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.

Scottish university’s are a good option for English students, offer rates by percentage of applicants is significantly higher than for Scottish students. Scottish numbers are capped so Scottish students are often asked for higher overall tariff and for popular courses there are no clearing places for them. If there are clearing spaces for Computing Science at Dundee they will likely be for English and International Students (ex EU) - unlikely to be any available for Scottish students. Fees are often capped at £27k for the 4 year courses.

Not sure if it’s still true but criminology certainly a few years ago had the lowest rates of post degree employment at graduate level.

The results for this years NSS were just published last week, certainly to the universities anyway. If they’re available to the public then they may be more up to date than anything on Unistats?

Piggy Aberystwyth has a good reputation for International relations/politics. DD’s boyfriend studied it there along with a MFL and speaks very highly of the course.

Have one DS that went to Man Met and will be going back to do Masters, lots of money been pumped in recently and some excellent facilities (only really know about Sciences faculty though) and I have another DS currently at UWE, been very impressed with everything so far.
Older DS had RG offers but had really fallen for Man Met on Open Day and it's worked out brilliantly for him. Likewise the one at UWE now, he just liked it the best, so with comparable courses I think it's important that they choose the place that they feel they can be happy in, after all it's a big chunk of time to be spending there!

My ds has just graduated from Plymouth in Computer science. I don't know whether he would recommend it or not but it served its ourpose of getting him a decent degree. He hasnt enjoyed uni but mainly because he is not at all sociable and, through lack of effort at A level, he found himself unable to apply to unis requiring higher grades and hence found himself with people who tended to hold him back a bit (his assessment, obviously I never met any of them).

But anyway, he needed persuasion to even apply to uni, and the ones recommended to him were Plymouth, Portsmouth and UWE (though the last one may have been because it is local to us). At the time, he liked Plymouth the best and, as I say, it has served its purpose.

Sorry, it is a bit of a lukewarm recommendation but that may be more to do with ds than the institution. One to look at, may be?

Thanks best : I think it may be just beyond his reach (academically) but am holding out for a contextual offer from them.

dumbledore that sounds EXACTLY like my DS!

We are unliely to get to many - if any - Open Days tbh so he'll just have to decide on instinct a little bit. To be fair, I never went to any!

Piggy: what does DS want to do after Politics and IR? There is massive competition for jobs in politics and it’s very much who you know. IR is another tricky area and both strands of this degree are offered at the very top universities. Therefore does he have a career in mind because some employers won’t worry too much about course content but might employ grads for a whole host of other reasons. A friend’s DD did Politics and works for Asos. It’s a versatile degree!

FWIW Piggy, both my DCs got reasonable points based offers from Aberystwyth (different subjects tho). Both contextual I think. DS is now at an ex poly. DD got in to Aber and loved her time there. Neither are high flyers (mostly B and C grades)

The do a good joint honours scheme there - DD balked at it last minute on results day and changed to just a single subject.

I dodn't think he knows bubbles so is just going for interest. Journalism is one possible, or working for a charity. He used to wnat to be a translator but has not liked year 12 Spanish!

Thanks best : good to know! His GPs are Welsh so at least there's a connection there.

McNutty Ds gets train...2 changes -at Crewe and then Edinburgh ( I've been lucky to get him cheap first class tickets as buy them in advance with railcard)
He could fly from Manchester to Edinburgh but would be limited in luggage- he put a lot of stuff from first year in stor in Dundee over the summer (£9/week) which was cheaper than us having to travel as well and spend a night in hotel
Dd 2 is about to enter her final year at Man Met after her placement year in Leeds but loves Manchester!...she's in the Business school and it has a fantastic 'hub' ...halls in first year weren't a patch on her siblings accommodation in Dundee tho!

Greenwich is excellent.

I know nothing about Liverpool Hope (mentioned up thread) but I do know the local students call it "lost all Hope"

I know nothing about Liverpool Hope (mentioned up thread) but I do know the local students call it "lost all Hope"

Oxford University students refer to Oxford Brookes as "The Early Learning Centre". I'm not sure I'd pay too much attention to them.

Dd did her undergrad at OB and her postgrad at KCL. She was happier and had a better overall experience at the former.

Oxford University students refer to Oxford Brookes as "The Early Learning Centre". I'm not sure I'd pay too much attention to them.

Ha! I won't tell you what the OB students call them!

I went to Aberystwyth - I intended to do Celtic Studies, but I ended up coming out with an English degree. I absolutely loved it. I'd go back! A lot of my contemporaries ended up in high level graduate jobs or science research contracts or BBC Wales/Welsh Assembly. It was a long time ago but I remember the politics students had a brilliant time and did well after. (They had very few lectures so plenty of time for their political activities!)
Unfortunately I can only comment on English departments but Greenwich, Canterbury and Hertfordshire have good departments with interesting research areas. Roehampton is another good one - just opened a lovely new library. Just watch out at Greenwich because they have more than one campus and some courses are stuck out in Medway rather than the fantastic Greenwich building!

I went to Oxford Brookes. It was ace.

Journalism is a total brute of a job these days. It is very difficult to make money. Lots of journals do not pay anything for articles (you get your name credited - but no money) and many journalists make about £10,000 if they are lucky. You will find a lot are Oxbridge educated too. There are virtually no local journalists now as local papers have disappeared from many areas. DDs friends who have tried, have all failed. One boy local to us is making a go of it but it's really tough. He wrote for The Guardian as a student and even then has found it difficult. He did not do a journalism degree either - Psychology!

The best bet with any humanities degree is to try and get work experience during the degree. Go to careers fairs and see what is of interest. I do not think Politics and IR from some universities will get you fast track in the Foreign Office, so plan B is a must. Doing what you are good at and what interests you is key, but if anyone can keep a MF language going that really helps.

I would be careful about Aberystwyth if you are an outgoing type. It's a small town! Its fine if you want to work in Wales. This is why people would choose Oxford Brookes over Aberystwyth.

He is not remotely outgoing : it's part of the appeal tbh!

But I do know that Aberystwyth was the first university to have an IR dgeree and has some (inter)national renown for this so I think that's a bit harsh.

It's sports journalism he fancies but this is only a very vague idea (really he'd like to be the guy who whispers all the obscure facts in the presenter's ears I reckon). I am not sure you have probably ever met a DS like mine Bubbles, luckily for you! He doesn't think beyond next week! Really he is just going to uni because that's what people do : he'd rather not go in lots of ways but there is nothing else he would like/ is able to do as an alternative. It's a slog parenting a sloth...

Piggy I think that Strathclyde offer a Pol, IR and Journalism combined degree? Mine also looking at doing IR but fancies Engish unis more than most of the Scottish ones which is a pain as we live here so it would be free! Not sure what the entry req's are but worth a look maybe?

I think Strathclyde has high entry requirements eating and Glasgow possibly a bit far for us (even though it's where I am from, none o my family is there any more) but I will definitely have a look!

Someone DH went to university with has a DS who is a sports journalist for The Independent!! I just remembered. He did History at Warwick. I think doing what you want is best but getting the job you want afterwards is very hard because of the competition.

I agree. That said, I did teach a girl who now works for The Sun (and does get her name on articles including the front page once!). She certainly didn't go to Oxbridge. In fact, I can't remember where she went : possibly Bournemouth or Brighton and someone else I taught writes for Empire magazine, so it can be done. Admittedly, I am sure they both have rather more willpower than my DS.

I've always done a lot of paid writing and I would say pay is at least 50% less even accounting for inflation than 20 years ago and gets worse and worse as so many people write for nothing these days. I make some money at it now (amongst my other work) but only because I can write about specialist things most people don't know about so I would not particularly encourage people into writing if they want to make a reasonable living although I don't know what a new graduate with a job on the Times or FT makes these days.

I am not worried about all this becuase I think it is massively unlikely he'll end up being a writer or journalist of any kind ! I have no idea what he will do but I doubt journalism.