Nottingham University - what is going on with the League tables?

[BobtheFrog]

Like a few others in this forum, my young adult has just finished their Year 13 mocks and didn't get the grades they had hoped for. Firm and Insurance choices remain unchanged but we have been considering some more modest alternatives

• digging around was surprised with Nottingham data, it had the biggest drop in applications in 2024 of any uni (-3600) is sitting around 60 with the Guardian and even #30ish with CUG and Times. Not long ago I would have expected mid 20s

Anyone know what's going on?

@Leeto888 Lenton is a great place to live. I've been there 21 years as it's walking distance to QMC and everywhere else.

Now it looks like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie

This is exactly what I thought when I was there this week. I remember twenty five years ago the Macdonalds (now closed down obviously) had a bouncer on the door in the evenings. Now ordinary small clothes shops have a couple of security guards on the door, bouncer style.

And I drove in because the last time I got the tram in non-commuter hours I was actually scared.

We’ll have to agree to disagree on that @Toddlerteaplease.

I think most of these comments could apply to a whole list of unis/cities in the UK - all our big cities have run down areas, homeless people, rats etc!

Dd is at Nottingham; she grew up in Birmingham and was used to going out in town (had been hanging out there with her friends at weekends since 12/13!) so she wasn't at all fazed by Nottingham. She applied to a mixture of big city unis and beautiful city unis (Bath and York!). She wasn't sure what she wanted but when we went to the York offer holder day, she found it too quiet and undiverse in comparison to Nottingham and Southampton. She's very sociable and loves partying. It's horses for courses isn't it.

The catered halls were great for socialising and meeting people and she enjoyed the beautiful campus. The food was pretty bad though! She ended up spending way more than she would have done if she'd chosen self-catering, as she couldn't even make herself some decent food, as there weren't kitchens. She ended up buying too much food out. I would also agree that in her experience, pastoral care has been dreadful - but that's related to her particular department, so it may not be a universal issue.

She's loved her time in Nottingham though and I think she'd go there again, all things considered.

If you look at the UCAS 'end of cycle' data for the last student intake in 2024 Uni of Nottingham had the largest single drop in applications of any university from 2023, way ahead of the next biggest drop for Birmingham City Uni - there is clear evidence people are not applying to Nottingham.

FWIW Nottingham Trent was flat for applications (ie 2023 and 2024 were similar) and seems to be as popular as ever

So this suggests to me this is more about the Uni of Nottingham, rather than the city of Nottingham

Well I don’t know why people would see UoN as not being good because there is a lot of evidence on here that people have had positive experiences there. The city lets it down. There was something quite particular to the students being UoN. Perhaps applicants to NTU think they would be based in a different part of the city?
I know people who would have applied to UoN but decided against it. Deep down this was the reason. These students wouldn’t be considering NTU as one of their choices.
I also know someone who ended up there this year as a fresher and is having a wonderful time. It will recover from this.

One on the good things at the University of Nottingham is that Brady Haran films his science YouTube channel stuff there!

Sixtysymbols, numberphile, periodic videos etc.

OP "Personally I can see little reason to exclude Nottingham, it has a good course and decent employability - and the main campus is lovely"

My DD thought the same on paper, but she just didn't like it at the open day. Wrong vibe, she didn't feel she'd fit in. When she talked about it with friends afterwards they had thought the same and none of them ended up applying. You can dismiss it as "fashion" but I honestly think she made her own mind up on the day, albeit on complete intangibles rather than hard data. She wanted to like it, it is a bigger name than the unis she visited and loved, but we encouraged her to go with her gut.

There are much more informed opinions on this thread but this is what it came down to for my 17 year old. Maybe they are just not doing as good a sales job at open days as their competitors.

The catered halls and long corridors were a negative, but I think that's the sort of thing you put up with if you like the rest.

DD's final two based on course, support, outcomes etc were Warwick and York.

The decider was York city centre versus Coventry city centre and, unsurprisingly, York won hands down.

I am sure there are lots of students loving Warwick university, but their lifestyle will be different to the one that DD leads in York (where she is in the centre a lot for general leisure purposes, she loves the general ambience and also the night life - although she didn't want real party town).

My nephew has picked Nottingham uni based on the campus because he is neurodivergent and likely to spend a lot of time in his room and immediate surroundings, so making sure they were "right" was more important than the city centre.

Different students have different priorities.
(My DD socialises over cooking - I'm sure she is not the only one!). It's hardly catering=sociable; self-catering=not).

Neither of my DDs really wanted to go to huge cities with very high crime rates. We come from a small market town and the difference in lifestyle and street 'smarts' would be too great. Went to York and Warwick. Looked at Oxford Brookes, Reading, Royal Holloway, Durham.

She wasn't sure what she wanted but when we went to the York offer holder day, she found it too quiet and undiverse in comparison to Nottingham and Southampton. She's very sociable and loves partying. It's horses for courses isn't it.

This. My child is exactly the opposite, hated Nottingham because it was too big of a city and had too many students on the course (over 80). She's not a clubber or partier and prefers quiet socialising with films and a takeaway. She's actually at York because it's small and quiet and suits her perfectly! It really is horses for courses and different unis will suit totally different students.

Apart from that horrific one off event in 2023, I don't see Nottingham as particularly dangerous? I know it used to be called "Shottingham" but I thought that was 20 years ago.

2 of my friends live there, one very near to where it happened, and I completely disagree with this. Do you have children, teens?

It really is grim in the city centre at the moment. I think it's worse now than it was in the early 2000s when there was a big homeless/begging problem. It's going to take serious money and effort to resolve.

Nottingham isn't unique in this but is suffering quite badly.

2 of my friends live there, one very near to where it happened, and I completely disagree with this. Do you have children, teens?

I disagree as well. It definitely changed the way my teenagers used the city. Calling Ubers from outside the club and going home instead of walking and getting some chips or whatever.

I think people in Nottingham should actually be quite angry about their city. Compared to other cities there has been a shocking lack of development and ambition.

My DD socialises over cooking - I'm sure she is not the only one!). It's hardly catering=sociable; self-catering=not

Exactly this @RedSkyDelights. DD used to get together with some of her flatmates and friends to cook communal meals. She also used to get together with some of her course mates for social meals in their halls. The kitchens were designed for social occasions as well as cooking. They also used to have parties in their flats.

@Climpy we also didn't get the feeling that Nottingham were trying hard to sell themselves either. This was back in 2017.

I felt that university that tried the hardest was Warwick.

Do open days really sway people that much? DD took part in them and found some people just find fault with everything. She used to show parents around her school as well so she was used to being an ambassador. Others are more laid back and less intense. They seem to get more out of the days. Weighing up a university is not just about being sold something. There’s such a thing as over selling and under delivering.

Couldn't agree more.

Courses do matter though. If dc got a place at Warwick to do maths, you would normally take that over York. It’s never just about liking one thing and ignoring everything else.

I finished my degree at UoN about five years ago and decided to stay living here. Honestly love it here. A smallish, affordable, well connected city. It has problems with crime and homelessness but absolutely nothing that I haven’t seen in other cities. Must say I didn’t love the uni itself though

The campus is pretty when it's sunny

Do open days really sway people that much?

Well yes, of course they do. They would be pretty pointless if they didn't.

A student will have to spend three or four years at their chosen university and an open day can easily sway whether they will apply to that university or not. DD really didn't like Manchester, Bristol, Warwick or York just from visiting on an open day.

I don't understand your faux naivety.

Yes, dd made her decision based partly on open day/offer holder day. It's their first chance at choosing where they'll be living for 3/4 years so they need to like it. I've lived (as an adult) in an area I really didn't like and it was miserable. Cities and areas do vary a lot in how they feel and I think that's a pretty important part of the decision. Ds is abroad so hasn't had the chance to visit any of his offers yet - I'm not letting him make a decision until he's visited!

Of course Open Days are important and influential. Why on earth do you think they wouldn’t be?

You have already sneered at the value of league tables in this thread and now you are sneering at open days. So, how should students decide between universities offering almost identical accredited courses? Would you suggest the use of university websites? I can’t imagine anything more dubious than that.