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

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.

But realistically who is choosing St Andrews if they get into Oxbridge?

@MarchingFrogs

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.

Very true! My ds lived in Coventry in years two and three, but he was definitely the exception!

York doesn't have 'Bs in its offer' for English or history, where it comfortably ranks above many mentioned here...

In terms of music degree, for example, conservatoires aside, you're going to get a whole other list.

I like these rankings, particularly the subject based ones. All league tables are subjective, but people do find it useful as it gives a broad idea as to whether somewhere is top middle or bottom. We forget that it can be a complete unknown for some. www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

I wouldn’t touch Bristol for my own DC with a barge pole after the way it treated Raquel Rosaria Sanchez. As an institution, it clearly lacks the ability to use critical thinking.

Light - Plenty choose St Andrews over Oxbridge - it offers different courses for a start.

@lightisnotwhite

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.

And the prospectus probably shows the ‘nicer’ accommodation.... I think as parents we consider where we would like to live. Dh used to work in Coventry and we lived in Leamington Spa (30 years ago). Ds, however, was not really interested in the aesthetics of the campus or the absence of beautiful architecture in Coventry. He wanted proximity to a decent airport to fly home and decent sports facilities. He lived in Lakeside at Warwick which was fine: functional and near the business school.

Dd is making UCAS applications this year and wants to study a combined law degree with LLB.

She's done a lot of research and we're looking at (in order of preference):

KCL
Queen Mary's
LSE
Cardiff
Nottingham
Bristol

She's really keen to be in London and not so interested in a campus university. I've had a look at the websites and some of the out of London accommodation looks pretty grim, but the optional modules for the courses she wants to study are better.

Not sure how I feel about the 'dump' comments...where else is your DS choosing from? Bath is a lovely city but very expensive, hard to get to from much of the country and many students aren't choosing for the quality of teashop... notwithstanding, it has a brilliant reputation and is a centre of sporting excellence, too.

Prestige is a term which seems inextricably linked to a range of quite awkward concepts of class and cachet and a metropolitan elite hegemony. Warwick has done really well over the years to overcome what is essentially ingrained elitism. That said its original name was quite deliberately marketing led...

Piggywaspushed To be honest I’ve not actually been to Coventry but Google Earth didn’t change my image of it.DS likes wild camping and hiking so not entirely sure it’s a fit.
I didn’t even know he had applied for Uni really. He wanted to join the army after college and do computing for them. He’s seems he’s applied to one’s that have less stringent entrance ; Reading, Warwick, Portsmouth and some random one near Bristol “ because it’s close to Wales” 🙄.

He’s more concerned about getting a career afterwards than prestige. And finding somewhere to pitch his basha.

I am v confused...Warwick has very stringent admissions processes!

@lightisnotwhite you might find these two threads useful:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4384985-Mumsnet-University-League-Tables-2021

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4287321-Particularly-fantastic-less-conventional-undergrad-degree-courses

I am v confused...Warwick has very stringent admissions processes!

It’s popular with people who have actually visited it.

General university league tables really don't tell you anything, as some of the metrics are not very informative – entry standards, for example, don't tell you anything about the quality of the course or the teaching or how employable graduates are; research quality is largely irrelevant to teenage undergraduates (though much more so for post-grad degrees); student satisfaction could be as much to do with how good the parties are as the pastoral care etc etc.

Subject-specific league tables are a bit more useful but still have their limitations unless you really drill down into them. You can find pockets of excellence in some unusual places while others hide under-performing departments in an overall high ranking.

And what about student choice. St. Andrews does well on the back of William and Kate, yet my DC's visited for a day out, from their uni and were so underwhelmed. It is such a small place to have so many students. Quite claustrophobic for some.

@LanaSQ

And what about student choice. St. Andrews does well on the back of William and Kate, yet my DC's visited for a day out, from their uni and were so underwhelmed. It is such a small place to have so many students. Quite claustrophobic for some.

Yet it scores highest for student satisfaction.

Some students feel lost in a large city. Everyone is looking for something different and that’s great.

I wish this prestige thing wasn't such a thing - but I suppose it is natural to rank stuff. I didn't grow up here could not understand what the whole Russell Group was about and why people kept saying 'well he's at a Russell Group uni'.
The top five ranking in the WORLD for my child's degree subject is at a university that is only middling overall, so subject rank is surely more important. No one is going to be impressed by the name outside her particular subject area.

There are a number of different leagues tables that provide different “top ten” universities and they all evaluate different.

The Guardian’s tends to consider student experience more than others which I don’t value that much as there are universities that have amazing student experience scores but score low in academic stuff. The Times one, Best University Guide and UniStats are in my opinion, a bit better. There is also the QS World Rankings.

There are universities that have a lot of old world prestige and score high in local leagues but if observed in detail they are far from being as good as some new universities that do not have such background (ie. St Andrews has a very competitive entry but scores much lower in world rankings than other British universities.

If you are selecting the “top ten” to send a child there, I strongly advise you check the best university for the subject they are interested in rather than the university as a whole.

Ps. And also remember that you need to find the best university… the one that better matches your child’s ability, needs and interests.

I find it interesting that not much changes. Back in 1987, I applied to Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham, York and Warwick. I'd probably choose them again today.

DD has looked primarily at her subject and at the graduate recruitment figures, particularly into the fields/companies she's interested in and their graduate salaries.

She's also taken into account bursaries and likelihood of getting work as I'm divorced and currently a full time carer and although she'll qualify for full loans she doesn't want to finish uni with any more debt than absolutely necessary.

Depends on the subject, but generally Russell Group

Op I am a graduate of both St. Andrews and Cambridge and I can tell you from firsthand experience that St Andrews is better in every way (in my opinion).

Better teaching, better social life, better accommodation, much more beautiful.

I would much prefer my kids to go there!

I also have experience of an American institution, and I would also place that above Cambridge.

Durham as a place for Oxbridge rejects amuses me because there are people who get rejected from
Durham who find their way into Cambridge (my son for one!!).

@KirstenBlest

Depends on the subject, but generally Russell Group

Why?

I’ve studied at 7 different universities including 2x Russell Group ones. From personal experience I’d rank one of the RG ones bottom of the list of universities I’ve studied at. Generally for UG students it’s meaningless. Apart from possibly future employers thinking positively about applicants who have studied there.