latest University tables - how seriously should it be taken?

[meeeeeeeeee]

The University my son has chosen has one of the worst student satisfaction ratings but is traditionally very highly rated for both course and University - would you take it seriously?

The guardian tables are aimed at people like us, they are useful.

I don't know who they're aimed at - they may be useful but can also be misleading if someone places too much reliance on them. (I don't mean you and your DS, 2boys, clearly he made a sensible informed choice which was right for him).

I got the impression the guardian tables where based on student centric values. Which tends to favour more vocational universities.
Lincoln is 17th think NTU moght be higher.
In rest both are in the high 40' or 50's.

I don't know. Universities are scary places.
I grew up on FSM and went straight to farming. I gained 4 O levels at night school whilst working 80 hour weeks, so I could get a ND in agriculture. I have run 500 cow units. Bought and sold £1000 of stock.

But I have spent my life fighting to be taken seriously because of my roots.
Both of our sons where non verbal to 7 and we had to fight for speech therapy. We have had to borrow money to tutor both through SM school.
We had to do all UCAS on our own has school was in melt down. Fight for son to continue on his studies.
Its a miracle he is at university.
Then you see the Augar report saying scrap foundation course, only brightest should and we wont fund lower grades, I bet it be BBB before long.
You see similar comments on here and you slowly realise that the world really does look down on families like mine.

I regular think I should stop fighting so hard for my kids and just let them do NMW jobs.
Its dishearting.
Luckly for us people around us are geniuing amazed and delight that DS is at Lincoln, they think it a brilliant uni.
Shows the lack of ambition I suppose

2boys It is good to see your DS is pleased with his choice of Lincoln University, you are obviously a very proud Mum. Both DH and myself come from working class families where no one has attended university. My son has struggled at a special measures school to gain good results and attend a RG university.
However I do not agree that the league tables are reliable source to choose a uni from, the Guardian differs greatly to the others. Chatting to DS and some friends from varying unis it was the general consensus this year to boycott participation, and it has been suggested the higher the participation the higher the score, so I am really unsure how reliable these student satisfaction scores are.
My DS made the decision from open days, looking at departments, chatting to lecturers/students and getting a general feel for the uni/location. He didn't look at league tables at all.
So the league tables aren't aimed at people like us and I'm sorry they aren't useful.

Can I just say, in response to 2boys criticism of us not responding to the thread on Chester University, the reason for that is that the poster did not bother to state what course she was asking about. I post on here if I feel I can offer useful advice on a specific question, but I’m not going to waste my time answering vague questions when the poster is probably looking at a completely different course to the one I have knowledge of. That poster never bothered to come back to answer people’s questions, either.

Then you see the Augar report saying scrap foundation course
A bit off topic, but that sounds like a terrible idea. I think there should be greater access to affordable (or free, maybe delivered via 6th form/FE colleges) foundation years for students who've been badly taught or badly advised at A level. Better yet if those issues were addressed earlier so that foundation years weren't necessary I suppose but at the moment I don't see how they're dispensable.

Then you see the Augar report saying scrap foundation course
A bit off topic, but that sounds like a terrible idea. I think there should be greater access to affordable (or free, maybe delivered via 6th form/FE colleges) foundation years for students who've been badly taught or badly advised at A level.

That was what Augar suggested - a way of putting some money back into FE (God knows they need it) by taking it from Foundation year funding in HE.

Oh right, thanks titchy - that makes more sense than just 'scrapping foundation'. Hopefully the idea would be appropriate content competently delivered to allow uni access for those who needed it (plus also more high quality non-uni courses). The current system of uni foundation years seems liable to disproportionately saddle disadvantaged students with an extra year of loan.

2boys, it is good your son loves Lincoln. However other people with chidlren coming through now do need to know that some institutions are better for certain kinds of (often higher paid) work.

And if these "how happy as a sand boy" are lazy slackers at places where the whip is never cracked rankings delude parents into thinking some of these places will be the way into £100k a year career then that's a shame.

best always to work out where you want to be - eg teaching or being a leading surgeon or lawyer or a nurse and then work back from there - look at where new entrants to your desired career went. Follow that route.

I seriously wonder a 'University League Table' such as this Guardian one, a service or a disservice to students, parents and readers alike. No prizes for guessing where I stand on this. Good luck to those who take this as Gospel Truth!

The Guardian weights the NSS satisfaction at 25% and, as mentioned, doesn't include research. (CUG weights satisfaction at 16.6% by comparison and research the same).

The Guardian subject rankings can be quite different because of satisfaction and Value Add (probability of student getting a good honours - low entry quals (Bolton English) vs number of good honours. That criteria is favouring the lower Unis as the % of good honours for those has increased a lot over the last few years.

That criteria is favouring the lower Unis as the % of good honours for those has increased a lot over the last few years.

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation. I know a few academics at a local post-92 which has recently soared in this league table and they will privately admit that there is rampant grade inflation and significant pressure not to award fail marks. Of course, as well as value added, they also do well in the student satisfaction scores because students like getting better marks than they expect.

@GCAcademic that is exactly my experience within the sector. Spot on.

@GCAcademic
Guess it’s a numbers and sales game

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!

It is not difficult to believe that the criteria have encouraged grade inflation

Or places like mine, where my department offers at AAB- ABB, and gets a lot of AAA* as well. We get hammered in value-added because there's not such a huge leap from A level grades to final Honours classes.

And we're pretty good teachers!!