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.

@Newgirls - that’s what my son was worried about , but he got offered a place at St A this week (and applied to Oxford too)

[quote Darbs76]@Newgirls - that’s what my son was worried about , but he got offered a place at St A this week (and applied to Oxford too)[/quote]
Well done to him!

I wonder if the RG universities rested on their laurels and felt they didn't need to go 'above and beyond' to help students navigate the pandemic years?

People do have long memories about such things. So there may come a time quite soon when being 'RG' no longer has the mesmeric 'sway' that it currently does, particularly if those universities didn't step up in 2020/21 2021/22.

@PerpetualOptimist

I do not think you will be alone in re-evaluating your perceived rankings *@NotBabiesForLong*. The most recent student satisfaction data revealed only a small number of institutions that maintained above benchmark satisfaction in both 2020 and 2021. Not one was Russell Group; all were either post-1992 uni's or non-RG pre-1992 such as Bath, Lancaster, Loughborough and St Andrews.

Employers will not necessarily have a clear handle on which institutions adopted a 'can do' attitude during successive lockdowns and which did not. However, for my part, I come across the newly graduated or students on placement who offer very measured but not at all flattering accounts of supine and entirely self-focused policies adopted by some 'elite' institutions. Rightly or wrongly this has definitely shaped my perceptions and that of colleagues towards those institutions.

Where can I find this data please? My year 12 ds is looking and would be interested to see this.

I am not sure where to find data. But ask around, ask on TSR, ask friends, ask at open days, ask how lockdown and also strikes were dealt with. And ask if they think they are getting good value for money.

DH works at an RG uni and he and I are both shocked with the ongoing response to covid, some lecturers on going using prior year recorded lectures, and also on going strikes after these kids are having such a raw deal.

Not all lecturers have taken the same approach, some really have gone above and beyond. Buy wow, my eyes have been opened.

The Student Room is full of info on this. It’s shocking to me that lecturers are using recorded material now. I know some are working remotely still. Seems like the larger courses are the ones to be cautious of, with large lecture numbers. Having said that surely Sept/Oct will be better.

"Parker231 Sat 19-Mar-22 18:44:31

@Xenia - surely you’re not advocating going to a particular Uni so that you meet someone rich or successful?"

I suppose I am saying university fulfills a huge range of purposes. If you go away from home as my parents and us children did it is a chance to be independent, learn to live with others and all that social side of it. Secondly, there is the course and exams. Then hobbies and things you might enjoy doing for life. People you meet who may be friends for life, go on holiday with, learn from, see their families' home (and I do not mean that in a snobby way that it gives you a chance to stay in castles but that you might also see people whose lives are much less well off than you are too - so the full mix). For example for myk sons it was the first time they have not been in a minority white situation (most children are BAME at their school) so that was a bit weird - suddenly you are actually among middle class white Christians for the first time when you are 18 - we are white); and yes for some people you meet a spouse. I have 5 lovely children and 3 grandchildren because I met my children's father when I was a student and then married him. One of my sons met his girl friend at university. My parents met at that stage too when both were students - actually I think my mother had just left but she joined a university thing where my father was and that is how they met.

In other words it facilitates a whole host of things and picking the place carefully rather than just because it is the only one which provides an en suite bathroom or because the students are forced to so little work they actually say they like the place is not necessarily the right criteria.

www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/national-student-survey-2021-overall-satisfaction-results-show-varied-impact-covid-19

@Tree543 - lots of good information here. The survey questions were amended to include questions about Covid.

When DT’s were deciding where to go, the top question we asked them after all the visits was - where do you think you will be happiest?

I agree Xenia, for DC lucky enough to go to uni, it is a multidimensional platform for the start of life. That includes more than academics and can have a profound impact on the rest of one’s life.

Birmingham uni isn’t gritty 😂😂😂 and who tries to get their kid to go to a uni based on how “leafy” it is.

Also as Parker and I are illustrating people can have different aims. Where will you be happiest was never what I was after. i don't even like the US end of Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I think seeking happiness is selfish compared with doing good even at your own cost etc

However my children, not I, chose their universities etc I would have liked them to have a go at Oxbridge but none of them wanted to do so even when their schools suggested it. Three had Durham offers (near where I am from and my father and uncle went) and Bristol offers and chose Bristol not Durham (as a bit closer to home in London whereas I might have picked Durham)

@Orchidsonthetable

Birmingham uni isn’t gritty 😂😂😂 and who tries to get their kid to go to a uni based on how “leafy” it is.

Actually, other things being equal, once DS1 had revisited all 5 universities on offer holder days and rejected one of them, he did more or less go for Birmingham because it was such a nice campus that he could see himself being happy enough just to spend days 'chilling' there. He and his friends also used to visit the Botanical Gardens quite a lot.

His second choice would have been UEA, which is where DS2 is now, but his Birmingham offer became unconditional once he firmed it, so that became academic, if you pardon the pun.

But as for 'leafy' in the 'acceptably MC' sense, that definitely wasn't a consideration.

Is using recorded lectures such an issue? Presuming it's a subject where the material hasn't changed year on year. I've recently taken some recorded lectures on Edx, and for maths at least the experience is a vaste improvement on my undergraduate days. Live lectures were spent writing down notes as fast as I could often without time to digest or understand the material. Being able to pause and replay is a far superior learning experience. I wonder if the future will be universities leveraging each other's recorded material and focusing on the value add of tutorials and seminars.

I think the issue is how up to date the recorded lectures are, and whether that's relevant to your subject as @MatureStudentToBeMaybe says.

If you are listening to a lecture on Shakespeare it probably doesn't matter if it's a recorded one; if you are listening to a lecture on mRNA vaccines you wouldn't want one that was recorded 12 months ago…

@Orchidsonthetable

Birmingham uni isn’t gritty 😂😂😂 and who tries to get their kid to go to a uni based on how “leafy” it is.

Birmingham campus is beautiful - a great combination of older buildings, leafy spaces and modern science blocks

@MatureStudentToBeMaybe

Is using recorded lectures such an issue? Presuming it's a subject where the material hasn't changed year on year. I've recently taken some recorded lectures on Edx, and for maths at least the experience is a vaste improvement on my undergraduate days. Live lectures were spent writing down notes as fast as I could often without time to digest or understand the material. Being able to pause and replay is a far superior learning experience. I wonder if the future will be universities leveraging each other's recorded material and focusing on the value add of tutorials and seminars.

I think it opens up the world of online education and will lead to job losses eventually. I’m amazed lecturers want to record - does the uni then own that content?

Pre-recorded lectures as prep before face to face class time where the professor leads a class discussion = brilliant

Pre-recorded lecture in place of race to face class time = lazy, half-arsed, dialling it in

The National Student Survey is the source, @Tree543, I have mentioned in earlier posts in this thread and I provided a link in the first of those. This data is also the basis of much of the informaton on the DiscoverUni website. Be careful about drilling down to the level of individual courses as the sample sizes are very small (though that doesn't stop university marketing departments using the data in an outrageously selective way!). However, at the institutional level (eg all Exeter undergrads) and the department level (eg all Maths undergrads at Exeter), the sample sizes are much more robust. Some academics are dismissive of the NSS but then it can reveal some unpalatable truths.

There is no single 'best' source of data, but @NotBabiesForLong offers very sensible suggestions. I would simply add that, at Open Days (in-person or online), encourage your DS to ask specific questions about the recent past (eg what proportion lectures and what proportion of seminars/work groups were in-person last term?) rather than asking about future intentions, which allows for vague, caveated answers.

Many universities have a 'chat with a current student' facility on their website and, again employing the 'specific questions about the recent past' approach, you are likely to get candid and meaningful answers.

There may be alumni of your DS's college/sixth form at the universities he has in mind and he may be able to ask them about their current experiences. It all builds a picture.

Individual student experiences vary not only by institutions but also by subject area and mix of modules taken. So your DS should take care not to latch on to just one or two pieces of experience, data, opinion but rather look at lots of different aspects in the round. Many MN posters say that in-person Open Day experiences helped shape their DC's defining 'gut instinct' about preferred choices.

Finally, university is largely what you choose to make of it. It you go with the mindset that you will make the most of the opportunities and will adapt and cope as best you can with aspects that were not as you expected, then you are well placed to succeed at university and beyond. I hope that helps and good luck.

Great point @Stockpot. Pre-recorded lectures can work well alongside face-to-face teaching. A mindset that is all about the willingness to make things work for the better, rather than an excuse for effort minimisation.

I would add, though, that in-person lectures for first years have traditionally helped forge links across the department student body. If they are replaced permanently or dialled down, then thought needs to be given to how that bonding can be encouraged and facilitated in other ways. I am not sure all universities/departments see that as an obligation on their part.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

I wonder if the RG universities rested on their laurels and felt they didn't need to go 'above and beyond' to help students navigate the pandemic years?

People do have long memories about such things. So there may come a time quite soon when being 'RG' no longer has the mesmeric 'sway' that it currently does, particularly if those universities didn't step up in 2020/21 2021/22.

I hope so. The Russell Group worship on here is ridiculous and the pandemic has revealed how flimsy a marker of 'excellence' it is. Disappointing to see how little it matters to many parents how poorly these institutions often treat their staff, and how people will overlook that all the big shot star researchers won't actually be teaching their kids. That'll be farmed out to the postgrads. But never mind that, it's Russell Group!

Before the pandemic one of my sons at Bristol said the fact every lecturer except one (who refused and they complained about) pressed record at the start of every live lecture he was at which was very useful indeed as he could listen to it again and again after.

@Xenia

Before the pandemic one of my sons at Bristol said the fact every lecturer except one (who refused and they complained about) pressed record at the start of every live lecture he was at which was very useful indeed as he could listen to it again and again after.

All of DD's lectures in Newcastle were recorded live before the pandemic and since going back to F2F, which they did in September. I thought all universities did this.

Judging from posts on here and elsewhere it looks like Newcastle have done better than many universities during the pandemic.

I thought all universities did this.

On a previous thread about face to face teaching (or the lack of it), not pressing 'record' for the recording of normal, in-person lectures was defended by someone wrt the issue of intellectual property. So whereas most or even all universities 'do this', it would appear that they don't / can't necessarily make individual members of teaching staff participate?

Ah, OK. Thank goodness they do this in DD's lectures. She struggles to stay awake during them (CFS, and long covid ), so at least she can catch up/recap.

@MarchingFrogs

I thought all universities did this.

On a previous thread about face to face teaching (or the lack of it), not pressing 'record' for the recording of normal, in-person lectures was defended by someone wrt the issue of intellectual property. So whereas most or even all universities 'do this', it would appear that they don't / can't necessarily make individual members of teaching staff participate?

Certainly both the universities DD2 has attended since Covid have recorded all their normal in-person lectures (different universities, both large cities).

There was one module on her Masters course which seemed a little behind the times and students (many of whom were qualified doctors adding to their skillset) complained. It was amended with more up-to-date material pretty swiftly.