Universities to do English Lit for quiet/shy DD

[Kimmerer]

Would love some recommendations please. I am trying to encourage her to take a Gap year as she's a summer born and could do with growing up a bit in terms of her confidence, but I'd also like to start looking at unis and would love to hear some recommendations for universities that might suit a very shy girl, going into Y13 in sept. Thanks so much.

Yes, but there are posters on here (OK, me...) who have seen generations of young people go off to uni and know where those young ones have thrived, sunk, succeeded, partied , been supported, got brilliant roles, dropped out . It's not invalid.

As people keep saying, York and Lancaster have nurturing reputations. So certain types pick them for that as part of a suite of reasons , and others sometimes eschew them, despite their excellent academic reputations because they want bright lights big city, party hard.and close, say, the equally good Manchester.

If I were to be fully biased I would say Birmingham does both of these things well.

IIRC it was also the case last year that a lot of the higher ranking universities appeared in Clearing at this point but vanished when A Level results came out. So I suspect top universities in Clearing at this point are looking for good applicants who don't currently have a "home" - not filling places with people predicted with lower grades.

My DD has York as a firm choice and Birmingham as insurance for English Lit, so really encouraging to have the benefit of your knowledge/experience; thank you :)

And yes, she picked them because she thought it would be nurturing (and they did a good job of selling this at the Offer Holder Days particularly).

It's half an hour off the A1 !!!

someone near home might be good

Great choices. Good luck to her!

Where are you based?
3 hours by car or only one change by train to get to the nearest city to home was our rule.
We can recommend Unis that are great for English but all Unis are set up for party people and quieter types. She's going to find her tribe if you hold her back a year or not.
In London several of the unis share accommodations across the city which makes it harder to find a gang, I think. Birmingham is similar except that Aston, BCU and University college are all very close so even if your 'home' friends aren't in the same Uni you are only minutes apart even in the daytime for a coffee if you pick halls near to them.
I can't advise on English personally, but I would say do your reading now. If she's going into Y13 you are already way behind for open days. My youngest took a year year out and we still looked from Y12 just to get a feel for each place.
There are rumours about everywhere: drugs and spiking and gangs and all sorts of shenanigans. All cities have issues, most towns do too. Have faith in your DD. She will find her tribe and if you have taught her well she'll choose wisely.
Anyhoo (sorry for rambling on);
My brood (if I add in a friends' offspring for anonymity) have attended York, Durham, Lincoln, BCU, BIMM, Leicester, Cambridge and Bangor. All of them found their tribe; quiet or loud, night owls or larks. Further, they didn't all leave Uni in the category they left home in.
My advice would be to visit lots of places that she's interested in and take it from there. No one gets route marched to the nightclubs; there really is something for everyone at all the unis.
Good hunting!

OP has she actually said she wants to be somewhere small, quiet, nurturing as everyone is suggesting? Because I was a quiet shy girl and the absolute last thing I wanted was to be "nurtured" or to be in a small town or campus where I'd be bumping into people I knew from uni all the time. Maybe she'd thrive in a big city where she can be anonymous? I did.

Very good point...

That absolutely applies to Russell Group Universities.

Having said that, most universities are facing financial challenges since visa rules changes are causing a decrease in the number of international students so, there may be more places up for grabs this year as universities may be tempted to over recruit to make up for the lost income.