Best ex-poly Universities?

[McNutty]

So DS is looking at choosing an insurance universit. What are the top 5 from the ex polys in your opinion across the board? I don’t want to name any yet as it will skew things a bit.

Last but not the least, wish there was a poll function on MN.

I feel your pain in that case . I spend more time looking at prospectuses than he does, that's for sure.

I just finished a Graduate Diploma at Dundee and thought the city seemed quite up and coming from what I got to see of it on immersion days. My course was mostly via Skype but I was really impressed by the uni's VLE. I don't know about computer science though. They are also offering bursaries at the moment.

LJM is supposed to be quite good . Liverpool Hope seems to be climbing up the tables - it used to be a theological college back in the day and deliberately did not merge with LJM so it could preserve its distinctive character. No idea whether that affects its ethos or not, tbh!!

ds is in bed as we speak! no wonder they're not heading for top 40s.

To be fair, mine gets up before 8 every day. Sleep is not the issue... lack of any drive is! I actually worry if/when he gets to uni he will be wound up by people being noisy at bedtime/ during the night/any time at all. He may need to go to one of those 'quiet halls'. Bless him.

I quite fancy York St John for him. Lovely city, smallish institution ... but I have no idea is it is just like an extension of a sixth form college. When I was at York Uni it was a place to train to be a primary teacher and a fe wother bits and bobs. Sacrlett Moffat went there. Not sure that's a recommendation...!

What about uwe

@Piggy is DS entry for this year or next?

I'm not impartial to Dundee either. Will add that to my list. Nottingham trent seems to be the top one according to the complete university guide.

Aberystwyth University has an excellent CompSci department. Not an ex-poly but a great university with consistently high student satisfaction.

I have just looked at the Complete University Guide. To my utter astonishment the vast majority of Computer Science courses are in clearing. These include Warwick, Manchester, Southampton and Bristol who are all in the top 10 for the course. You could then look at Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, KCL, Bath and a whole host of others. Ex polys don’t feature very highly but given the paucity of qualified students, DS might be able to be a bit choosy and aim fairly high. I think this list is useful for sifting ex polys or whether a lower ranking RG might be a better bet.

Oxford Brookes suits many students and one review on The Student Room isn’t indicative of a poor course. However, it’s not going to be the best either. Oxford is, of course, a great place to be a student and is often high on league tables for an ex poly. It attracts a lot of fairly well off students from London due to ease of transport.

I think I would look very closely at employment rates for the various universities. Also drop out rates. I have two friends whose DSs went to Bournemouth for Computer Science and both hated it. I think it was more of a problem that they hadn’t researched the course content and location and they perhaps just were not suitable candidates. They didn’t like Poole. However Bournemouth is very popular with many students. If a university has good employer links I would look closely at that and also a year in industry might be desirable too.

@Bubbles - Thanks for that head up! I can only hope the same happens next year. That would be amazing!

De Montfort Uni? My friend graduated in Computer Science from there and makes an absolute ton of money! (I hate him a bit 😂)

@Polkadotpixie - Do you know i have a slight aversion just to the name De Montfort? (not usually part of the selection criteria for a uni, i know), #Shallow, It just sounds so poncy and pretentious. That apart, I have heard good things about it, and who's going to sniff at a ton of money? .

For compsci abertay (also in Dundee).

I think this list is useful for sifting ex polys or whether a lower ranking RG might be a better bet.

There are very many universities that are neither Russell Group nor ex-polys. I don't understand why so many people ignore these.

To my utter astonishment the vast majority of Computer Science courses are in clearing. These include Warwick, Manchester, Southampton and Bristol who are all in the top 10 for the course.

These universities may have places in clearing but applicants still need to meet their entry requirements (Warwick's is AAA for the BSc, A*AA for the integrated Masters - and the Computer Science course is not, in fact, listed as being in clearing on the university website; the Complete University Guide lists some "related courses"). There may be a tiny amount of leeway, but not much. I know there is a perception on here that universities are desperate for bums on seats but that has to be balanced against the league table race (drop-out rates and entry tariffs affect league table positions).

@McNutty - Do you know i have a slight aversion just to the name De Montfort? (not usually part of the selection criteria for a uni, i know), #Shallow, It just sounds so poncy and pretentious.

When Simon de Montfort was removing Henry III from the throne and leading England on its first steps away from absolute monarchy I don't think many people would have dared to call him poncy.

I presume you're not keen on Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, either. (Presonally, I always struggle to pronounce it.)

Skiiltan - They're not being ignored at all. Just can't categorise them neatly under one name like you can with the others. Believe me we've sifted through them with a fine toothbrush. Most of them have very high entry standards as well, some even higher than the adored RG's, Bath, Loughborough, Surrey, i'm looking at you!

personally

Well, Leicester and Bath are better in most regards than some Russell Group institutions, so it's unsurprising if they have higher entry requirements. Surrey offers professional placement years for all (or nearly all) of its courses, making its graduates exceptionally employable. Loughborough has always been very popular because of its sports facilities and the fact that so many top athletes train there; it is also very highly rated for student satisfaction and runs some top courses. In my day it was particularly known for chemistry and chemical engineering but I'm sure it has a wider range of highly regarded courses now.

The Russell Group is simply a self-selected special-interest lobby group. Membership of the Russell Group is not an indication of quality, particularly not of teaching quality. The way to distinguish former polytechnics, teacher-training colleges, etc. from institutions that were originally founded as university colleges or universities is that the former all became universities in or after 1992 (hence the expression post-92), while the former are referred to as pre-92s.

When Simon de Montfort was removing Henry III from the throne and leading England on its first steps away from absolute monarchy I don't think many people would have dared to call him poncy.

In the context of history of course not. But in the context of a university name, you have to agree it sounds rather slightly odd. Same as Bishop Gross* (never heard of it). People should think about how names translate into an institution name.

@Skiiltan - Yes of course, thats the very point I'm making. Since we're looking for a lower ranked uni, the ex-polys would be best in that context. Unless we get very lucky in clearing then we might aim a bit higher.

I went to Nottingham Trent which is regarded as one of the best former polys.

I got a first too

It was pronounced Bishop Grot when I was at school. However they have spent a lot of money improving the facilities since then. No idea what it offers since it was a primary teacher training college back then.

My DN went to DeMontfort for Computer Science. (I worked at a Russell Group Uni so was rather surprised he chose DM as he was definitely oxbridge material.) He got a great job during his sandwich year and the employer was keen to recruit him before he graduated.
He's been working his way up with same company ever since and travels first class all over the globe and (more importantly) enjoys his job enormously so he definitely made the right choice going there.

Another nod for DeMontfort! thanks pls keep your comments coming i'm still reading. Busy looking up some of the unis mentioned.