satisfaction which will lead to improved rankings....

BBC article HERE from a week ago.

it's a pretty cynical move.

It is cynical but I suspect one of my DCs may have benefited from it so I'm not complaining. 😊 He's just graduated with a first from a similarly ranked Uni.

congratulations to him :)

Thanks. I'm happy for him. Regardless if they are handing out firsts willy nilly I know he worked extremely hard for it.

We did Mcr (home town) and Liverpool (fab). My sons first choice is Sheffield , but he did that trip on his own. I'm not going until we know he's got an offer.

I agree with those saying it will depend on predicted grades.
We can all randomly name Universities, but he needs to aim high if he is predicted hogh grades, or more realistic if not.
Also agree that limiting to "not wanting to be too far from home" seems an odd way to choose a university. Fair enough to rule out those with more than 5 or 6 or 7 hours travel or whatever, but wanting to stay within a 40 mile distance of your home, for example, seems an odd criteria for choosing where to go to University.
Look at the UCAS site, or we found push.co.uk very good as it lets you filter by all sorts of different ways (including Geography if you want).

My son is keen to get away from home, but wanted to be near enough to come back. He's an only child and him and his dad are best pals, they do everything together though he is striking out in his own a but more these days .

Just need to work out how I'm going to pay the hideous expense on the minimum loan!