Sheffield or Glasgow for politics and IR?

[Smartysmitty]

DS can't decide between the two, any views would be welcome! He has unconditional offers from both (grades in hand) and dismissed other options that are at a campus university. He started at another uni last autumn but dropped out at Christmas and wants to get it right this time.

The op is not looking at sociology. The Guardian always has odd rankings and if the op has found The Guardian, it’s not difficult to find other tables.

Students union in Sheffield was always a massive draw for students. Cheep booze and ents.

I know the Train and flight routes v well between Glasgow and London. For instance this weekend there are train repairs on the Avanti mainline and so travel by rail has to be via Edinburgh and adds over an hour - circa six hours. There is also a rail dispute on ScotRail. Travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh is subject to cancellation.
The flights up and down this weekend are ££.
This is not unusual. If your DC likes to come home frequently this needs to be factored.
Glasgow may offer him a year abroad as part of his package. This is worth considering.

As long as you book EasyJet in advance it’s not expensive. My DS does it for £22 one way without luggage. (Amazing how many clothes you can wear lol)

Just have to be organised to book ahead.

Apologies everyone, I'm clearly a complete chump despite having been to one of your 'elite' universities. Actually the guardian is the only uni guide I've seen that has a separate ranking for IR

I have a child studying politics and IR at Sheffield. They’re privately educated and slightly left of centre. It has been absolutely wonderful for them. Sheffield is v highly regarded and they’ve walked into an excellent grad job in politics mainly through excellent contracts with their lecturers. It’s also v cheap, very pretty and great socially

If you base everything on league tables you may well end up with a very unhappy child

🙁What a shame!

Just on travel / Glasgow from the SE, DD won't fly (climate reasons), so she's always on the train. We've managed to find reasonable tickets by trying different days and times or booking 2 singles instead of a return and obviously a railcard helps. 4.5 hours on the fastest trains and she reckons it would take her as long to fly (ie factoring in getting to the airport/ through customs, etc). I've done it a couple of times now too and I enjoy it - a chance to read and watch the world go by!

@Smartysmitty Yes but most IR courses are taught alongside politics. It’s often a joint degree with politics. So other tables are worth a look.

I agree tables don’t give you all the info for an individual DC. Ambience and city/campus make a big difference to many. Different students have very different experiences on the same course and then getting work. Some walk into jobs and have contacts via lecturers that most others don’t seem to get. Many unis flag up opportunities for students to apply for, but not everyone gets what they want or personal support. A friend's DC struggled for months after a master’s in public policy (after politics undergrad at Sheffield) and then the pay was very low. These well paid super jobs are very difficult to secure.

I’m a Glasgow grad (not politics) and loved it. One of DC went to Sheffield and also loved it, they now live there, and still love the city. I think it’s got one of the highest student retention rates. I’d never been to Sheffield before their open day, but obviously have been loads since, and it’s great, loads of parks, housing is cheap ( they have a 3 double bedroom terrace that cost £200k and is lovely) and good night life.

Housing isn’t cheap in popular areas. 500k for a semi.

Glasgow also has a very broad first 2 years for IR- looks like 2/3 of the first year has to be other subjects, and same in yr 2. So wouldn't be ideal if you didn't really want to do other subjects. Progression onto the honours isn't automatic, but I don't know what's required apart from passing all modules.

Most Scottish unis offer the options to study different subjects to give students a broad education

You can only progress to IR Honours if you have used the UCAS code for IR - as the lecturer explained it at the recent offer holder day you can move from IR to another subject like Politics but you can't move into IR from another subject for Honours. if you want to do a joint degree the choices to go with IR are more limited than other social sciences

More info on IR specification is on https://www.gla.ac.uk/t4/progspecs/files/2023/MASociallSciencesHonoursInternationallRelationsL250-23088SingleDec20188L250-2308(1))_(2).pdf

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Lots of fairly decent areas in Sheffield are cheap though. Not Fulwood obviously but many terraced houses are cheap and good enough.

Depends how you define decent. Ds couldn’t buy a terrace for love nor money. They are advertised under the asking price, then developers swoop in and buy them in cash. Knocks everyone else out.
Outside s6, 8, 10,11,17 they might be cheaper.
Terraces are harder to buy than semi’s. And buying in good catchment sends them through the roof.

Yes but uni students staying on are not looking for good catchments. They just want a house.

Do they?

None of DS’s friends from uni bought in dodgy areas.

They all congregated round Meersbrook, Walkley or Abbeydale. The didn’t want to live in Gleadless or Firth Park

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Theres plenty of flats all over the place in decent areas. Obviously not everyone wants cheap areas or flats: I get that! Neither would I. Uni expansion makes more houses taken by students so fewer around to buy and price goes up.

That said if you are a teacher or state employee staying in Sheffield is a cheaper option than coming to the SE!

You can get a perfectly decent Victorian house with 3 beds for under £250,000 in a good enough area. £1/2 million is not necessary. What 22 year olds can afford that? Meersbrook and Heely, Nether Edge are all possible at £1/4 million.

Where? Not in a nice area.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow In a road I know very well! Nice is subjective isn’t it? How do just graduated folk afford £1/2 million? They just don’t. I’m not sure how Glasgow property prices stack up but Sheffield is still relatively cheap.