Anyone with experience of Lancaster University...any info welcome..

[Canadalife]

My lovely daughter has an good offer to do natural sciences at Lancaster...we will be having a second visit of course....but if any one has any experiences of the University or City we would be very interested..it will all help...many thanks

[ginorwine]

I was a student there and stayed .
It's a safe area with lots of culture and festival s rivers and beaches . No big clubs but near to Manchester . Teaching is excellent . Cost of living fine . You are welcome to pm
If you like but I guess you don't need to with all these comments
!
The person I would imagine it may not suit is the one who is into big cities and nightlife otherwise Lancaster and surrounds is great .

[ginorwine]

Good uni
Coast
City
Country
Many areas of surrounding natural beauty and not expensive .

[Canadalife]

Am old thread...but I wanted to update and thank you all for your help. DD1 is all set to start at Lancaster in October doing Natural Science. She is delighted and very much looking forward to it. Thank you

[Balloondog]

Great news @Canadalife. I hope she'll be as happy there as I was

[LoniceraJaponica]

How far is the campus from town? DD is looking at it in a couple of weeks with a view to doing biomedical science. Although it isn't a Russell Group University it is more highly rated than most RG universities. The biomed degree is also accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science.

We looked at Warwick last year, but she said the campus felt a bit isolated, so it sounds like she might not like Lancaster for the same reason.

[eatinglesschocolate]

Hi LoniceraJaponica I'd guess it's about a mile or so from the centre but there's a stream of houses, shops etc the whole way in so it doesn't feel separate, just at outer edge of if you get what I mean. DD really liked it and it will be one of her 5 when the form goes in. Check out York too... DD also liked that.

[TheDrsDocMartens]

There’s regular buses from campus to town.

[ErrolTheDragon]

It's more like 2.5 - 3 miles, ~20 min bus or bike. Judging from the number of student lets signs, I'd guess many live in town after the first year, some live a bit further out in Galgate.


(OT, but why is Warwick uni so called when it's much nearer Coventry?)

[eatinglesschocolate]

Errol My distance guessing is always a bit off.
Lonicera take Errol's word for it not mine!

[legolimb]

Good news on your DD getting a place OP .

My DS has just finished his second year and very much likes it there. He had a pick of some other excellent unis but chose this one. It's the closest to home too so I don't have too long a drive for the picking up and dropping back after holidays.

Lancaster is a lovely town. Quite small - I don't think there's much going on.

DS was on campus in halls for y1 then was in a house in the town- let by uni so no deposits or tricky landlords. His house for y3 is a private let though so I hope it's as nice.

Hope she enjoys it and that you do too visiting.

[McNutty]

Well done to your DD. OP Lancaster is a fantastic university.

[Potterurotter]

Very good uni, I studied psychology there. Living on campus for one year was enough for me as found it a bit claustrophobic once I formed friendships we then moved out to a house share in the city. I wouldn’t say Lancaster’s cosmopolitan as cities go but safe and really good quality of course which is of course the primary reason you’re there, to learn :D x

[ErrolTheDragon]

It's a town not a city, really. I've heard that its the place that gets most students wanting to stay in or near it after graduating.

[MarchingFrogs]

So all Lancaster needs now is to be invited to become the 25th member of the Russell Group and it would be perfect?

Sorry. I seriously do not mean that.

[LadyWarleggan]

So all Lancaster needs now is to be invited to become the 25th member of the Russell Group and it would be perfect?

@Marching -You've got it in a nutshell.

[LoniceraJaponica]

I find the snobbery about RG universities and Oxbridge on MN depressing.

[BubblesBuddy]

Well all the recent research says that overall, students earn more who went to RG. Whatever you think of the grouping of universities, they are good universities. That doesn’t mean Bath and Lancaster are not. However if you compare economics grads from LSE and Wolverhampton you will see there are differences in salaries upon graduating. Obviously on courses where nearly everyone gets a job, such as nursing, it won’t matter but it’s untrue to say it’s snobbery for every subject. It simply isn’t. It’s trying to do your best regarding future employment and enjoyment of where you are living. Otherwise we might as well say Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial are the same as Anglia Ruskin, Northampton and Chilterns when we know that patently is not true. The universities at the lower end of RG clearly have a crossover with non RG in terms of quality for some courses, but they don’t at the top. So don’t pretend they do!

[ErrolTheDragon]

One of the recent analyses of earnings put Bath pretty high - I'd guess because it does a lot of solid engineering courses.

The perception of 'snobbery' comes in, I think, with a few people who appear to assume that a particular course at eg Bristol or Durham will necessarily be better than the same course anywhere other than oxbridge or the top London unis - it's simply not true. But people are usually too polite to point it out, if their DC has an offer they're delighted with and it will probably work out fine anyway.

[LadyWarleggan]

@bubbles Your example of LSE v Wolverhampton for Economics is hardly the type of difference being discussed here is it? this is people being snooty about Lancaster a top university v any other RG no matter how low they are in the league tables. You're not necessarily going to earn more for studying Economics at Cardiff rather than Lancaster are you?

There is appreciating a university for being in terms of quality of education, resources, research, student satisfaction, facilities, links with industry, RG whatever and then there's just being a silly snob.

[geekaMaxima]

And let's not forget that York and Durham are arrivistes in the RG, only joining 6 years ago.

Did they magically become better universities 6 years ago? Nope. Is their research any better? Nope. Are their graduates any more employable? Nope. Nothing has changed except they get to use the RG branding, which management felt was worth it.

There was a lot of opposition amongst academics in those two universities at the time it became known they were chasing RG membership, as they suspected the massive cost of RG fees (about half a million pounds to join plus annual costs) would mean less money available to actually run the university properly. Some people I know there tell me that yes, that has happened, and they miss their pre-RG finances.

[MarchingFrogs]

And let's not forget that York and Durham are arrivistes in the RG, only joining 6 years ago.

Along with Exeter. And QMUL. Whereas there are definitely those who don't realise that the former ever wasn't a member of the club, I am equally sure that Therese some who don't realise that the latter is.

[3catsandcounting]

DS is going to Lancaster this year (Computer Science)

He's very much looking forward to it and I think the campus life will suit him, but unlike his 'party animal' sister, who's at Nottingham, DS is quiet and unconfident and my biggest worry is that he'll spend his free time shut away in his room.

Or... it might be the making of him!

[geekaMaxima]

Yes, exactly. I only spoke of York and Durham as they are at the higher end of research-intensive universities, like Lancaster.

I'm an academic at the coal face, so to speak, and I do find the MN obsession with RG universities hilarious at best and naive at worst. RG status has so little to do with the quality of the university. Seriously. Once you rule out the ex-polys (yes, there are great exceptions for some subjects, but none are strong across the board), RG universities are uniformly distributed in quality from top to bottom. RG membership is useless as a predictor of quality, in other words.

It is a fantastically successful brand, though.

[JuneMyNameIsJune]

Forget RG - my rule of thumb is can they field a decent University Challenge Team!

I think it's fair to say that there is a pecking order, based on a number of different factors. I think Bubbles gives an objective summary.

I don't think it is snobbery at all to consider this when choosing. You wouldn't say it's snobbish to consider Tranmere Rovers a less successful football team than Arsenal!