Mumsnet University League Tables 2021

[Aslockton]

Just as a bit of fun, but also because Mumsnet has a wealth of knowledge and experience, would you be able to compile your own university league table. This is on the back of people saying Durham is better than Manchester.

This can be for all universities, or for a specific subject or area (top 10 Northern universities). I would love to see Xenia's top 10 law universities, or the best universities for engineering or marine biology etc.

I'll start...

My top non-Russell Group universities:

1 St Andrews
2 Bath
3 Loughborough
4 Lancaster
5 City
6 SOAS
7 Surrey
8 Sussex
9 Reading
10 Dundee

Top 10 London Universities

1. Imperial
2. LSE
3. UCL
4. Kings College
5. Queen Mary
6. City
7. SOAS
8. Royal Holloway
9. UoA

10. Brunel

Both Xenia and I (a now non practising solicitor) frequently refer potential law students seeking a career as a practising solicitor/barrister to this guide setting out preferred unis for law (preferred by law firms),

www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities-2019

Slowest to make offers!

1.Durham

1. All medical schools
2. LSE
3. Edinburgh

5 Exeter

I am sure others can help with 6-10.

@SeasonFinale that is intersting, so Top 10 universities for going on to a career in Law (not necessarily studying Law):

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Durham

4.Bristol

1. Exeter
2. Nottingham
3. Warwick
4. KCL
5. Birmingham

10. Manchester

[quote Aslockton]@SeasonFinale that is intersting, so Top 10 universities for going on to a career in Law (not necessarily studying Law):

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Durham

4.Bristol

1. Exeter
2. Nottingham
3. Warwick
4. KCL
5. Birmingham

10. Manchester[/quote] As in law firms recruit more students from these unis than others yes.

Indeed if you look further down the article you can see that they further split the percentages again between City firms, London firms, US firms etc.

@diian

Slowest to make offers!

1.Durham

1. All medical schools
2. LSE
3. Edinburgh

5 Exeter

I am sure others can help with 6-10.

I think that may be your personal experience. My son applied on 26 September and had his Exeter offer by 28 September.

Edinburgh were slower last year due to having to wait to hear news of government funding levels available to support places.

Watching with interest as DD will be applying next year and has already been doing extensive research.

@SeasonFinale I will send her that link although knowing her she's probably already checked it out!

She's currently got her heart set on either Law or PPL at KCL, with Queen Mary's, Bristol and either UCL or LSE as alternative options.

@Aslockton you've missed UEA off your non-Russell Group top 10 (it's generally much higher up the Sunday Times list than the bottom five you've included)

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 Oh, yes, I had not thought of UEA. Swansea and Royal Holloway should probably be in there too.

What would your order be?

Best for sports:
Nottingham
Loughborough
Birmingham
Bath
Durham

My best for sports is slightly different, I would add Leeds Beckett and Cardiff Met to Loughborough, Birmingham and Bath. However I look it through an athletics lens.

For law, I would say top five would be Oxbridge, KCL, Nottingham and Warwick.

I would put Newcastle a lot higher than 6th in the list of best cities to be a student!

Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool all very student friendly cities too

I'm surprised at Oxford and Cambridge making it to the top 10 cities in which to be a student TBQH. Yes, both are beautiful but they are not really in the same league as Newcastle, Nottingham and Manchester for fun and going out (beyond the colleges)?

Not sure what criteria you're using to judge non-Russell Group universities @Aslockton, so not sure what my list would be. But UEA definitely 5th ahead of City and SOAS.

SOAS has legacy prestige but in my recollection is not a top London university in the same calibre as Imperial, LSE and UCL, as far as the league tables are concerned.

can I controversially disagree with Edinburgh please? I went there. It's cold and windy most of the time and the student accommodation is pretty bcrap unless you have rich parents with a flat in the new town. The uni is very spread out with not much of a defined centre and there is a very noticeable split between the have and the have nots, who hang out in completly different places. It's particularly bad, socially, for maths and science students who have to travel out of the city to Kings B uildings for lectures (assuming none of that has changed). I found pastrorial bcare non existent too, although this is 20 years ago of course.

Academically and reputationaly it has stood me in good stead though to be fair. I still get people bringing it up at interviews now.

I love Edinburgh as a city but does a beautiful, inspiring city in itself necessarily make for a good student experience? That's why I questioned the inclusion of Oxford and Cambridge?

@Eightytwenty

Best cities to be a student. Based on a combo of cities that are good places to be, friends experiences back in the day and what I’ve picked up from online research.

1 Edinburgh
2 Oxford
3 Cambridge
4 Durham
5 Hull (so cheap!)
6 Newcastle
7 Bath
8 Bristol
9 Glasgow
10 York

Maybe.

But only Oxford, Cambridge, Bath and Bristol are warm enough.

DD's list discounted anything further North than Warwick!!

I'd love to see a list for best for Biology and/or Neurosciences

Yes that's my point and my experience, as a poor Southern student that went there - I was looked upon with a degree of suspicion by the Scottish students and wasn't rich enough/hadn't been to the right school/didn't have a flat in the new town enough for the English wealthy brigade. I'm sure I'd love Edinburgh for a weekend away now, I mean it's beautiful and Arthur Seat, restaurants, cafes etc, but as a student with no funds (just prior to student loans, bankrupt parents) it was pretty miserable for me as stundent.

Probably just my situation though and I think students are probably a lot more looked after now, with parents who are a lot more involved.

Cambridge (and indeed the whole of East Anglia) can get chilly in the winter, albeit much drier than many of the cities mentioned!

You don't give your criteria @Aslockton

On what grounds are you compiling these 'league tables'?

I'm sure it's just 'off the cuff' personal observation really!