Guardian university rankings out yesterday

[TheJollyCoralEagle]

The Guardian University rankings were published yesterday (The Daily Mail rankings are out today as well, but I don't really want to reference that otherwise this might take a political detour which isn't relevant to the conversation)
The usual subjects are at the top. Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL, Durham etc. What is interesting is further down. Established, high ranking globally, Russell Group unis like Newcastle and Nottingham at 62nd and 63rd, but Chichester at 26th and Bolton at 32nd
And then the variation between the league tables. Bolton for example is 108th in the CUG and Chichester at 79th.
I know the Guardian uses different metrics to CUG (and the others) but the rankings must have some relevance to each other?
Some good advice is to go look at the subject league tables but even there, that isn't always useful. My son wants to do Quantity Surveying. Speaking to Quantity Surveyors in practice they generally regard Oxford Brookes as one of the top universities for Quantity Surveying yet Oxford Brookes comes in at 12th on the CUG Quantity Surveying rankings. And for Magic Circle law recruitment or investment banking for example, apparently the vast majority of their recruits come from a handful of targeted top universities, but some other universities feature highly in these relevant subject rankings.
I know rankings aren't important for everyone. Some people just want to go to a university that they like for the experience, the city, their friends are going there, it's close to home etc, but for students concerned about getting a job and having to choose between more than 100 universities it's a bit of a minefield!
I know recruiters aren't supposed to look at which university you went to, so maybe rankings aren't such a big factor in the job market any more, but let's not kid ourselves if rankings/reputation/kudos weren't important most students would be going to Leeds Beckett, Northumbria, LJU or Nottingham Trent to have a great social life!

https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2024/sep/07/the-guardian-university-guide-2025-the-rankings?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I agree £200 pw + rats/damp is entirely feasible, sadly, in quite a few student cities. There is such a scramble for accommodation and LLs see students as easy targets for sub-standard accommodation….

@Ghilliegums I queried it with rats! My DD was at Bristol. None of her friends had rats or dreadful accommodation. Maybe they were discerning? It’s a while ago and whilst her 4th year house was fairly basic it was clean and serviceable. There is plenty of accommodation for this money that’s fine. My DD just used agents and looked early. She spoke to the outgoing students. She would never accept shitty accommodation. You would be getting something good enough for £800 plus a month.

We've had rats, black mould and leaking roofs - not all in the same place. Three dcs. In the last three years. Between 180 and 200 a week. Bristol and Exeter.

I remember when I was a student one society newspaper kept a running total of mice caught in the house a few of them lived in. A friend in a nurses home in London had chicken wire across their windows to keep out pigeons and squirrels.

My DC accommodation doesn’t appear to have rats, none seen so far, but it is an old tenement. Rats are so unbiquitous in all cities it is easy to see how you could quickly have a problem with them if rubbish is not cleared by any of the flats in your row. Or if there were a council bin strike.

My sons' houses in Bristol did not have rats and that was relative recently but no one is saying all private rented accommodation for students is always of wonderful quality.

The issue of how employers differentiate and whether students should go to the best university they can or not bother with that and if as a society we should try to recruit equally even if some people are useless is always interesting. There have always been very good people in not very good universities but on the whole with the exception of a few people it tends to be the case for employers who want top graduates hiring those with the best exam results and universities and who also do well at the other tests imposed tends to work quite well, even if just to filter down the vast numbers applying for every rare graduate job. the FT had an article this week about the hoops through which employees are having to go in terms of vast amounts of time sometimes not even to be told they failed. Part of the issue is many more graduates, record numbers of people in the UK and counting and fierce competition.

@Ghilliegums That was very unlucky. We didnt know anyone with these issues. When DD was in Bristol in y2, landlord had 3 houses next to each other converted to flats and maintenance employee lived in one of them. Just a quick call away. Friendly and helpful. I think you have been unfortunate to have these issues. I agree rubbish left around a problem. Where I live it was the chicken fad. Rats love an easy meal of chicken feed!

It's not an attack on either university, you sound defensive. I'm glad your dcs had an easy time of it.

Of course there are great vocational niche courses at the newer universities. In fact that is where they excel and back in the day of you wanted a more vocational course you went to a polytechnic. The problem is for every good vocational course there is a politics, philosophy of law.course at the newer universities that adds little to a graduates employability in reality. I think this is really deceiving of the universities and students are being left in debt after taking degrees of dubious quality.

It may be better that students with low A level.scores.can be directed to more vocational courses instead of trying to compete academically with Oxbridge grads. It's not a fair competition.

@Ghilliegums Not easy. They just managed to avoid pitfalls. The 2nd year flat dd had was available this year. Just checked. It’s still less than £200 a week and doesn’t have the issues you describe and it’s on a very desirable road just a few minutes from uni. Her 4th year flat was advertised too. Both of course were taken and that one was cheaper than 2nd year one, so they don’t have to be £1000 a month for sub optimal quality and maintenance.

Tizer your dd left, what, 10+ years ago? Why do you assume a flat she lived in a decade ago is still good quality now? It might be a mould-ridden death trap for all you know.

Tizer is very defensive about Bristol.

evidently, @Ghilliegums !

Obviously very happy times for her and her dd, but now blind that anyone might have a moment's struggle there.