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?

I agree with @SeasonFinale Loughborough is great for 'ordinary sporty people'. To say otherwise is just not true.

There are so many teams available - including hall teams and beginners courses for other sports that everyone finds their niche.

When my daughter had to choose we double checked the decision with her uncle and aunt, the latter was one of 15 scientists who made a Covid vaccine for Novavax. Her uncle is Phd Oxford. They both recommended Manchester even say, over Bristol or Kings as from their point of view (in the life science industry) it was more credible. For her particular course, it was considered higher than say, Birmingham but this was reflected in the required grades. Birmingham accepts lower marks for an EPQ. In any event, she will most likely not do a Post Grad but clearly her chosen university is fine from an employment point of view. She received 2 offers of internships from the big 4 and also has already worked at the BBC in Summer. For her Science course the best were Oxford, Cambridge UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester,Kings. She did not want to do 4 years in Edinburgh and there was more emphasis on biochemistry.

@Icelolly44 I have a lot of knowledge of university sport, both statistically and anecdotally. If you specify which sport(s) I can supply you with data…

FWIW DD2's best friend did a science degree at Bath (close to what your DD is planning to do), and loved it. She now works for the global science company where she did her placement year. I gather they went to Bristol if they wanted an occasional big night out clubbing. Bath is hilly, but if your DD is sporty anyway, that presumably won't bother her over much.

Just to add, on the sports front Loughborough still usually tops the overall sports league table on account of being consistently good across a wide range of different sports. However, it's only the absolute best for a handful of sports – you will more often than not find other universities top for, say, rugby, tennis, hockey, netball etc.

I used to work in a uni. Students drop out on theme first term because they are on the wrong course.
DD studied Biology. She discovered the focus of the courses varied widely between universities, eg mammals & fieldwork in one, microbiology & lab work in another etc. Get your DD to dig into the research interests of the profs to see which one aligns with her own interests.

The internationally accepted definition for a 'prestigious university' is a university which appears in the top 50 in all three of the world university rankings:

Times Higher Education world university rankings
Quacquarelli Symonds world university rankings
Academic ranking of world universities

Six UK universities appear in the Top 50 in all three of these rankings:
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
Imperial College London
UCL
The University of Edinburgh
King's College London

The UK government offers automatic UK visas (“high potential individual” route) to graduates of non-UK universities that appear in a the top fifty of two of the above rankings.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list-2022

Capital cities such as Edinburgh snd London seem to get over represented. You do not see Kings or Edinburgh outranking Durham or St Andrews very much, The world isn’t the same as UK ranking where CUG is also considered reliable. Never quite sure how top notch here is not considered the same worldwide. Maybe insufficient overseas students?

I went to Loughborough and had a fantastic and varied social life! I also played sport both for the university and for the hall - for which I got to play all sorts of sports in world class facilities.

They all look like good unis to me!

Yes I agree with this - it's partly because overseas students know where London/Edinburgh are but may not have heard of Durham or St Andrews - at least I have found that amongst the students I teach - unless they know the discipline well.

With the World rankings it is usually better to look at the individual subject rankings - in my RG uni the university is not in the top 50 but my Dept is in the top 10 on the world.

DD went with course content as her determining factor in the end. Most unis have good social lives going on. Bath/Bristol very expensive to live in-DDs friend is there and it’s not far off London prices for a pint.

I'd suggest the ranking is only one consideration. More important is to find out if the course, the location and culture of the uni fits the individual. What does she want to do after uni?

On a personal note, after 20 years of working with graduates, the most deluded are those with a second class honours from somewhere prestigious who consider that 'job done' and no longer need to prove themselves. The most impressive are the first class honours graduates, including those from former polytechnics, who have that drive to succeed.

@Robbiesraft What an utterly ridiculous generalisation! Honestly. The majority of students get a 2:1. From every university. The ones at former polytechnics are not necessarily better and have often gone to a former poly because they didn’t get the higher grades at A level. They haven’t proved themselves better at 18. They might do well on a less academic course and that’s fine but a generalisation that a 2:1 grad from RG or RG plus is lazy is just so silly! They might be just 1 mark off a first. How does 1 mark change their personality?

My anecdote is a friend’s DD got a first from Portsmouth. No job at all for a year after graduating! Subject matters!

Hmm, maybe it was an over generalisation. Although I still don't put too much trust in the name of a Uni to measure usefulness and creativity in the workplace.

Now, throw those exclamation marks at me!

Hi @TizerorFizz It’s all in the metrics used, I think. For example, the THE world rankings use international outlook as one of their 4 pillars, and I’m guessing that is always going to favour capital cities with a high proportion of overseas students and global connections over, say, Durham or Exeter for example.

‘Research’ is also a metric which, while obviously important to a university’s reputation, is generally of less relevance to a 19-year-old undergraduate than to a twentysomething post-graduate. Research quality is only relevant to an undergraduate if the professors and doctors carrying out that research are also lecturing or tutoring them; it’s by no means a given that this is always the case.

The QS world rankings have long been known to have a bias towards universities of a certain size, and also favour institutions which are more science-focused because they set a lot of store by ‘citations’ and these tend to be easier to achieve and more plentiful in science-based subjects. In fact, the QS rankings have controversies surrounding almost all the criteria they use in their rankings – to be fair, they have tried to address these, but concerns still remain. To give just one example, QS themselves admit that using the faculty-student ratio as a proxy for teaching commitment is less than satisfactory.

I would suggest that, in general, UK students would be better off using UK rankings tables than world rankings tables. As you rightly say, the CUG is as good as any, and better than most.

Well, there's also the Time Good University Guide behind that pesky paywall...

On a personal note, after 20 years of working with graduates, the most deluded are those with a second class honours from somewhere prestigious who consider that 'job done' and no longer need to prove themselves. The most impressive are the first class honours graduates, including those from former polytechnics, who have that drive to succeed.

My experience doesn't really reveal any correlation between degree class and employability. It's the ones who did something alongside their studies (volunteering, leading activities/captaining sports clubs, part-time jobs, etc.) who have demonstrated motivation & skills, collaborative working and the simple ability to turn up and do something when it needs to be done. The higher education achievement report (HEAR) would probably be more informative than the degree class if it were used consistently.

Haven't read through the posts however if it's for a really competitive course I would look at the .lower ranking unis a bit easier to get into where as if you go for all top unis you might not get an offer at all

@Thegoodbadandugly That's why students get 5 choices and should spread risk.

@thing47
Yes. I can see what you say makes sense. However at very good universities you do expect your lecturers to be experts on what they teach. I also think whether they are in world rankings makes little odds to most home based young people when choosing. I would definitely look at reliable tables here that take research into account but the world ones are a bit questionable.

I will pm you thanks