4 year degree from UCL vs 3 year degree from Loughborough/Reading

[TheJollyCoralEagle]

My son has offers for Quantity Surveying from Loughborough and Reading and also an offer from UCL for their 4 year construction management MSci.
Loughborough and Reading are very highly regarded for building/construction and employment outcomes in this sector should probably be the same as for UCL.
Would the prestige of a top 10 uni like UCL however be worth the cost (especially in London) of the extra year and potentially open doors for entry into consulting and other broader careers? My son is set on Construction but isn't blind to other options.
Both Loughborough and Reading are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Building/RICS for their construction/quantity surveying degrees whereas the UCL degree isn't accredited. UCL is however ranked first in the world for a number of years now for Architecture and Built environment according to the QS world rankings.

UCL , 4 years for MSi, Masters? The other two are BSi or MSi? Can DC research on modules being taught and where alumni go for career?

UCL is MSci - Masters. Others are BSc. The UCL course is broader seeing that is 4 years. The 3 year degrees are more practical, career focused. I think I have sorted of answered my own question re UCL offering broader career options, I was just wondering how that worked in reality. I know UCL is very highly regarded, I just don't know if it opens doors the same way a non vocational degree from Oxbridge does for instance for other careers in banking, consulting etc.

Ds is currently applying for QS grad jobs. Nearly all ask for a RICS accredited degree.
If he is looking for a job in the sector, I would say a placement year would be the most beneficial rather than the source of the degree. Would that be an option at any of those?

Yes all his QS offer Universites offer placement years. At Loughborough 98% of students do a placement year. He also has an offer at Oxford Brookes which has a compulsory placement year. At Reading only 15% of students do a placement year, but most students do summer internships. All 3 are RICS accredited.
For construction the 3 year degrees are probably a no brainer. The flexibility of the 4 year course at UCL though is appealing. I don't however know how that flexibility works out in practice re actual careers and if it is worth another year of student debt, hence my question.

One is a Masters and the other two are Bachelors; so it a UCL 4 years undergraduate and postgraduate course combined? The question would be whether your DC just want construction or prefer a wider options career after graduation. Which would give paid summer internship options?

@TheJollyCoralEagle does he want to be a Quantity Surveyor or a Construction Manager?

He is leaning towards Quantity Surveying, but is considering Construction Project Management too. Reading and Oxford Brookes allow you to change between Quantity Surveying and Construction management until year 3 as the first 2 years of their degrees are shared, which is great if he does decide to change his mind.
The 3 year option seems to be the right way to go for that reason, but turning down an offer at UCL which is top ranked in the world for Architecture and Built environment seems nonsensical in a way too.

I think UCL probably gets that ranking from the Bartlett school of architecture. I'm not sure it's particularly well known for other areas of the built environment. Reading certainly is well known for other aspects, as is Oxford Brookes. I'm not so familiar with Loughborough, but certainly know of the surveying courses.

Yes that might well be true, which would explain why the entry requirements are only ABB which is low for UCL. To be fair though entry requirements for built environment degrees are relatively low in general, even at the top universities - BBB/BBC for Reading/Loughborough/Oxford Brookes.

My daughter did the Project Management for Construction BSc (3 year full-time). She graduated from UCL in 2017. At the time the degree was accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which enabled her to begin the professional training contract (APC) consisting of professional assessments and the final Assessment of Professional Competence, to become a chartered surveyor (PM or QS route), which usually takes approximately 3 years. The UCL PMFC course was geared up for client side consultancy. The Charteted Institute of Building (CIOB) tends to attract people from Construction Management courses looking to work on the contractors side of construction. I am both RICS (PM & QS) and CIOB. They each require different applications to achieve chartered status, however, common to both is a strong emphasis on finance and contract law.

Thanks. Very useful information. My son has decided to do QS at Reading. Mainly because UCL isn't accredited (although I believe they are in the process of applying for re-accreditation) and it's a 4 year degree at UCL vs 3 years at Reading.
As I said at the beginning UCL should be the obvious choice, but Reading is well regarded for QS so it should hopefully work out well for him. He is slightly undecided re QS/CM, but at Reading you can switch between the 2 until the end of your second year, so he should have (hopefully!) made up his mind by then.

@TheJollyCoralEagle I just read your last reply that your DS chose Reading. And I was logging on to say given where his interests lean, plus the flexibility of the course (and accreditation) I was going to say Reading seemed like the best option for him.