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?

One of the most important aspects of open days is getting an idea of the journey to and from.

DD made her decision solely on the Open Days and Nottingham was much slicker than Cardiff. Having said that she nearly turned it down on the grounds of all the halls being catered. It was only a chance remark from one of the students we met over lunch that she discovered Broadgate was next door to her faculty so she could have self catering that was as good as on campus. TBH I don't think it was anything like as sociable as a hall and she would have chosen a hall if they had decent cooking facilities. (Two years of boarding has put her off institutional food for life.)

@TheRealMcKenna Most people don’t take much notice of the Guardian tables because it has very odd judgements which don’t sit well against other tables. Other UK tables are ok.

Lots of open days are pure marketing. They are insanely busy and do not reflect the real experience of being at that uni. Students will not meet who is teaching their modules and talks are very generic. I think offer days are more useful. An open day might give scientists a look at labs but for history and English it’s far more about the course contents which you cannot assess at an open day, let alone the quality of lecturing. Speaking to a student or two is useful and perusing the campus or teaching areas can be helpful.

How do you choose? Most young people I have ever known look at the sensible league tables, particularly for their subject, talk to others they know who have been to uni or doing the job they want and their friends. My DDs knew what unis DDs doing similar subjects had gone to from their schools. People like them. Then decide if remote uni in Wales suits or London etc. Most students are going to an open day to confirm a short list, not make one. My DDs were able to attend 3. Not 10. So having an idea about where they would like by sorting through web site details first is what they did and all their friends too. Plus their lists were not long! Open days largely confirmed what they already knew. Other unis were selected they had not visited. Offer days then became available.

Did open days tell them much? Not really. They already knew a lot about the cities and what was involved. Plus they were not interested in 10 unis. 3 each was enough.

My DDs boarded. One liked the social side of communal meals, the other not so much. You can factor that in by looking at web sites. However not sure any of this really says why Nottingham is slightly down in a league table. We don’t buy anything based on a slick performance. When we went to Exeter that would have been 0/10. It’s not an overall reflection of quality.

We enjoyed going to the open days. I agree that they aren't really representative of daily university life, especially the summer ones when exams are over.

An offer holder's day is much better for that, but DD wanted to look at the 8 universities that she visited and I agree that sometimes an open day can be the make or break decision on a university. Often the online offering didn't compare to the reality.

Notttingham centre does feel rough. We visited recently after some years away and I would feel uncomfortable about my DC going out of an evening there. Completely different feel from other cities we have visited.

What were the other ones, out of interest? I found Liverpool pretty edgy. It stank of weed! Manchester was OK but too built up for me.

@Purrsuasive name the other university cities you visited as the official crime statistics linked to earlier on this thread do not back up what you are saying. Have you actually visited the university of Nottingham campus several miles from the town centre?

An open day is not reality though. It’s a sales pitch. You won’t meet anyone who will teach you (well you might choose their module) and hopefully there won’t be a scrum for food and getting into a lecture room. All you really learn is what buildings look like and start to get your bearings. Much of what you listen to is designed to hook you in or demonstrate they are so elite you are an irrelevance. All the relevant course info is on line. “Feel” on an open day cannot be very objective. However some people do have heart over head and sd seem to be put off by tiny things not to their liking.

It’s also interesting that until this thread loads of posters loved the Nottingham campus and the university.

We did not have the luxury of 8 visits. The MC do this. Other dc are told to make a sensible short list based on quality of course, possible grades and city/campus preferences. Mid week open days and subject open days just add to the time spent. I’m glad my DDs could sift and be decisive.

To and from where?

My DS is in his 3rd year at UoN and loves it - the uni and the city. We don’t go up often as DS has his own transport but whenever we have been we have not felt unsafe and quite like strolling around the city - we are going to see him this weekend and are looking forward to it. Halls catering was a godsend for him as a first year but some of the halls are quite dated, they are going through a lot of updating though. The campus is lovely.

im not convinced that his course has been the fairest in terms of marking but perhaps that’s down to my parental blindness. 😉

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Bristol and Bath to name a few in the last couple of years. We live in London too. I have visited Notts campus and it's nice but it doesn't change the feeling I got about the centre of Nottingham. I'm not talking about crime statistics but the reaction I personally felt.

Was in Nottingham yesterday. It has a lot of rather aggressive street beggars (they come and approach you with a sob story while you are having coffee. I was sat outside the Victoria centre and had 3 approach me during the course of 1 coffee) - not had this anywhere else. Otherwise it seems as good or not good as any city these days, and I know DS is very happy there and feels safe on nights out.

An open day is not reality though. It’s a sales pitch

Oh, for heaven's sake! I am perfectly well aware of that, as I have stated more than once on this thread

You are insistent that no-one needs to visit many open days, but you need to accept that not everyone is the same as your DC.

Sifting through websites is absolutely not the same as visiting a university to get the feel of the campus or the city. Please accept that not everyone shares your point of view.

Why the jibe that only the MC visit more than one or two universities, given that your DC have had a privileged upbringing?

Have a wild guess.

Agree with this.

Test driving a car is the ultimate ‘sales pitch’ but you still do it because it would be the peak of stupidity to buy a car just because your friend has one and likes it.

DS only visited four open days. He definitely ruled one out because he hated the lab facilities. He will only be able to attend one offer day as they tend to be during the week and he has critical assignments coming up. He just can’t afford the time off, and he’d have to drive himself there.

The open days wasn’t everything, but it was certainly an important part of the picture.

We visited 8 universities because DD had a change of heart and took a gap year so she did some more visits during her gap year for a different degree course.

It was the wisest decision because she ended up doing what she really wanted to do very successfully, and is now enjoying a taught post grad degree at a different university after taking a couple of years out to work and decide what she wanted to do next.

Yes, and it's also a position of privilege to have networks which include people with a suitable career background to discuss employment aspirations and make recommendations, friends and family members with insight, school friends to buddy up with, plan with. These may well have their own biases anyway but these social connections really aren't the reality for many.

Plus, Open Days are an interesting day out .

I wish more students took gap years . I think they are extremely beneficial

Have a wild guess.

Well I did but then I couldn't think that someone would take the journey into consideration when there's so much else to think about.

The journey is a huge issue for many young people. For example not everyone has access to a car.

The journey can be incredibly important to some. I know of at least two YP who were young carers or had circumstances where they needed to be able to travel back home easily. Sometimes a shorter distance was actually a longer train journey etc & the cost of travel had to be taken into account.

Exactly right @Comefromaway

Journey time was the first criteria DD made her initial selection from. Not too close to home but not further than 3 hours journey time by public transport. Not everyone wants to go a long way from home.

Ruled out Warwick for example because the journey there from home is awful.