Rank your personal ranking for uk Uni’s

[lightisnotwhite]

I’ve read the league tables but interested to know what MN prefers in a Uni. Bristol for example ranks outside the top ten but MN is keen.

I think (based on these threads) Durham, St Andrews, York, Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Manchester, one of the London ones LSE?

Oxford and Cambridge are givens. So what’s next.

in terms of prestige then after oxbridge I'd go

1 Durham
2 Edinburgh
3 University of London (UCL, LSE,Imoerial etc)
4 Bristol
5 Manchester

Surely it depends on subject as well? Like imperial, Manchester for engineering. Lse for economics. Warwick - maths. Bath, ucl - science. I’m not so sure about arts/humanities - but Bristol, Durham, Exeter, Edinburgh, St Andrew’s seem like good all-round

Those UoL ones are all autonomous institutions (and Imperial isn't even UoL!).

After Ox and Cam I'd go Imperial, then UCL then LSE.

Then a load all hovering around the same point (Durham, Bristol, Ed, Glasgow, Manchester, KCL). Then I'd prob say Exeter, Bath, St Andrew's.

But - varies massively for subject obvs.

Oh plus Warwick.

1. Oxford / Cambridge

2. Imperial / LSE / UCL (obviously Imperial is STEM only, LSE is social sciences only, UCL offers a massive range of subjects and subject combos in all areas - so depends what you’re applying for with these three).

3. Durham

4. St Andrews

5. Bath / Bristol / Exeter / Manchester / Edinburgh - in any order really?

Oh and Warwick in with Bath / Bristol etc.

Interesting.

So far York hasn’t been mentioned but it’s a very popular choice on MN.
And in real life.

I think the gritty city Uni’s ; Manchester, London, Warwick, Birmingham etc may be equally good or better on paper but parents prefer a leafier environment?

Obviously influence by subject although clearly there’s also a bit of a ranking with that too.

Birmingham is an extraordinarily leafy campus uni in a very leafy part of Birmingham!

As a York alumna, I actually find MN often sneers a bit at York. MN is quite demographically skewed and York doesn't seem to be a choice for middle class Londoners.

A lot of the unis thus far mentioned tend to be quite science/maths/law skewed (Bath , for example, offers no arts or hum subjects - except a quite pragmatic MFL offering). Bath does stand apart rather (ignoring for the meantime St Andrew's as it is an 'ancient') as being the non RG university that ahs secured prestige - possibly off the back of STEM reputation. DS actually rejected a Bath offer because he couldn't get beyond the fact that the course (social sciences) sounded dull and utterly focused on employment.

As a literature / social science/arts/hums bod, my list outside Oxbridge I guess would be (and only thinking of 'prestige' notions you have specified rather than the actual course and uni!) in no particular order

Warwick
Durham
Nottingham
Birmingham
Leeds
Exeter
York
St Andrew's
Edinburgh
Bristol
Manchester
LSE and Bath for social sciences
UCL
and , in some subjects Southampton/ Lancaster/ Sheffield
Most creative writing people would attach more prestige than any of these to UEA.

Any of those for arts, hums, or social sciences I would assume high flier entrants and a large volume of applications.

Bit it's all stuff and nonsense really.

MN goes in waves, too. York seems more popular this year.

Side note - I actually think Glasgow is a superior university to definitely Edinburgh and probably St Andrew's (at least amongst Scots!) but may not have the 'prestige' label - a lot of this is location snobbery.

The recent employers ranking was :
Manchester
Nottingham
Bristol

As the top 3 Unis that get graduate jobs.

I thought it was Birmingham?

I think you are looking at different metric from me. This high fliers report

www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2021/graduate_market/GM21-Report.pdf

Has universities ranked by 'targeted by employers'. This has

Birmingham
Manchester
UCL
Nottingham
Leeds
Warwick
Bristol

But not sure employment stats are same as 'prestige'.

I find Mumsnet in general tends to have a very narrow view of Uni choices that focuses almost entirely on the Russell Group and excludes lots at perfectly respectable Unis,

For instance Loughborough rarely gets mentioned here yet it's often very high up in league tables and has an excellent reputation for STEM, especially engineering.

Ah, here is 2022 list!

www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2022/graduate_market/GM22-report.pdf

Similar but just some moving about so Manchester now top. Sheffield moved up.

Yeah, I should have had Loughborough but I was going form the Often also maligned arts/ hums) angle which wouldn't include it. Loughborough applicants always get an 'ooooo' at my (state) school!!

@lightisnotwhite

Interesting.

So far York hasn’t been mentioned but it’s a very popular choice on MN.
And in real life.

I think the gritty city Uni’s ; Manchester, London, Warwick, Birmingham etc may be equally good or better on paper but parents prefer a leafier environment?

Obviously influence by subject although clearly there’s also a bit of a ranking with that too.

Warwick is hardly a nitty gritty city university. It’s on a campus outside Coventry.

Really depends on the subject. The top teacher training universities don’t match the top universities for other subjects.

I did the same course at 2 universities (transferred part way through). One was an ex-poly and one was a more prestigious university. The course was exactly the same and I can’t say my experience was any different at either uni.

It’s difficult to rank unis like this because there’s a lot more to it than mere prestige/reputation.

Bristol has a decent reputation academically but a terrible record for student mental health and bullying.

A lot of people rate Warwick but it’s a frightful campus.

Other unis will be better in certain subjects than others.

It depends what you’re ranking them based on.

Horrible ugly campus though

I think Durham has this weird reputation of the ‘Oxbridge near misses’ uni, but I do wonder about why this is because there are probably just as many students at places like UCL, LSE, Imperial, Bristol and Warwick who also applied to Oxbridge and were very borderline. I think Durham just has this particular reputation because it also has the collegiate system and is a another historic city?

Internationally, people have generally heard of LSE, UCL and Imperial, but not so much Durham, which was my only reason for putting for the London unis ahead of Durham.

Scottish degrees are 4 years long as standard (without a placement year) and many would see no point in taking 4 years to do what you could do in 3? Particularly, 4 years spent somewhere as remote and northerly as St Andrews is quite a lifestyle choice that would not be everyone’s cup of tea. On the other hand, you often hear it described as ‘magical.’

I think when it gets to UCL, LSE, Imperial Durham, Warwick, Edinburgh, St Andrews etc, most people just decide on whether they would want to be in a city, on a campus, location / how remote, etc. The ‘reputations’ are all pretty similar.

As for York - it seems people use it as an insurance choice because there is often a B in their conditional offers? Often Imperial, LSE, Durham, UCL or Warwick offers will be the same as Oxbridge with either all As or one (or two) A*s in there.

Bath offers less traditional, quite innovative courses with a focus in placement years and I think this is what distinguishes it to the extent it’s now frequently in the ‘top 10’ in league tables, ahead of most Russell Groups.

Warwick is hardly a nitty gritty city university. It’s on a campus outside Coventry

Ah, but just-up-the-road Coventry tends to be considered so gritty, that 99% of MN Warwick offspring will choose to schlep in from Royal Leamington Spa instead - thus perpetuating the impression that Warwick necessitates living a long way off after first year,, one of the reasons often cited for not choosing it.

St Andrews now ranks above Oxford and Cambridge in the Times and Uni rankings. Has been in the top two for a couple of years, alternating in second place with O and C.

ShanghaiDiva Ha! My son has an offer for Warwick.

It’s nearest city Coventry is an urban dump.Well it’s not lovely Durham or Bath is it. We haven’t visited the campus but from the prospectus it looks like of a choice of accommodation from old people home, army barracks or the reduced section of IKEA.

Leeds is massively popular where I live. It’s a large uni so loads going on. Prob also why so many people mention it as lots go there iyswim

Round here (W. London), Leeds, Manchester and Bristol are often talked about as “party unis.” Parents worrying about drugs etc. No idea if this is in any way accurate, but I do hear this quite a bit.