How important is student to staff ratio when choosing university degree?

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My dd is looking at various universities hoping to apply for Psychology next year.
Student to staff ratio varies greatly, from 7 in Bath to 26 in Warwick.

Could someone please explain to me how to take those numbers and what to make of them.

Oh, and flowerfairy - for psychology Bath is far better than Warwick. Warwick offered me a clearing place the previous year, but although I loved the look of the university generally, when I looked into the psychology department specifically I was really disappointed, which is why I decided to do an Access course and then apply for other courses. Warwick is a brilliant university generally, but their psychology course is not strong - Nottingham, Bristol, and Bath are all better.

purplepenguin86 - thanks for your comments about Bath. From my research I also had the same impression that Warwick in not that good for Psychology.
My dd now is thinking about History as well (it is her top subject and she seems very gifted in writing essays and has been scoring 39/40 in most, her work being used as an example in her class).
Is essay writing skill useful for psychology degree?

For psychology the student staff ratio so has an upper limit that is set by the BPS and it should be a minimum of 1:20. So any over that either don't have accreditation or are breaking the rules.

Whether a dept goes to clearing is also not that indicative of anything. To give the opposite story to a PP, I know of courses that gave had to turn students away through the year, but on results day the uni overall was low on entrants, so this course was forced to go to clearing just because it was popular and good, so they knew they could bring in good students.

For choosing a psychology degree, first thing is to make sure it is BPS accredited, otherwise it is relatively useless afterwards. Next I'd use a combination of NSS, the Guardian tables and the REF rankings to work out good departments that are strong in both teaching and research.

The content of a psychology degree will be very similar in the first to years if a course has BPS accreditation as they have to stick to covering a curriculum, so concentrate in looking at course content and structure in third year as that is where you will see real differences between the courses.

Yes, essay writing is definitely useful for psychology. My assessments are a combination of essays, lab reports, presentations, and exams (in which I have to write essays!). In terms of arts, I think you will find Bath has what she is looking for. The musical theatre society put on 2 musicals a year, and 2 shows of numbers from lots of shows. We have a brand new arts building, which is being opened next week, which I'm really excited about. As well as the student run societies, like the musical theatre, orchestral etc, there are also classes and workshops run by external people - these cost, but are quite heavily subsidised for students, for example individual instrumental lessons work out at £18 an hour, which is obviously well below going rate, and the tutors are excellent. I sing/dance/act, so can answer any questions about that aspect of the uni as well as the psychology department. I must confess that was the thing that really attracted me to Warwick, but I managed to convince myself the course was the more important thing when it came to decision making!

Oh yes - she was impressed by the arts center in Warwick. She sings in musicals (going to do her grade 8 in few weeks) and plays percussion instruments and they have percussion group there (grade 7 in few weeks as well).
I am not sure if we would be able to afford instrument lessons when she goes to Uni but is good to know there's that if she can economise on her spending!

TeamEponine - Warwick has BPS accreditation and a rate 1:26.2 as of the latest Guardian table.

They do re-accreditation about every four years, so they must be due another visit soon. They are a fair amount over from the looks of it though vThe BPS website has lots of information on it, so that could be worth looking at too.

To be honest, staff to student ratio wasn't something I really paid any attention to. I looked at a combination of course content/structure, league tables (as a rough indicator I used the average of the Times, Guardian, and Complete University Guide rankings as they can vary a lot), the NSS results, and the graduate employment rates (largely found in the league tables, but I found this varied less than the overall placings). In terms of the wider university financial support was important to me as a mature student, plus I wanted somewhere that had an active performing arts scene, and a university with a good reputation overall. Obviously these criteria will vary for everyone, but I think it can sometimes help to see what other people had as priorities.

I thought that Psychology was was of those subjects which appears vocational so everyone assumes that there is a job at the end of the degree. However, it is very popular and oversubscribed so they turn out more graduates than there are jobs.
I would look carefully at each University's 'employment 6 months after leaving' statistics.

senua - I agree employment record for courses is v.important and they also vary with Cambridge, Bath and UCL with highest % employed after graduation

Re employment - from people I have known, it sometimes takes several years to get onto the professional grades/training e.g. clinical psychology training, so many people have to get experience by working upwards from HCAs in psychiatry wards (and may then be diverted into other careers from there).

yes Lilymaid - it seems similar to medical doctor training for those who aspire to obtain highest qualification in NHS

Take REF results with a pinch of salt as they relate to undergraduate courses. The units of assessment are so broad that they quite often take in many people outside the department that teaches the undergraduate degree.

For example, unit 4 includes academics from psychology depts who teach on psychology degrees, but also clinical psychologists (usually a separate dept, teach clinical doctorates) and psychiatrists (almost certainly a separate dept, often teach medical students).

I know one institution where psychology academics make up less than half the submission in unit 4 and scored higher as a result, and only about half of them people do any psychology undergrad teaching.

*These people, not them people!

I understand Cardiff is also highly regarded for Psychology - that's a lovely City to live in too. [smiile]