Oxford Brookes

[Flows]

DS has an offer for sports science for this year. Wondered if anyone has any experience of the uni?

We are obsessed with finding division in this country when we would be far better advised to rub along with everyone. When you go to work, you have to.
Clearly it's good to make an effort to get on with other people, but I do think different universities have different cultures. I have no experience of Oxford Brookes so don't know what the culture is there. However, if students have to rent privately in the second/third year, I can well imagine that Oxford rents might put off some students on a tight budget.

As for it not mattering where someone went to school, I do think experience of secondary education will have a profound impact on the outlook of most young people. As I said previously, that's not to say people from different backgrounds can't make friends, but I think students' backgrounds can certainly influence the culture of an institution.

@Boosterquery
Surely it’s better to go to any university with an open mind and not be tribal? I think state school pupils are a majority at every single university so they set the culture. They are the culture. If others went to school elsewhere they are firmly in a minority. So why is the majority remotely concerned about them? Or even bother to see themselves as different? I actually think some people enjoy avoiding other students for very immature reasons.

Why does background have to remain an important way to define someone at university anyway? We do know many people leave a poor background behind them after university and have used it as a great springboard, so why should anyone be intimidated by a minority at university? It makes no sense. In my view parents should firmly avoid the “not for the likes of us” mantra. If they don’t, DC will never get to the best universities which they consider off limits. It quite clearly stops social mobility that most people actively want.

@TizerorFizz

Why? First time degree students can get the student loan.

The maintenance loan was notenough to cover the rent.

Well most people are in this position aren’t they? Minimum loan rarely covers rent. Students have parents to cover the difference. Taking out a commercial loan is bonkers. Most people who don’t have enough money from parents have part time jobs or live at home. Really poor people get full maintenance loans and bursaries from the university and can end up with more money than “just about managing” parents.

I meant to add/ maximum maintenance loan and a bursary from the uni really does cover rent and more unless the student is very high maintenance.

@TizerorFizz

Well most people are in this position aren’t they? Minimum loan rarely covers rent. Students have parents to cover the difference. Taking out a commercial loan is bonkers. Most people who don’t have enough money from parents have part time jobs or live at home. Really poor people get full maintenance loans and bursaries from the university and can end up with more money than “just about managing” parents.

Its not that simple. Either way, it was a deciding factor as to why Dd chose Cardiff over OB, rents were half of Oxford. Her friend was a midwife, and working not so easy. She worked in summer but health staff got lower maintenance grants even with bursaries.

50 week rents will always be needed by some students on some degrees. However it is not true to say Cardiff is half the price of OB. Rents at OB start at £4500. Cardiff therefore cannot be half the price for a sports science student. The OP would be misled by your insistence that OB is £8000 for accommodation when it’s plainly not.

The rent at Cardiff was about 4k , Ob was 8 k , we are not stupid , did rounds of uni with 2 dc. DD just qualified, so case was 3 years ago and looked at OB for both
Cardiff was really cheap but it is suddenly started to be more expensive

Rents at OB start at £4500

To be fair the £4500 accommodation is awful, or are we not supposed to care if we are on a tighter budget?

It's also not on campus . The one you quote is also a bit disingenuous as it is an outlier.

Clive Booth (on campus at Headington although tucked away a bit) is pretty basic and is £6170 for 38 weeks.

OB has lots of good things - but the quality and cost of accommodation is not a strength.

If you want to be where the buzz is - which is Cheney- you are tied into the 50 week contract and this is £8000. OBU really does need to tackle this. The buzzy central campus near sports facilities etc should not just be for the most moneyed.

No one said the accommodation had to be the best. But it’s wrong to say OB is double. It’s not. Lots of places are £6000 plus now eg Liverpool.

Yes, agreed : many people are very surprised by the cost of Liverpool accommodation.

Not sure quite how the unis justify it tbh.

@froufroufrou

It’s a Mickey Mouse ‘university’. Seriously consider the future job prospects before your DC gets into debt going there.

What?!! It's always been highly respected in many subject areas eg architecture, law, accounting, hospitality, modern languages. Back in the day when I was at college and it was still a poly, some of the courses had entry requirements not much lower than its near neighbour, Oxford University. Even then, when there was a snobbery about polytechnics, it was considered better than many universities. Its architecture course is one of the best in the UK and some of its courses are ranked in the top 10 worldwide.

It’s not in the Russell Group and therefore fits MY definition of “Mickey Mouse.”
Others will see differently.

That's ridiculous; for a start , as tizer said the RG don't all offer sports science. Not all university bound DS have RG grades. And as an example, St Andrew's and Bath, amongst other prestigious institutions, aren't Russell Group.

It's not a helpful - or kind- thing to the OP to comment when her DS has already applied to these places.

Before the RG existed , what judgments did people make? How on earth could they apply their crass measures?

Is the University of St Andrews a Mickey Mouse university, @froufroufrou? Reading? Bath? What about SOAS? How do you feel about University of London degrees? Half of the University of London colleges are Russell Group, half of them aren't...

Fortunately, employers don't share your narrow mindedness. As much as I agree that checking graduate destinations/employability is important, the Russell Group universities aren't always the best.

@froufroufrou

It’s not in the Russell Group and therefore fits MY definition of “Mickey Mouse.” Others will see differently.

Ah, the Kimpton Fitzroy London Group.

How do you feel about Durham? Along with Exeter, York and (okay, perhaps we'll skip that one) QMUL, it continued to be a Mickey Mouse university for 18 years after the original lobby group's first coffee mornings.

Well aren’t YOU an absolute arse?

Message to Froufroufrou just in case that wasn’t absolutely obvious.

Sorry but

@froufroufrou

It’s not in the Russell Group and therefore fits MY definition of “Mickey Mouse.” Others will see differently.

If you think all RG universities are de facto better than all non-RGs for every subject, you quite clearly don't know what you are talking about.

Re. Oxford Brookes, its automotive engineering course is widely considered the best way into motorsports – a lot of F1 and other teams have bases in the area and have direct input into the Brookes course, and as a result often recruit directly from there as they know its students will have the knowledge they value. That's just one example.