Lancaster or Aston for business? Help please

[atomicnotsoblonde]

My YP has offers at both. They would live in halls at either. Lancaster is more expensive en-suite than Aston, but shared bathrooms are cheaper at Lancaster and not an option at Aston.

They have a permanent job now, which they could keep if they went to Aston, but would be unlikely to be able to transfer to Lancaster. They need circa 8/10 hours a week to make the finances work.

I’m slightly concerned about safety at Aston, not an issue at Lancaster. YP is quiet rather than party but likes to be busy. Lancaster is far further from home than Aston, but this isn’t a deciding factor.

Help?! Which is best?! We have to choose by tomorrow. Views on university and chances of getting regular work welcome!

I went to Lancaster, had a brilliant time and got a 2:1, best friend went to Aston, had a brilliant time and got a 1st. Lancaster suited me because it is a fairly small, safe bubble, Aston suited her because it isn’t 😉 Both highly regarded for the course your YP wants to do so it’s probably more about which environment would suit them better. I’m biased so always going to vote Lancaster but Birmingham is my closest big city nowadays and I’m really fond of it. Good problem to have!

Aston is fantastic for placements if that’s a key consideration?

Thanks to everyone for commenting on this thread. YP has gone for Lancaster and I’m delighted!

I love brum but I’m so pleased to see them get a place somewhere I think will fit them best. It’s such a big step and you’ve all really helped my YP make their decision.

Onwards to the next part of the journey!!

That’s great op, all the best to him.

Just as an aside on the ‘Aston is not a real uni’ angle btw - it did indeed become a uni in1966; Lancaster meanwhile was established in, erm, 1964. Both real unis and in existence as such for almost the same length of time.

Lancaster was definitely the right choice. You do need to look at subject rankings but they move far more frequently than overall rankings. Lancaster is top ten in the country and is an amazing university. The campus is gorgeous and like a town in itself. Lancaster city is a good night out for students. It's very safe and there are four clubs (how many can you go to in one night) - one of which is run by the SU. It's a very student based social scene which is what most students want. The university is much larger than it used to be and there is also a campus for cumbria university in the city so there are absolutely loads of students. You can also live on campus/in university owned accommodation in all three years if you want to since they have masses of accommodation.

Just to balance out @Dearover 's post, I worked for 18 years in a big 4 firm in Birmingham and met many Aston grads - I was always very impressed, and I have a good impression of the uni from what I've heard from them.

I think very highly of Lancaster so I hope this will feel like the right choice in retrospect. But I am writing because I also know that Aston has a good reputation in several fields and also with certain international cohorts.

No reason for snootiness.

Did I train you? 😀

Just popping this in here (part of Birmingham Heritage 'week')

Aston University – seeking out its 1950s &1960s heritage - https://share.google/QW6P6BrOLaMnvUgIh

The poster who was nasty about Aston obviously doesn’t have much knowledge about universities as shown by the ridiculous comment .
I attended Birmingham University for my first degree and many of my friends attended Aston It is a decent albeit not well known university

@RampantIvy It’s one of the newer universities of the 1960s that changed to a university from an existing college. Aston was pretty popular in the 70s for more vocational courses. A friend did planning degree there. It’s a university that’s 100% under the MN radar. As you can see Lancaster is beloved of MN. Others like Aston (Keele, Brunel) are never talked about but were established at the same time in the 60s as Bath and Loughborough. Also darlings of MN. None were polys: they were established as polytechnics in the 60s and largely converted to universities post 1992.

I went to school in Staffordshire in the 1970s and Aston was definitely somewhere on our radar. I didn't go to university straight from school, but friends from my year who did went all over the place. The one I've kept in touch with who has subsequently had one of the most MN acceptable careers got a First from Hull. Not a lawyer, though (perhaps she's always been too proud to tell us that although she applied, the millstone of that particular blot on the northeastern landscape around her neck was just too much. Who knows?).

Just to clarify, Lancaster was not a college before becoming a university. It has always been a university. Neither are Loughborough or Bath or Aston or Keele post 92 universities. They are all pre 92 universities and were not polys.

Brunel is a post 92 university.

I think Aston does some very good very relevant research.

I think Lancaster has been largely off the MN radar until very recently! MN likes Oxbridge, UCL, Durham, Bristol, York, Bath, Warwick and Exeter. And sometimes Imperial.

I clearly said they were 1960s new universities! Brunel is not a post 92 university! It’s a 1960s “plate glass” university. As is Lancaster. Post 92 are those who became universities post 1992. Aston became a university in 1966 but emerged from HE provision dating back to the 19th century.

@KingstonTown Not sure what threads you read but Lancaster is recommended all the time and has been for some years now. MN doesn’t always like London and Bristol due to costs and this is why Lancaster is seen as good. I think most RG and RG plus gets an airing except QMUL! Rarely mentioned!

I think this sentence is what was confusing.

None were polys: they were established as polytechnics in the 60s and largely converted to universities post 1992.

I agree that Lancaster is recommended all the time. DD looked at it but preferred to be in a city even though she was offered a scholarship to go to Lancaster.

Yes I was referring to that sentence. And the wording "new universities". The plate glass universities are Lancaster, Warwick, York, Sussex, UEA, Essex and Kent. They were all universities which were started from scratch in the 1960s.

There are then loads that were formerly something else eg Loughborough which was a college and Newcastle which was part of Durham, Surrey, Bath, Keele etc which then gained university status in their own right.

My mistake with Brunel. I ought to have known that since I actually applied there back in the day when we had UCCA and PCAS (?) as separate application processes

It should have read: polytechnics were established in the 1960s. The plate glass unis were too. Other unis were established in the 50s and 60s from converting former colleges to universities. Post 92 legislation converted the Polys, colleges of HE, teacher training colleges and others to universities. So that’s the mix.