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Original poster

Which unis are campus & RG please?

104 replies

Snowglobes · 14/01/2020 06:28

I’ve tried googling ‘RG campus universities’ but I get links to one of the other and not both. I know there’s Warwick, Birmingham and Nottingham but where else please? Is Reading?

OP posts:
MarchingFrogs · 15/01/2020 23:07

If you want a campus university and choose Liverpool you will be disappointed.

However, of you go with the acknowledgement that it isn't a 'proper' campus university, you may just have a whale of a time. It seems to be a popular choice amongst DD's friends, at least as a consideration, even if eventually not made their firm choice.

Jins · 15/01/2020 23:15

Three generations of my family have been to Liverpool and I think we’d all agree with you MarchingFrogs

BackforGood · 15/01/2020 23:39

Liverpool is a lovely City and great place to be a student, but it really isn't a campus.

Re campuses - it does depend a bit on your definition.
Lancaster and Warwick and Loughborough are clearly campuses in that they are outside the town.... to the extent of being a bit isolated from the town and a 'village' in themselves.
But Birmingham and Nottingham, as two examples, are also campuses but are very much also part of their Cities.

berlinbabylon · 16/01/2020 11:32

Cardiff isn't a campus university as such but the main buildings are all together and it is RG (for what it's worth). Like Liverpool.

BubblesBuddy · 16/01/2020 18:37

I do not think prioritising the course is best. Academics always say this but the truth is that employers look for university attended. If it is a humanities course, then definitely go for the university not the course. Employability might depend on it. The subject lists vary from standard rankings. Always look at these.

Campus is really out of town university. So not in the city like Sheffield or Liverpool. It really depends how remote from a city dc wants to be. A university quarter can be just like a campus but still has the benefits of city life all around. So many are like this. I woud not just want to look at very remote ones such as Warwick. The others will hae a great feel too.

PhoneLock · 16/01/2020 19:14

I would not just want to look at very remote ones such as Warwick.

I'd love to hear your definition of remote. Warwick University is ten minutes from Coventry city centre!

SirTobyBelch · 16/01/2020 20:30

I do not think prioritising the course is best. Academics always say this but the truth is that employers look for university attended.

A few people here really need to learn the word "some". Some employers look at the university attended rather than the course studied or the grades achieved. Not everybody wants to work for a "big four"/"magic circle" firm or a megabank.

SpeedofaSloth · 16/01/2020 20:41

Not RG but Keele's campus is beautiful. It's regularly top for student satisfaction.

Ginfordinner · 16/01/2020 21:08

Student satisfaction surveys are generally considered to be flawed. The sample size is usually too small to be useful, and many students base high their satisfaction scores on something that is quite irrelevant.

Student satisfaction is the last thing anyone should consider when looking at a university.

MarchingFrogs · 16/01/2020 21:11

I'd love to hear your definition of remote. Warwick University is ten minutes from Coventry city centre!

Not to mention, surely Warwick is a name that the average, we would rather have any graduate from x or y university with no practical experience, than someone from z with a year in industry in their third year employer would go for?

MarchingFrogs · 16/01/2020 21:13

Not that Warwick doesn't do degrees with a placement year, though.

PhoneLock · 16/01/2020 21:50

Not that Warwick doesn't do degrees with a placement year, though

They do.

For example...

warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/chemistry/ugstudy/placements/

BubblesBuddy · 17/01/2020 07:17

I’m not against Warwick at all and I know it’s fantastic but it’s clearly not in a city. Therefore by definition it’s “remote” from a city! Clearly not on a Scottish island but maybe “self contained” is a better description! You cannot just wander down the road for 1 minute and get into any form of local life or services. I have no issue that some students like being self contained. The OP wanted this type of RG campus and it’s probably true to say that Warwick might be the most “detached” of those.

A year in industry is great but rarely offered to humanity grads. Warwick does have humanity grads!

Herja · 17/01/2020 07:54

Why did you want campus? I'm currently at the university of Bristol, it's not campus in any way, but all the teaching buildings are in the same area though, so getting about is very easy (other than vet med, that's right out of the city). Was it specifically halls in the same area you wanted? Or just ease of getting about?

CallofDoodee · 17/01/2020 07:56

What is Mumsnet's obsession with RG universities?

I went to one and I only found out years later that it was RG... From Mumsnet! Grin

MarchingFrogs · 17/01/2020 08:25

What is Mumsnet's obsession with RG universities?

I went to one and I only found out years later that it was RG... From Mumsnet!

I went to one before it and its chums got together to invent the Russell Group. I can safely say that it was nothing like as up itself then as it appears to be now. I used to think that it would be nice if one of our DC, at least, were to follow me, but having followed discussion of the place for a while on various internet forums and accompanied DD to an open day a couple of years ago, I was not at all upset when she said afterwards that she had no intention of applying thereSad.

The Sad is for the fact that I didn't feel Sad.

Ginfordinner · 17/01/2020 08:29

Bubbles is right. Warwick might only be 10 minutes (by bus?) from a town, but it definitely feels remote, as does York. DD really didn't like the idea of a campus, probably because we are rural, and the nearest city is a 40 minute train ride away. She loves living in Newcastle and will probably stay there after she graduates.

CallofDoodee probably because schools sell the idea that they are "better", and for some subjects that are available everywhere the university you went to matters to some employers.

ShanghaiDiva · 17/01/2020 09:20

My ds is at Warwick and I would not classify it as remote - 20 mins by bus (and less by car) to the centre of Coventry which has a population of about 300K, I imagine, so a reasonable size by UK standards.
Also about 30 mins to Birmingham airport and decent train connection to London Euston so hardly isolated.
My ds is used to living in a city with a population of over 8 million and prefers the open space of a campus university.

Ginfordinner · 17/01/2020 09:26

It isn't remote, but it feels remote, so does York even though they aren't far from cities. I think it is that they are self contained and have a lot of green space that makes them seem this way.

MrKlaw · 17/01/2020 10:57

I teach at a RG university and my advice to parents and prospective students is to prioritise the course first, then look at the university. Always visit and talk to students before making your choice.

this. People are looking at RG because they're assuming they're the best. Well they will be in some courses but not others. So once you know the course/area of study, look up the specific top universities for that area of study and go from there.

Piggywaspushed · 17/01/2020 17:26

Hi gin. I am not going to take issue with what you say about Warwick as it is a bit detached (although perhaps try Aberystwyth to understand remote!) but ,as you might expect, I definitely will re York. You can walk to the thriving and vibrant city centre in 15 minutes. You don't need a bus and lots of students have bikes.
Some non campus unis in cities are actually more of a faff to get into a city centre than that (Leicester iirc) My DS takes just as long to get to lectures and the city centre in non campus Lincoln as I used to in campus based York . Hull always used to be the peculiar one because it is definitely campus but its accommodation was over a mile away. They have now rectified this. Hull is a nice campus btw but - again- not RG.

I would say the nicest campuses are the ones with colleges and , therefore, attached bars, social activities and so on : this would be Lancaster and York and perhaps others.

Bath is a nice campus but SUCH a trek up an enormous hill to get to from the city (ditto Aberystwyth)

Piggywaspushed · 17/01/2020 17:32

And Keele is definitely a bit of a bubble. It really is near nowhere significant (with apologies to anyone from the area!!).

I did postgrad at Nottingham btw, I also found that more 'remote' than York... I didn't live on campus but lived next to it and had to get to central Nottingham every morning to get a train and I found it annoyingly time consuming. That isn't what most students have to do, mind, and it was also pre trams. That aside, Nottingham is a good student city and has smartened its centre up a lot in the last 10 - 15 years.

Ginfordinner · 17/01/2020 17:32

Hi Piggywaspushed Lancaster is the only campus university DD considered, but Newcastle was always her favourite, and so far she hasn't any regrets.

She has joint problems and CFS so any campus university with what she would consider a "trek" into town was always a deal breaker.

The problem with York is that the parking for the open day was miles from the university so we never got a sense of the nearness into town, but DD just didn't like the campus anyway so that was that. For what it's worth I really liked Warwick, but I wasn't the one going to university.

SirTobyBelch · 17/01/2020 21:14

Bath is a nice campus but SUCH a trek up an enormous hill to get to from the city (ditto Aberystwyth)

Ditto Keele. Ditto Kent. Campus universities are often on hills, which makes them very windy but often confers spectacular views: Kent is the best example. Nottingham is possibly the windiest campus I've ever visited.

SirTobyBelch · 17/01/2020 21:23

She has joint problems and CFS so any campus university with what she would consider a "trek" into town was always a deal breaker.

Of course that's her prerogative, but most university campuses have buses running into the nearest town/city every ten minutes or so, and they're often free or discounted for students. Nottingham, in particular, has an unbelievable number of buses running between the city centre and the university, and now trams as well (I haven't been there for a few years, so I haven't seen these in action).

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