Oxford Brookes?

[bournevilleismyfavourite]

Anyone got any experience?

I know this forum tends to be higher tariff universities.

My son is holding an offer for business management. We went to the open day today and liked it despite the weather. He’s a sociable, sports mad boy and really liked the hockey set up.

I was impressed with the business talk - it seemed forward thinking, lots of options for hands on experience with modules and industry experience/placements.

Would love to hear actual experience. Also does it empty out at weekends? He won’t be coming home that often as we’re quite a long way away.

Thanks.

I give up. Plenty of other unis are in a worse financial position than OB (and several posters have tried to explain this, but to no avail it seems)
You keep harping on about OB for some reason, trying to dissuade people from studying there for financial reasons which is disingenuous as people don't suggest not studying at other universities in a worse financial position.
I'm out in the garden having a glass of wine and enjoying the lovely weather. I suggest you do that too 🙂
Cheers!

I was talking about why the income to assets metric was chosen. Not why Oxford Brookes was chosen. Obviously if the university massively over borrows for new buildings they will have valuable assets. But it leaves them with a the highest debt to income ratio of all UK universities.

@boredwithfoodprob
I think the private school proportion is around 30% so still a minority by some way. And there’s private school and private school. My son is at a private school and I can assure you he’s not swanning around in a 4x4. Why not go and decide for yourselves?

@PinkStarsandBlackWalls You think people who earn enough money to send dc to private school need to say Dc are at Oxford when it’s OB? What a joke. No we don’t need to do that.

Fifth highest.

@boredwithfoodprob I hate this idea that dc cannot bear to be at the same university with those who have more money. I’m sorry, but it’s utterly juvenile. Is he green with jealousy or what? It’s about time we had a live and let live attitude. Even if some dc do have cars - so what? Dh had one at university - he worked and bought it himself. As for students with 4x4 cars being a majority!! Words fail me. Does anyone know Oxford? A car is the last thing you want unless you live at home with a drive. Plus Oxford hate cars! They have draconian road restrictions. Don’t believe everything (rubbish) you are told.

Good grief!

Oxford is a really major UK city, with an infinity of options and opportunities, vast areas of green space within and without university enclosures, great connectivity and about half a billion bright minds all stimulating each other.

And you turned your nose up at even visiting - because your frenemy doesn’t want your child enjoying all the benefits of such a singular place?

More Fool You …

(I walked through the woodland set OB accommodation a few times last September - because one of my favourite walks goes right through it - and I couldn’t help but envy the lucky students moving in, despite having many august institutions on my own ancient CV.)

You wuz robbed, @boredwithfoodprob - or at least, your son was. How your so called friend must be cackling …

No. First highest.

https://oxfordbrookes.web.ucu.org.uk/oxford-brookes-ucu-financial-analysis-summary-april-2024/

Use the official and latest year end figures, audited and approved by the regulator - not those produced by the union that refer to the previous financial year. I posted the link.

I can't see a link.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain this agenda that the UCU supposedly has? The agenda that makes them want to fabricate a crisis rather than simply suggest that the university simply services its debt rather than lay off staff. They can easily service their debt apparently according to the people insisting there's no crisis. Yet they lay off staff under the pretext of the crisis that the UCU is fabricating. Its not making sense to me.

This is the link I posted: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/what-the-latest-hesa-data-tells-us-about-university-finances/

The sector is in turmoil. Many UCU branches have chosen to ignore that and blame their uni for poor management rather than the external climate we are in.

Regardless of their agenda, only a fool would take what a union says at face value and ignore the official, and more up to date, position.

Oh right. So you can't explain this agenda that they supposedly have so it's not about their agenda anymore and now only a fool would believe them because you don't happen to like their data.

How do you explain the sudden collapse in OB entry standards? They used to be some of the highest among post 92 unis along with likes of Nottingham Trent. They were mid table. Now they're in the bottom 20. I think it's because they're desperate for fee paying students and are admitting pretty much anyone who applies. Students who aren't qualified will be more likely to retake years, resulting in extra fees. What's your explanation?

As someone who actually went to Oxford Brookes, which is who your question was addressed to....I loved it. I had the time of my life. Tutors were lovely and I fell in love with Oxford so much I'm still living in Oxfordshire 15 years later now with my DP and DD.

Oxford is a very clubs and societies place. Whatever hobby you have there will be a club to join. Sports and music are particularly popular in Oxford. I made friends with people on my course at Brooks and people studying at Oxford University....yes shockingly people from both do mingle. I wouldn't say it isn't diverse, there's a lot of international students, especially from Asia. Not a lot of students from the north of the UK but that may have changed in recent times. Oxford is a University town so it's made for students really. It's always busy, students in term-time, tourists in the summer, but that at least means there's always lots going on.

The only downside is the struggle to secure accommodation after the 1st year but, when I went, everyone managed to eventually. I don't know if that's similar in other university cities.

I don’t know or care what UCU’s agenda is. It’s irrelevant to the thread. I am just pointing out that it is clearly not accurate or up to date, and linking to a dashboard that gives you the hard facts, and an explainer. No one should be making decisions based on outdated data from a biased source.

As to why they have reduced entry standards - probably the same reason pretty much everyone, RG included, have reduced entry standards - to get more bums on seats as the sector is in financial turmoil.

There needs to be some caution over what income OB will have. They have definitely sold Wheatley to a housing developer. If they are selling the Harcourt site, there’s more money coming in. This might help with servicing debt.

They are low ranked on entry standards but 18% of students are part time and these students might not have the same entry qualifications as other students . They could be mature students. Looking at the stats 46th seems high but the 11 th for student - staff ratio seems good. Probably won’t stay like that after redundancies!

I think I would be looking at future plans and not harping back to the past. 83% are uk based students but it’s always been popular with London students due to transport links and its location. graduate prospects are not shabby either.

That isn't how rankings work. You don't go from mid table to bottom because everyone reduces their standards. I'm sure you know that.

I don't know what your agenda is here and why your so determined to post these bad faith arguments to parents of prospective students. I'm guessing you have some sort of connection to the uni. It's worth remembering that it's the future prospects of young people at stake here.

They are only near the bottom on entry standards though. As I’ve posted, doing well on other rankings. So why not celebrate those? This is all very one sided when there are lots of stats to consider. A great plus is employability - future students really need that stat to be good! It is. It punches. Rank - 34. That is actually excellent.

They're ranked 105 out of 122. They used to be around 50 - 60. The collapse is a recent thing. It's since they got into financial difficulty. They have clearly reduced their entry standards in order to increase student numbers.

All I'm saying is that prospective students and their parents should be aware of these things.

Ok I thought you were just saying their entry requirements had gone down, didn’t realise they’re down in terms of rank as well - and yes they are in the lowest 20 according to CUG methodology. I don’t know why - maybe more mature and/or part time students. Maybe they’ve reduced grades required more than most. But there have been some quite shocking grade drops elsewhere in the sector - 3 Bs for Vet Sci last year for example.

I don’t have an agenda - and I don’t work at OB: I work at another university. And know a lot about how unis work, the current climate, how unis are funded, how unis are measured in the league tables and by the regulator (in England anyway), where to source accurate data and what data to look at.

I assume you work for a rival to OB and are desperate to put them down to poach their applicants?

I don't work for a rival institution. Actually I'm a former Brookes student. Hence why I know things about the uni. For example when I was there we were told our department was going to be moved from Headington to Harcourt as departments moved from Wheatley to Headington. Obviously this never happened. So I know that the closure of Harcourt was never part of the plan. The closure of Wheatley always was but not Harcourt.

@OneBrightFawn But overall they are ranked 46!!!! There’s only 2 former polys ahead of them! Whatever difference does it make if they let in everyone who applies as long as the outcomes are good? They currently do well on that measurement too. That might not continue of course. At the moment no one knows. And who cares about whether Harcourt was going to stay or not? In business plans change according to circumstances. They should at universities too. It’s no measure of anything to find a university securing the best location for its business and not having split sites is a good thing. I am a former part time student and it’s a decent place to be even if some people are let in with lower qualifications - who could also be international paying ££££ for the courses.

@bournevilleismyfavourite I worked there for a long time. It is a good university that has prided itself on its applied courses. I probably wouldn't choose it for a true academic course (e.g. English or Maths), as I think there are better out there that are more competitive names once you are out in the job market. But it is known nationally for the sorts of courses that offer placements and support for students into employment. It has a great reputation for sport, allied health sciences, education etc and the university itself attracts good staff, it is a great location and very vibe-y.

Ultimately it depends on what your DS wants from life and what his other options are, but he could do a lot worse.

Re: staff cuts. Lots of universities will need to restructure over the next 5 years. Brooke - like many others - has had multiple restructure over the past 20 years that haven't hit the headlines. Many HEIs over stretched themselves during the Blair years and haven't been able to maintain income from students since Brexit, pandemic etc. So they are all more or less in a spiral of contraction. What you need to look at, is whether the specific course your DS is doing is likely to get cut. That is true anywhere he goes. Business studies is one of those that I think it is quite hard to call so I would be asking questions of any university I was visiting.

Has it not closed its maths course?

It was lifting of the cap on numbers by the Cameron/Clegg government in 13/14 that opened up the free for all in terms of university growth. That was the big mistake and much growth happened after this and borrowing funded it.

Ah. @onebrightfawn

Kindly, I worked there from 2009 to 2017. Based at Harcourt for a proportion of that. Harcourt has always been primed for sale or redevelopment. Planning decisions oscillate all the time, depending on external climate. But Harcourt was always an obvious choice for relatively easy closure if they needed to consolidate finances. Brookes has always had a huge amount of lucrative real estate. It has always been its "insurance" policy for financial difficulties. It is always regularly reviewed.

@bournevilleismyfavourite I wouldn't let this financial debate derail your decisions!