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

Cheapest cities to study would be an interesting one for those who don't have parents who can help them, but parents earn too much for a full loan - Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle. Liverpool, Cardiff all stretch the budget further.

Another is good for those with sn - Leicester are good as are Cardiff, whereas Warwick was terrible

As someone said above the law list is based on numbers recruited therefore a lot more from Nottingham (as it has lots of graduates) compared with St Andrews which has many fewer graduates:
So this is the list

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Durham

4.Bristol

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

10. Manchester

However I would change the order to the following

1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Durham

4.Bristol

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

10 Birmingham 10. Manchester

But from lower on the list UCL York Leeds all feed into law firms too and of course LSE

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

It is always worth looking at the career you want and then looking at the linked in profiles of newly hired people in the roles you want to see where on the whole they went to university.

diian your lists are misleading in terms of top ten, since the top choice for many at selectives will be Oxford and Cambridge but far fewer will get places there than those applying to the unis featured higher on the lists.

@SandyBayley

Best universities for finding long-term love....

Edinburgh at no 1! Met my DH while studying there 😊💕

www.independent.co.uk/student/news/edinburgh-heads-top-10-cities-finding-love-university-according-university-surrey-10471305.html?amp

1. Edinburgh
2. Bristol
3. Liverpool
4. Cambridge
5. Norwich
6. Durham
7. London
8. Oxford
9. Birmingham
10. Nottingham

😂 great list

Exeter to the beach isn’t that far. But yes St Andrews you can walk from the uni onto a sandy beach. Exmouth warmest tho?

Falmouth yea definitely on the beach list! 🏖

For amazing graduation ceremonies add Uni of Herts as they graduate in the stunning St Albans cathedral.

@Newgirls

Aslockton - for prestige St Andrews might nudge ahead of oxbridge - according to The Times anyway. Shocking times.

Best beaches -

Exeter
St Andrews
Brighton
Swansea
Lancaster

Ooh where else?

Lancaster doesn't have a beach... I suppose you can get to Morecambe but that's not a great beach tbh. (Good views and you might see an eider duck so there's that over most other unis....)

@diian

Interesting that geographically, no Scottish university or anything north of York makes the top 10 at either school. The boys' school is heavily weighted towards London and the South.

DDs selective girls school in the north of England would have a very different list. I don't have it to hand but iirc it heavily featured Leeds, Glasgow, Durham, Manchester, Edinburgh and St. Andrews.

I’d disagree with Liverpool being less expensive, I pay more for my dcs halls there than their siblings halls in Bristol and Manchester.

Not my list, but QS top10 medical schools in UK. (World ranking in bracket):
Year: 2021

1 Oxford (2)
2 Cambridge (4)
3 University College London (10)
4 Imperial College London (12)
5 King's College London (23)
6 Edinburgh (24)
7 Manchester (42)
8 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (44)
9 Glasgow (49)
10 Bristol (64)

nightvision, QS add in research I think, so not the same as best UG medical school experience. The School of Tropical Medicine does not admit undergraduates, and if compiling the list I would allow for other factors. For example Bristol is able to provide a range of experience from inner city to rural which Imperial cannot.

But that is the issue with league tables. They vary according to the criteria used to compile them. No space for a good beach. (Bristol med school has Weston. Would that count?!)

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)?

I agree, but there are a few factors for Cambridge that made it a really good experience as a student.

• very compact- no need to waste money on fripperies like motorised transport as could just walk or cycle. Also no hills (looking at you, Bath).
• Could often live in college housing all three years which saved money and hassle. College system also means that easier to meet and socialise with people not in your year/ subject
• College system made it easier to get involved in sport/ drama/ music etc even if you weren't great at it as there were so many teams and inter-college competitions.
• They may have tightened up now but the colleges used to let you book their function rooms for parties and just bring your own alcohol (half a bottle of vodka was the standard) so it was very cheap to socialise.

Downside was that there was a big "town-gown" divide. If a student was socialising with people not from Uni , that was newsworthy. Probably different now though.

"Downside was that there was a big "town-gown" divide. If a student was socialising with people not from Uni , that was newsworthy."

How repulsive and sad.

Here's my list of unis to avoid for snobbishness :

1. Durham
2. Oxford
3. Cambridge
4. Edinburgh
5. Warwick
6. St Andrews

No proof, just anecdata from people I know at them.

Snobbishness a deal breaker for us ATM at open days. So outdated.

What about picturesque, fairly small places where your parent can take you out for afternoon tea? Dc1 keen to go somewhere small. Still looking so happy to have the list added to (ideally with med school, which rules out Durham, but I have more dc!):

Oxford
Cambridge
Durham
York
Canterbury (Kent or Canterbury Christchurch)
Exeter

Snobbishness a deal breaker for us ATM at open days. for dc1 too, hence Oxford and Cambridge off their list plus wanting intercalated, but again I have other dc to take out to tea in years to come.

Sorry meant integrated.

No space for a good beach. (Bristol med school has Weston. Would that count?!)

Well, unless the earth has shifted significantly on its axis, since I was a child, there's certainly a wide expanse of non sea at Weston-super-Mare. But I so remember a cousin once finding something very tarry-looking not far down whilst making sandcastles halfway to America (or so it seemed), which made us wonder exactly what it was we were sitting on.

@lastminutetutor, I have no idea what the variety of medical education is at UEA, but there are places for afternoon tea in Norwich, which is not massive as cities go?

Liverpool does have some cheaper halls, but where you can really save money is if they live out of halls. There is some very cheap student housing, and it's group together so they will probably be close to their friends - Kensington has the slight edge imho.

Cardiff halls are expensive, but the cost of living is not too bad. Cinemas aplenty and very cheap if they like going to the independents. Also a very good place to go for smaller gigs - even into Bristol for gigs.

Manchester has some very much to be avoided out of hall student accommodation - but I suspect that is true of many uni towns and cities.

Best beaches. Well, Aber and Swansea could not get much closer to the beach! Bangor for access to the wonderful beaches of Anglesey. Cardiff has no beach but it does have the advantage of lovely Cardiff Bay and the water taxi into the city or over to Penarth. No Liverpool beach but not too far to Crosby, or the ferry to New Brighton.

Universities in the North that Naice Home Counties girls go to

1. Nottingham
2. That’s quite far enough North thank you

😂

Places parents like visiting...

Bristol score highly, including from DH who
buries himself in second hand bookshops.

London. Newcastle. Oxford. Bournemouth, Manchester. But then I am a City person.

Best places to go to uni and have a good party and a good education

1. Sussex
2. Manchester
3. Leeds
4. Liverpool
5. Newcastle

Universities I have attended

Manchester Met - crap organisation, 40 students in a room with 30 seats, close to the curry mile and shopping.

Wolverhampton - well I left part way through the course and took legal action, my solicitor screwed up so I ended up with £20 000 from my solicitor. Great city for asian food and sari shops.

UCLAN - great for disabled and dyslexic students eg I got a parking pass to use on all carparks at any time and at no cost. They also did a sort of pay card, you topped it up and you could then get a discount on anything you bought in the uni except alcohol. You could buy alcohol on it if you had a sit down meal.

Staffordshire - I did my course at a local FE college so never set foot in the uni, I took a friend's son to enrol at the actual campus and it seems nice.

Keele - best campus and loads of squirrels but some of the students were so childish it felt like being in primary again, and this was a post grad course. The food court is good unless you are served by the woman with the bright red bob, she takes half an hour to serve you. Also the most organised graduation your guests are sent to the bar, you walk along a corridor with a series of rooms, one gives you your gown, another 'dresses' you, then there are photo ops and finally you are let into the bar to meet your guests. Graduation itself is quick with only your cohort in the chapel.

Leicester - loved the library and the campus, nice students, nice staff. There is also a great steak restaurant and great shopping.

Open - great for disability support and providing all materials, I've only attended the campus once for a conference but it was fantastic. I'm not going to graduate for a long time but a couple of differences with the OU, you bachelors graduation you have a gown but no motorboard, you also only wear the OU grown, even if you have a higher degree from another institution.

If I attend another uni I may have to go to one with a beach.

Places to go where people will be surprised that you didn't go to private school

1. St Andrews
2. Durham
3. Edinburgh
4. Oxbridge

5 UCL

sashh as a parent Keele graduation ceremony sounds fab and who can argue with squirrels, just need to decide which child to persuade to go there.

Yes UEA might fit the brief too Marching Frogs.

@nightvision

Not my list, but QS top10 medical schools in UK. (World ranking in bracket): Year: 2021

1 Oxford (2)
2 Cambridge (4)
3 University College London (10)
4 Imperial College London (12)
5 King's College London (23)
6 Edinburgh (24)
7 Manchester (42)
8 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (44)
9 Glasgow (49)
10 Bristol (64)

I’m amazed Nottingham med school isn’t on that. Seems to be incredibly popular.

Yeah I live in Durham and it’s had lots of stories recently about local students who attend who are bullied for being from up north, and it’s known you are often very looked down on if you haven’t been to a fee paying school.