Unis for Computer science (North-ish)

[TerribleWoman]

Hi
DS is predicted A* in maths and computing and A in psychology. He is also doing a voluntary further maths AS in year 13 for fun.

GCSES are 99987777766

He wants to be within a couple of hours of our Manchester home (this is wise as he has a health condition) and to do either computer science or joint maths and computer science. Open to year in industry but not a deal breaker.

We have these unis on radar
Lancaster
York
Sheffield
Leeds
Birmingham
Liverpool
Nottingham

(Don't really want to stay in Manchester which is a shame as I think otherwise it would be about right!)

Can anyone in the know do some kind of ranking of these unis?
As far as I can tell Lancaster is much higher in the rankings than most people think. But is that just them saying so?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2024/sep/07/best-uk-universities-for-computer-science-information-systems-league-table hi

I think it's probably just to keep everything compact. East is more modern and it's where the popular accommodation is. There's life at all the colleges.

Was this a term time Open Day?

No it was last weekend

It makes a huge difference if students aren't about at campus unis, I think!

I've got 2 kids working in this field recommending Manchester, York and Durham.
As a wild card Aston is also great for CS. One of mine did the AI masters there and walked straight into a £50k role. Salary doubled in 2 years and they were very impressed with the quality of the teaching

Computer science at Nottingham is based in the Jubilee campus which is a lot less nicer than the main University Park campus.

Which is why it did not make our shortlist after open day :(

What is DS’ current thinking, OP?

@poetryandwine his favourite is still Lancaster by some way.

He liked Leeds and Liverpool too (Liverpool the general vibe and Leeds because he got talking to a member of the academic staff). Off to Birmingham this weekend - that's the last one.

We did visit Manchester but the talk felt quite corporate and impersonal, glossy but no heart. York and Nottingham he didn't where the department was on the campus. Sheffield he quite liked but didn't love....not sure why.

Lancaster has an excellent reputation for Computer Science - I've a close relation who did their PhD there and is now a Senior Lecturer there. If you like a campus Uni it's a great choice.

I think very highly of Lancaster for STEM, OP. And they have done a huge amount of Teaching and Learning Development in recent years. Students are happy there. Sounds like DS has great taste.

Birmingham has a beautiful campus IMO and as I said above the CS is tops. But it is something of an outlier within STEM there. TBH I don’t see this making much difference at the UG level. But who knows what DS will think of the place?

Liverpool is also lovely. Leeds is not about the campus architecture, but friendly staff are much more important!

I think DS is spot on about Manchester. It always feels a bit soulless to me. In the last few years they’ve introduced a new admin layer. I think, but am not sure, it is called Schools. So there used to be the School of CS in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Now there is the Dept of CS is the School of Engineering (I think) within the Faculty.

My friends in STEM Depts don’t like it at all. Student admin used to be done in eg the School of CS, where students could develop relationships. Now students in all the Engineering Depts work with a (reduced) core staff in the School of Engineering. It is impersonal at best. And staff support works the same way.

Anyway, DS is in an excellent position. I hope he enjoys B’ham, whatever he decides

Hi, OP -

It has just come to my attention that B’ham is running a Voluntary Severance scheme and staff morale seems to be pretty low generally.

CS is one of their top programmes and they would do well to appreciate and protect it. Whether they are, I cannot say. Just a thought.

Leeds is not about the campus architecture

But by 'eck, there's a wonderful range of it to look at.

Not something necessarily to be factored in when considering which university for a subject, of course, nor likely to be factored in much at all by the average 18 year old, admittedly. But if the course looks appealing, Leeds is a great place to be a student. (Or a 60-something visiting mum, for that matter). It does help not to be a poor student, but that could be said for anywhere these days, and there are part-time jobs available. DD regretfully didn't put Leeds as her firm for undergrad (but shrewdly, as she accurately predicted not achieving the non-negotiable subject-specific A in her offer), but is there now doing an LLM and so far really enjoying it.

Rent-wise (if thinking of second year onwards) she is paying c.£130 pw including bills, about a mile walk from campus.

Sorry, can't help with CS there though. One of DS1's friends did CS at Birmingham, but that was a few years ago.

I saw this - thank you.
In the end we couldn't attend the open day due to a family emergency but DS thinks he will put it as his final choice and attend the offer holder day if he gets one.

I loved Leeds but I did notice that the student satisfaction in general is low and that there was a severe impact of lecturer strikes on degree grades being awarded etc. so I am not pushing DS too hard on choosing it over Lancs ATM.

I would be wary of placing too much weight on student satisfaction surveys. Some universities are better than others at playing the NSS game.