Rank your personal ranking for uk Uni’s

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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.

Ok ok, I take it back about Birmingham being gritty!

I didn’t know anything about it as it was never on my radar. I know it’s very popular now as several of my friends have said their offspring are there. It goes to show places do go up and down the rankings however people define them.

My DS rejected Birmingham for English after attending an open day and seeing an errant and prominent apostrophe on a notice on a door in the English Dept!

Stowe, divides leavers Uni destinations into Elite,High,specialist,and other..i bet the students going to "other" really feel good about themselves..

Lovely buildings but Stowe is not our most academic of fee paying schools it must be said....

@nolanscrack yes and Exeter doesn't make their elite list, although it does get an asterisk to show that it is RG.

Xenia-be careful,I made the mildest comment about academics at Stowe and a parent got very irate..
The divisions are a bit odd..not sure how they decide what Uni should be in what division,but I thought it was amusing if nothing else..

I had a look at the Stowe (am bored at home with covid). I thought it was interesting that that the vast majority went to only 4 places Oxford Brookes, Exeter, Newcastle and Edinburgh. My ds's state school destinations are a mixture with no one firm favourite. Do private school kids like to stay with their friends?

I’ve just looked at where the school leavers from DT’s school went to last year. Admittedly as it is an international school, many did not stay in the U.K. for their degrees but what stood out was how popular neuroscience is. A significant number are now studying it, mainly in the US.

OK,going to probably upset someone..but Stowe is not an academic powerhouse and it tends to attract a certain type,Newcastle has a reputation as a serious party Uni..

@Tree543

I had a look at the Stowe (am bored at home with covid). I thought it was interesting that that the vast majority went to only 4 places Oxford Brookes, Exeter, Newcastle and Edinburgh. My ds's state school destinations are a mixture with no one firm favourite. Do private school kids like to stay with their friends?

I don't think that the school in question was Stowe, but I remember someone saying once that their DD's school only approved applications to a (very, it sounded like) restricted list of universities - and that that year, over 30 had gone to Exeter (or rather, that the school 'had sent', which always strikes me as an odd - and inaccurate - phrase to use).

Like your DC's school, the destinations from the three different schools which our DC have attended for 6th form also tend to show a fairly broad range, including various apprenticeships. DS2 is shockingly vague about where his year group, or even his friends, were aiming for, but I know that a couple have gone to Glasgow, which is not a natural choice from here geographically, although there are flights from an airport only an hour or so away - at 3am, anyway, which is when we had to leave home when I took DD over for her flight back to France after Christmas.

Stowe has some lovely children but usually they could not get into a more academic private day or boarding school. I certainly do not mean to suggest it is a bad school and plenty of the private schools cater for the not that bright child as you would expect - there is always a pecking order of sorts

@Xenia @nolanscrack so how come they get a relatively high number of places at Edinburgh, Exeter and Newcastle then? Hardly destinations for the non-academic.

Stowe has some lovely children but usually they could not get into a more academic private day or boarding school

And it actually doesn't matter. The children will be going to Stowe for the history and the environs, will love their time there, will be just as bright as everyone else's kids aside from the one or two Stephen Hawkings that a population produces and will end up in the same job as everyone else - chained to their computer wondering if they will have a heart attack from the stress before they get to retirement. I am all about the journey now because I haven't seen enough evidence of a direct correlation between top school - top uni - top job - top life yep, bit cynical

Newcastle has a reputation as a serious party Uni..

Which is unjustified IMO. There are loads of students there who don't party every night. I think it is because the city itself is a bit of a hen and stag destination, and lends itself well to this kind of activity.

DD is at Newcastle and I have visited and stayed often. It is no more of a party city and any other city centre on a Saturday night.

DD is sociable and likes to go to house parties, but hates clubbing, and has loads of friends who aren't massive clubbers either.

DD is sociable and likes to go to house parties, but hates clubbing, and has loads of friends who aren't massive clubbers either.

Hard to go clubbing regularly when you have to be in (biosecure) labs at 9am every morning @RampantIvy

I have a DS studying medicine at Newcastle. Newcastle only interviews candidates with clinical entrance exam results within the top 10% in the UK and the offer rate is significantly lower. Many with the right stats choose to apply to Newcastle med over Oxbridge. My DS socialises no more than he would at any other University and works damn hard. This seems to be the norm among Newcastle medics. This application round, there are DC with stellar academics and clinical entrance exam results still waiting to find out if they will be lucky enough to be offered a much sought-after Newcastle place. Your assumption that Newcastle only takes somewhat academically-challenged party animals is very inaccurate.

I think the point was that Newcastle and Bristol have a reputation amongst many home counties privately educated young people as being party Universities.

Whether that reputation is warranted is a different matter. Our experience is that that reputation exists. (On starting at Imperial last year DD was definitely quizzed about Bristol and whether what was said about it was true. She could have countered and asked whether Imperial really was the place where fun went to die!)

I think the point was that Newcastle and Bristol have a reputation amongst many home counties privately educated young people as being party Universities.

Not just in the home counties. The same reputation prevails in our corner of Yorkshire. The majority of last year's rugby team all chose to head there for some reason...

@Tree543

I had a look at the Stowe (am bored at home with covid). I thought it was interesting that that the vast majority went to only 4 places Oxford Brookes, Exeter, Newcastle and Edinburgh. My ds's state school destinations are a mixture with no one firm favourite. Do private school kids like to stay with their friends?

OBU has the highest private school entry of any non RG uni (including non RG usual suspects of St As/ Bath/ Loughborough/ Lancaster) and any post 1992 institution. It does also - possibly not coincidentally-have expensive accommodation( both in first year and thereafter where you are talking Oxford rents!)and a party reputation- with the caveat that I agree with those above who say you find all types at most universities.

OBU is also not a million miles away from Stowe. It may be a part of the country they feel comfortable and familiar with and the cachet of the first word, I guess, can't be overlooked.

On another thread someone with boarding school DCs did seem to suggest that they like to go to university with other boarding school friends. Not so much different from my state educated lot who all pile off to NTU together,albeit a rather different demographic.

Students party hard at any university though. I find it tends to be certain halls at each university that have a party reputation.

@Needmoresleep

I think the point was that Newcastle and Bristol have a reputation amongst many home counties privately educated young people as being party Universities.

Whether that reputation is warranted is a different matter. Our experience is that that reputation exists. (On starting at Imperial last year DD was definitely quizzed about Bristol and whether what was said about it was true. She could have countered and asked whether Imperial really was the place where fun went to die!)

Interesting how perceptions vary, can't say I've ever been aware of Newcastle having this reputation (I live in the home counties), and neither have any of my DCs, all of whom like a good party!

A couple of recent students at Bath who I know well tended to go to Bristol for big nights out, but that wasn't all that regularly.

Newcastle University has had this reputation for years , Ricky Road was definitely known as the place for partying hard. But like all these things it doesn’t apply across the board and just because they party hard doesn’t mean that they don’t word hard too.

@NotBabiesForLong

Whatever my ranking was 3 years ago has changed dramatically.

3 years of strike/covid/strike has shown some uni's (particularly more established, probably perceived higher ranking) have treated their students appallingly. Taking tuition fees and in many cases leaving the student to flounder

I really feel for current 3rd years. Some of whom have had such poor service from their universities.

Whilst other uni's have shown great originality and compassion with dealing with covid and the subsequent MH of students. And have had limited strike impact.

These factors have totally changed my uni ranking, often in favour of newer uni's.

I wonder if employers are also looking less favourably on some universities which quite frankly have left students to teach themselves.

Yep (current mature student third year) we have had a shit time and if I'd gone to university for the "university" experience I would be really pissed off. As it is I'm at the point I wish I'd taken a year out just because of the inevitable disruption on our placements (healthcare so unavoidable) is getting to me now.

However, in terms of how they've supported us through the pandemic, while my uni have been about as good with communicating as universities ever are - my department have been absolutely superb (as have uni disability and mental health support services), so while the university as a whole will never be one that win hearts and minds on MN - for my specific niche vocational subject - it's been superb.

De Montfort, Speech and Language Therapy for anyone looking for future applications

@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.

My university have a policy to support students with disabilities that ALL courses should have the powerpoint slides uploaded before the lecture (so can download, read and prepare if required, print out if needed, or export into whatever you take notes on) and that all lectures should be recorded and uploaded to listen to later. It's just a non-negotiable to support all students, but particularly those with learning differences like dyslexia etc - and disability support services WILL get involved in riot act reading where required if it's not followed and causing a problem.

What IS an issue is where the recordings from previous years are used IN PLACE of the actual lecture being re-delivered. There's a lot of difference between logging on to replay a lecture where you're not sure of some of the content and want to hear it again to get it straight in your head, and having to take in new information for the first time while using a lecture recording from previous years, with the background noise, paper rustling, whispered chit chat and traffic noises (my uni is very near the hospital so loads of ambulance sirens) going on. Or when they're pointing at an image on the powerpoint and you can't see that.

It happens occasionally on my course when some of our visiting lecturers from very specialist areas can't make it one year to deliver their content and a previous year's will be uploaded instead - but it's less than ideal. We had to do all our pathology stuff from an old recording this year and it was crap cos the powerpoint didn't exactly match up, when there were clarification questions asked the audio didn't capture that very well and pointing to the lecture theatre screens discussing how "this part up here is where the problem is" wasn't recorded so we were left trying to interpret things on our own.

Specifically recorded stuff is less problematic in that regard - but lots of the research base for our content changes so much and things get tweaked in light of advice changes that it would be fairly regularly outdated anyway. Pre-recorded background content to watch before an actual session seems to be working very well and looks likely to continue.

Personal rankings for Physics:
Ex Oxbridge.

1)Imperial
2)Manchester
3)UCL
4)Lancaster
5)Durham
6)St andrews
7)Bristol
8)Nottingham
9)Edinburgh
10)Exeter

My eldest is at Lancaster and the opportunties there in physics regarding work etc theres is so much help and lots of offers and the teaching and facilities are excellent. She had an internship in first year too so for that subject, its right up there.