University of Keele vs Surrey vs Sussex

[Selok]

Above are my DDs choices as she likes the courses there especially Keele as it offers joint degree. She is looking to apply for forensic science and neuroses in Keele, chemistry with forensic investigations in Surrey and neuroscience in Sussex- her stretches are Edinburgh and Cardiff for neuroscience. Anyone know about Keele? Any ideas on what joint/double honours degree? TIA

Keele is a lovely campus university if that would suit your dd. It seems like a very easy place to live as a student and private sector rents n Newcastle under Lyme aren't too bad for after first year.

She definitely wants to go to a campus university and I read a lot of good things about Keele and the course she is very keen too. Thanks for your reply much appreciated

Edinburgh is not a campus but the course can be flexible to in lude modules form other courses ie Law

I think Sussex and Surrey might rank way above Keele if that matters

Thanks for all replies. I am a bit confused about rankings, same universities rank differently ie completeuniversityguide, guardian, times education, I guess their criteria must differ

The Guardian is an outlier. It ranks using different data. Complete or Times are better.

None are RG. So look closely at employment data and who actually gets work after the degrees. Are they over promising? The A level grades required tend to tell you which is more popular. I’d rather be in Bournemouth or Brighton over Newcastle under Lyme any day of the month or week!

Chemistry at Surrey looks good because it looks broader but if these are vocational degrees, do the students get jobs? If so. What?

I went to Sussex and loved it. A gorgeous campus university 10 minutes on the train to Brighton which is a great place to be young! It was very academic and respected when I was there.

I heard Sussex in fact very good and apparently Surrey is ranking very good for graduate employability. DD likes the idea of Keele as two favourite subjects in one degree and it is a combined degree- is it any good? Not sure!

I went to Keele and loved it. Look at how the teaching for individual courses is ranked, you may well find its on a par with or even better than that for the same courses at RG universities. I've been to Surrey too for shorter courses.

Many students at Keele fall in love with the place - its a stunning campus and the largest in the UK. Interesting history too and good accommodation. The biggest thing it needs to overcome is that it is still relatively unknown which means it fights against the reputations of older RG universities but this shouldn't be taken to mean that its not a match.

Its dual honours approach is very popular and makes it unique and certainly help students stand out in the graduate market. It also gives it parallels to the US model of study as it allows for breadth of study too. There are a number of students each year who opt to change 1 or both of their subjects and the breadth of the dual honours system is a definite benefit to them. The administration there was much better than that which I experienced at RG universities.

Also check out the lecturers on the degrees your DC is interested in - you might find they're well respected in their fields. Student satisfaction is very high- Keele frequently scores highly (or highest) in national rankings for this. Don't underestimate the importance or this- a good teacher, or a happy and well supported student has better chances of success than one who is strung out and miserable.

My other choices btw were RG universities and one of the reasons I opted for Keele is because I felt I'd put myself under too much pressure in some of the others (being very Type A).

Keele presented me with freedom of opportunity to grow and explore my young adulthood that I didn't feel I'd get with others. I also preferred the course syllabus there beyond those at my other options and the teaching on my subjects at Keele was ranked as a match with Oxford.

Should point out I've studied at RG universities too as a post graduate.

Do Keele still operate a foundation year? When I went there I thought this was an excellent idea. Gave you a chance to try subjects you wouldn’t have had a chance to try at A level, and then the opportunity to switch over to them if you found you preferred it to your original choice. After having a son drop out of two (expensive) university courses after finding they weren’t what he thought they’d be, I wish all universities ran this way.

@MsGrahamCheese many thanks for your post, very much appreciate it. I guess this is what I was expecting to hear. I was thinking two subjects in a degree, will they get half of each and not get the full education of neither but then I read in few other places as well that this is not the case. In fact as you said, this would enhance their knowledge and make them more employable. I rather her to study the course that she enjoys, place where she will feel safe and comfortable and she will get a good quality education - I guess everyone wants this. We are attending open day at Keele this Sunday, and we are off to Edinburgh the week after. I know Edinburgh isn't a campus university but the course there is good too.

Let us know what you think on the open day - I really fell in love with it then.

Biggest downside was its proximity to Stoke on trent - no disrespect to those who live there, the locals I met were all lovely and deeply invested in their community but its a very deprived area.

Having said that, keele students very much lived in the Keele Bubble- the campus is pretty well self sufficient and it wasn't hard to find suitable and safe accommodation when we moved off campus. Likewise, a student at any city based university is going to have to learn to be aware and that there may be certain places you don't walk alone at night and I don't think it was very different to parts of other large towns like Reading, for example. The halls in Stoke were gated and secure- I had friends living there - and don't forget there's a second student population: Staffs Uni is based in Stoke.

Keele used to run a nightbus to return students back to their homes off campus after the SU closed, I'd assume they still do but in a pinch taxis were easy to book and inexpensive. Generally students stuck to campus, Newcastle under Lyme and surrounding villages and Hanley. Never had any problems at Stoke Station either. Proximity to Manchester & Birmingham is good for variety or if DC wants to moonlight at their uni libraries.

Re the double degrees, they can combine really well and mine ended up compliementing each other brilliantly. They used to run a programme in the first year where students took a small selection of other classes too. In pretty much anything you can think of and didn't have to be related to degree choice.

I think they discontinued it a few years back which is a real shame and it was a fantastic addition to the degrees, allowing students to explore other interests. Some even changed their degrees based on it. If I were you I'd ask if they operated anything similar now.

I'm a bit out of touch with it these days but I believe Keele are still focusing on being a science/med based centre. The medical school there is still comparatively new and the campus is host to a science park which conducts interesting research. An aids vaccine (iirc) was developed there a few years back. My point is that facilities for her subjects ought to be good!

Sorry this post is so long- lots of happy memories! Some of my closest friendships now were forged there :)

DS is doing neuroscience and considered some of these unis.

I would say have a good look at the courses as some places have a very broad biology first year with no neuroscience - Cardiff and Edinburgh are both like this I think. In Edinburgh it might even be two years of biology before you specialise. This is great if it's what your DD wants but DS really wanted to be doing neuroscience from Y1.

(Cardiff is also not a campus uni.)

DS didn't do chemistry A level, but if he had he would have applied to UCL which is supposed to be best in Europe for neuroscience.

I really liked Keele for a backup as the grade requirements are a bit lower iirc and some people seem to love it there, but he hated the campus unfortunately.

Sussex is good for neuroscience, better than its ranking suggests. They have Anil Seth teaching there and some other exciting research / people. This was a possible for DS but it's a real pain for us to get to and the campus, while lovely, felt a bit too far out of town for his liking.

One of the problems with neuroscience is that not that many places offer it and the grades required can be very similar. DS applied to Nottingham, Exeter, Queen Mary, Aston and Sussex and ended up with offers of AAB, 3xABB, BBB. He firmed Nottingham AAB and insured Aston BBB.

I would recommend Aston actually, the neuroscience course is great there, very practical and has a compulsory year in industry. Plus I have heard about a couple of alumni doing very impressive things. Part of me was secretly hoping DS would miss the grades for Nottingham and go there instead!

One further thought is that it might be difficult to write a convincing PS to cover neuroscience and chemistry with forensic investigations, they are so different! If she's interested in both, it might be better to go for the Keele forensics/neuroscience joint hons and stick to either forensics or neuroscience for the other choices?

@Selok
Keele do neuroscience. I’m not sure why she’s looking at so many different courses. Most joint degrees are not 50% of their components. Core subjects for both and then options but it’s usually more than 50%. More like 2/3 in some subjects. Depends on overlap.

@MsGrahamCheese thank you so much for your lovely post, very much appreciated I will definitely share our views after Sunday open day. @TizerorFizz she is looking at only neuroscience as her subject and Keele has the only one that has forensic science which she finds the subject and lab element fascinating. Oh of course Surrey is Chemistry with forensics- this might change maybe to a neuroscience. At the moment her first choice Keele, then Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sussex - 5th one keep changing-

I did a post graduate qualification at Keele and loved it. The campus is a lovely environment to study in.

I went to Sussex, it’s an absolutely beautiful campus and I loved living in Brighton in 2nd and 3rd years. I was surprised though that lots and lots of people studying there lived in London and went home most weekends, campus was very very quiet at the weekend. I found friends who weren’t Londoners, and had a lovely time, but I’m not sure I would have chosen it had I known that.

I did my first degree at Keele (masters at university of Bath) and I loved it. Lovely campus, safe and friendly. In my second year I rented a house in Newcastle, which was fine. I had a car though, and I don’t r know what it would have been like there with no car.

Have you actually been to Keele? I cannot see why anyone would go there over Guildford or Edinburgh. So much more for students elsewhere. I wouldn’t get wedded to a course and lecturers who might leave. Edinburgh as a university is rated far more highly as its neuroscience course. Keele is much lower.

At the moment her first choice Keele, then Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sussex - 5th one keep changing-

I think the trouble with this is that Keele will probably make the lowest offer out of those four so she may end up with no real insurance choice. If she really wants to go to Keele is there any point in applying to universities with higher requirements? It might be worth investigating one or two places that might offer lower?

Agree that she needs to visit Keele if she hasn't already as it might be a bit marmite. Also if she wants campus then Edinburgh and Cardiff are not it.

(Other good campus unis for neuroscience include Warwick, Leeds, Leicester, Birmingham, Southampton..)

Thanks all for all comments which are very helpful. She is predicted BBB at the moment but she is working towards upping her chemistry to A, she is working very closely with her teacher, he said if she gets A in her topic tests he will change her prediction to A, so she will be predicted hopefully ABB, not enough for Birmingham, Southampton etc they are all AAA! This is really a very difficult process, I was thinking choosing GSCEs were bad then worse came A level choices now this is mind blowing, insurance, firm, etc

So if any options are AAA she’s wasting time looking at them. Leicester might be lower but not sure about RG universities mentioned above. She would need to look. What tariff is Edinburgh? I cannot think that’s BBB either. Or ABB? It’s no good aiming high for 4/5.

Ah DS was the same, he didn't think he'd get AAA (and predicted AAB) so didn't apply to the ones with high standard offers.

Might be worth looking at Warwick, standard offer is AAB normally but drops to ABB if she is doing two sciences. They also have quite a wide contextual offers system so DS would have ended up with an offer of BBB from there. I feel like that's a bit of a bargain, and the campus is lovely, neuroscience is taught on the medical campus which is a short walk through a lovely little wood from the main campus. He decided not to apply though as they do the broad biology first year and he wanted to be doing neuroscience straight away.