Which universities in the UK are “prestigious”? Or does it depend on the course?

[Icelolly44]

Is it related to general league tables, or league tables for the course? (These seem to change a lot year on year so are they reliable?)

Is it related to being Russell Group?

Does it matter if you go to a prestigious uni or not if you come out with a degree at the end of it from both?

Does it improve you employment chances or eventually the salary you can command?

If you have a likelihood of high grades, is it better to go to somewhere deemed more prestigious or with higher entry requirements than somewhere with a comparable course with lower entry requirements, if you got a good feel for both.

DD is panicking about which choice to firm for a science subject- with 5 offers of varying grades- she has narrowed it down to 4. Loved them all on offer days and would enjoy all. Should prestige or league tables make the final decision, or should it be where she may have a better social life?

Thanks, you’ve basically summarised our thought processes over the past few weeks! We were going round in circles so thought I’d gauge other opinions/advice!

I think this sounds a good plan

That sounds good.

They are all good. Russell group is irrelevant. Any of these is as good as each other.

What does this mean? You recruit lot at a university non academic side.

Non teaching, presumably.

@Icelolly44

there was also this thread from a few months back which you may also find of interest. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4680961-are-there-any-other-prestigous-universities-in-the-uk-apart-from-from-oxbridge

Thanks I’ll look

Prestige doesn’t really apply though does it? They are all perfectly good.

I think DD really needs to analyse the type of person she is. What would a social life look like? Cooking in her flat, chatting over a coffee or seeing an exhibition or going to the cinema? Sport is offered everywhere. What about watching sport? What about the odd happy hour?

Some things are not easy to judge. Safety for example. Who really knows? If you are risk averse you would not leave a campus. Most students would benefit from becoming a bit streetwise.

Does she like action, movement, noise, people, shops, clubs? Does she prefer small groups, beautiful surrounds, close to green spaces, pubs?

Okay, so Birmingham, then. Definitely all of that to be had there. Plus masses of post-1st year accommodation, plenty in the grid of streets off the local section of Bristol Road, so less than 15 minutes' walk away. Lots of green spaces around the area, as well as the university campus itself.

UoB Biological Sciences courses are Royal Society of Biology accredited, if that makes a difference (don't know about the others as our only 'pure scientist' undergrad - BSc Biochemistry - didn't look at any of the others on the OP's list). There is also a 'with Placement Year' option but not sure whether that was applied for?

In terms of prestige, Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial. They are well renowned across all subjects, which is why they are 'prestigious'. Then for STEM, it's Manchester, Warwick and Bristol and then all the rest Russell Group.

It depends obviously on where your DC feels happiest and where they are likely to do well. You can be at the most prestigious university in the world, but if you're not happy, you won't get a good degree.

Some things are not easy to judge. Safety for example. Who really knows? If you are risk averse you would not leave a campus. Most students would benefit from becoming a bit streetwise.

These things do change, but I remember looking up the crime stats for the street DS1's partner lived in in final year in B29, just across from thevUoB campus, and the postcode for the Oxford college that another poster's DC was looking at. And presumably making assumptions about (which was why I looked). They would have been disappointed.

Definitely agree with the last statement, though, @TizerorFizz .

@MarchingFrogs
Its really difficult to judge who crime is aimed at . Dsis had property broken into in both Salford and Sheffield as a student. Of course the “answer” is to have better locks. In a student property or rented property, it’s difficult. So hiding laptops etc away is good sense.

Are the bars a bit too rowdy late at night? Always go with a friend or two and get a taxi back. The truth is, probably, that a lot of crime is resident vs resident. Or opportunistic for drug money. My DDs were always able to suss out someone they felt uncomfortable being near on a train. They change carriages. Move away on a bus. Don’t show off anything fancy. Do not get into arguments. It’s difficult for sheltered young people not used to a city to get the hang of taking care of yourself and belongings. However crime is not routinely directed at students and of course bad behaviour happens on campus too. It’s just different!

We've been over this before. I mentioned it as one criteria. One of the lengthy list of criteria. As it goes, it was the one DS pretty much overlooked. If one is procrastinating, it is one thing to consider. Crime stats in university neighbourhoods are easily found with a Google. Don't want to know, don't look it up. Simple. But it is a place you are going to live for three years so you have to look at it in the round.

Many people don’t know what they want to do after university. Their degree will be giving them skills for all kinds of work, and who knows if a niche area might end up being chosen, that favours a particular lesser known uni or course.

On that basis, going somewhere well-known and high in the general uni league tables, doesn’t seem a bad idea, if there are several that offer course content that appeals.

Having DC who dont know what they want to do (but are academically strong with top grades) we look at unis which are good for that subject but also appear in the RG or RG+ lists. We visit and decide if campus or city appeal and which course content appeals. If it’s a toss up between a couple, we will probably go with the one that it’s highest ranking in general terms. It’s about keeping doors open to a range of possibilities in future. To be honest, all the well-regarded unis probably do this and increasingly with uni-blind applications, it might not matter. But having a top university in your CV in the early days of a career before much experience has been gained, never hurts, and in some occupations still helps.

The answer is, it depends! Not helpful I know. But the most important thing for our dc us to pick a course and location they can thrive at because a poor classification of degree, or worse, not finishing, is far worse than attending a mid range university they do brilliantly at (not everyone is suited to the hothouse atmosphere of oxbridge for instance).

Start with the course, they type of institution eg city, campus, rural, then finally match the options available to the grade expectations is my advice (two kids gone through university and ex is a lecturer). Attempting a course you aren't interested in because it's higher in the league table is a mistake

In terms of prestige, Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial.

🤔I'm not sure what UCL is doing in there. It is trendy, woke agenda pushing, Tavistock HQ and gets on the news a lot because of it's location and media contacts. A lot of the teaching and a lot of the students are middle-of-the-road.

Imperial, more likely.

@Sudeko What has the Tavistock clinic got to do with general courses at UCL? Hasn’t it been closed anyway? What a load of nonsense.

@Piggywaspushed
When were crime stats discussed? I must have brain fog!

You mentioned crime because I as a PP had mentioned making a lost of criteria and I listed some we had used, includibg safety. You then did a whole post about crime?

marching also mentioned crime stats tizer....

So many typos. Sorry. Should say ... I , as a PP, mentioned making a list.

BTW Tizer, I agree with you re UCL. And comments on UCL or Imperial not helpful in any way to OP anyway.

Actually I would say at Loughborough it is very easy to play sport because as well as elite teams they have a whole host of leagues at all levels and have facilities they may not access elsewhere. As long as able students realise they may not be 1st team like they may elsewhere there is still the chance of a good competitive sport life there (as well as off campus social life albeit not on par with city ones mentioned).

I guess it depends what you expect your sport to be. Some do think Loughborough is too sporty for ordinary sporty people to get much out of it. I guess it depends what you want from sport. For ordinary folk a broader mix of sport and socialising might be better.

My two eldest went to Bath and Leeds - very similar sport focussed course. I don't think the one who went to Bath had a poor social life in comparison to Leeds - quite the opposite in fact! She was the social sec for the Bath jets and they were very active. The university is just up the hill from the small city and in years 2-4 they lived in the city anyway.

With respect to sports - both Bath and Loughborough are home to different specific national sporting bodies, e.g. British Swimming (incl. Diving waterpolo sync swimming) is at Loughborough so all the swimmers on the talent development programmes tend to go there. So that might be worth checking out where her sport is based.

Excellent job prospects from both Leeds and Bath - one walked straight into a job with a national sporting body the other did a placement year and most of her friends got job offers from their placement. All doing well several years later!

Just to add, they both got offers from Loughborough, Durham and Sheffield as well as Bath and Leeds but chose the latter two as the best for their specific sports.