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

@MatildaJayne

How about decent bursaries for poorer households? =1 Bristol £2k =1 Nottingham £2k =1 Manchester £2k =1 Birmingham £2k …and all the others DS didn’t apply for.

Edinburgh:3K Glasgow: 3K for first year then 2K for subsequent years plus 1K scholarship per annum if entering with AAA ( and maintaining ‘grades! across chosen degree) Bristol also award 1K accommodation bursary for first year in halls in addition to the 2K. They also will reimburse expenses for ‘offer holder’ days as many potential entrants will not be in the position to attend ‘open days’

LSE give very generous bursaries to poorer households. They have at least 7 bursaries of £20,060 per year. Along with many others totalling 4 million pounds.

www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/fees-and-funding/Uggla-Family-Scholarships

Royal Holloway have scholarships open to all, including full fees paid for all 3 years.

www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/fees-and-funding/undergraduate/scholarships-and-bursaries/

Imperial, which is quite a rich University, is probably even more generous with bursaries.

On the 'fees-paid' awards front, though, unless you were otherwise having to pay your fees yourself (as opposed to choosing to, in which case, you don't need a bursary), for UK students it is money that is only relevant as in not having to pay something back at a time in the future (which you may never have had to anyway). Not money that is going to feed, clothe and house you in the here and now.

Nottingham definitely party Central from dds old school... It seemed like 1/2 the cohort were off to Uni of Nottingham or Nottingham Trent.

I think Warwick probably wins the league for the University not located in its own town (is it unique?). Should have called it Kenilworth University much nearer.

Every younger person I’ve come across thought Newcastle was the party university. Actively chosen by some for that reason!

@PieMistee

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

on the basis that 80% students at Oxbridge these days are not privately educated this list is somewhat outdated. As are the comments that it is to be avoided on accounts of snobbishness. How terribly sad students aren't being dispelled of these notions and missing out at going to some great unis because of antiquated views.

Could someone please reassure me about Durham? We just visited yesterday as it's one of DS's choices. We liked the city very much but it was quite noticeable how many wealthy-looking groups of students there were. We are a normal northern family. DS is very bright, goes to a good state grammar and is hoping for 4 A*s so I'm sure he'd fit into the academic side of things, but I don't think he'd be too impressed at any snobbish kind of attitude towards him. I may be a bit paranoid but when we were having a wander round the South Rd halls areas there was a group of students coming towards us and one muttered something as they approached, and another said "oh, you're so horrible" , and I did wonder if they were saying something derogatory about us as I guess we were dressed in very casual unbranded clothes.

I agree @SeasonFinale - it seems only on MN that reverse snobbery and private school bashing is 'acceptable'. It's rather sad.

@CurlyhairedAssassin tbh most privately educated kids are not snobbish. (Either that or my kids just make non snobbish friends). The students I met when I visited DS last weekend were polite and friendly and I don't think that comment was aimed at you.

My kids had no clue what type of school their friends went to. Not something they've ever discussed. Eldest only now knows as she's involved in widening participation and some of her friends were surprised she went to a comp.

@CurlyhairedAssassin DD has 7 friends from her comp at Durham and they all love it. You'll find knobs everywhere 🤷‍♀️

There are groups of “Rah’s” at most universities - birds of a feather flock together and all that, there are universities where whole chunks of kids go to from the same school (round where I am it’s Nottingham, Exeter and Birmingham typically) and they will search out others with similar backgrounds (always turns out to be a small world with connections between schools)

@Newgirls

Surely all students are a bit ‘try hard’ to be cool. That’s the age group. Surely Brighton unis and colleges for example will turn out slightly more eco aware and arty students than many others. Oxbridge etc maybe makes them more traditional than cool?! It’s not a scientific list by the way.

Oh the 'try hard' comment was about Brighton as a place, or I suppose the general vibe of it, not the students particularly.

This is purely a anecdotal and based on nothing more than a fairly small sample of my DC, their peers and the DC of my friends but good for student welfare and handling of the pandemic so far seem to be Bath and Birmingham

And with respect to International students impacting on f2f, DS’s course (Birmingham) are running f2f lectures for those on site plus a totally separate stream of on line content for those not able to be there. He can attend either or (if really keen) both 😂

And in what seems a simple but brilliant idea, last year’s on line content (madefor on line teaching not just recorded lectures) is being sent to them in chunks as pre learning so the current f2f lectures are then summarising and refreshing with q&a ton check understanding. We are impressed and for a dyslexic who struggles to read or take in information it is incredibly helpful to have that level of on line content to refer to as well as the live f2f lectures.

I think Warwick probably wins the league for the University not located in its own town (is it unique?). Should have called it Kenilworth University much nearer.

Its address is Coventry.

@ErrolTheDragon... Coventry had already been grabbed.. I did laugh at an April fool when they stated Warwick university would now be known as Canley University!

[quote Daisysway]@ErrolTheDragon... Coventry had already been grabbed.. I did laugh at an April fool when they stated Warwick university would now be known as Canley University![/quote]
No, UofW was founded in 1965. Coventry University came into being when Coventry Polytechnic(formerly Lanchester Poly) became a uni in 1992. There wouldn't have been anything unusual about a city having both a uni and a poly.

That's interesting Errolthedragon. I wonder why they did not call it Coventry University although reading through history of Coventry Poly its origins were Coventry School of Art and Design.

*Curly" - wearing branded clothes is nouveau riche and not the thing.... so it was probably not properly "posh" people making that comment about lack of such clothes! My nephew (state school Yorkshire) went to Durham as did my father and uncle (state grammar Durham area back in the day)..... My private school children would never make comments about what someone else wore or their class.

Agree fully @Xenia

@CurlyhairedAssassin. Dd has just started Durham .. living on the Bailey. From a poorly performing northern state school. Seems to have made a lovely supportive group of friends (so far !) and is having a brilliant time . Friends from a variety of backgrounds. Yesterday I received an excited text about a ‘ ‘really interesting’ lecture so I’m taking that as a sign that she’s also doing some work

Branded clothing (or what's not 'in') is just naff, IMO. And agree with Xenia that it's all about money rather than class. Nancy Mitford would have a field day!

However, I'd say that in the 21st Century it's much less easy to tell the socio-economic background of young people (including students) because they generally all dress 'down'. If you look at GCSE/A Level result photos from schools on the results days, they all look pretty similar (clothes-wise), regardless of whether they've been educated at a local state school or the most desirable, hard-to-get-into private option!

I guess it's probably true that it's the ones with more money than class (and who are possibly insecure) who 'flash their cash' and possibly behave in a very entitled obnoxious manner. But if that's the case, what excuse do the Oxford Bullingdon Club types have?

Many polys were originally schools of art.

Yes, how come Warwick University was awarded a prestigious, historic town name (even thought it's not located there), and yet UEA ended up named for the whole area (covering several counties!)?

Thanks for the reassurances about Durham. I realised I used the wrong word when talking about clothes. I didn’t mean branded, I meant designer I think. Not big logos visibly on display, we’re not into that anyway and there was none of that at Durham either. I agree that sort of stuff is a bit naff/flash. I suppose I just meant much more expensive obviously high quality well-made clothes from better shops. Not the cheaper less well-fitting high street stuff that we wear to death till they’re hanging scruffily off us. I think I had supermarket jeans on , for example. Which fit and hang a whole lot differently than something like 7 for All Mankind, for example.

I did notice quite a lot of flares which is not a thing amongst the students here in Liverpool, I don’t think.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 totally agree about everyone dressing the same. When I left my private school in the 80’s we dressed very differently (think Sloane ranger) but now I agree they all dress the same (I blame Instagram 😉)