How do you choose a university in this country?

[UniversityQuestions]

can anyone advise how you select a suitable uni in this country. My daughter’s schools seem to suggest names as potential matches for her that when I look up are wildly different in ranking, specialism, location but all seem the same in terms of low contact hours and minimal engagement with students. In my country it’s really clear how unis are ranked but here it varies wildly be aubjevt and you seem to also have to consider the overall name of the uni no matter what the subject ranking.

my daughter has good GCSEs - 10x 9s and 8s, we haven’t got her predicted grades for a level but she seems to have As or A stars at most tests. She wants to study History. Her school have suggested she book open days at Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Exeter and St Andrews which when I look them up seem to have no common denominators.

Yes sorry I meant one essay per module not for the entire course. One coursework essay per module per term is not that unusual in my experience; one essay + one other piece of assessment (shorter essay, commentary, presentation etc) also quite common.

@arionater I did way more than that on a part time HNC back in the day and I worked as well! I agree it’s not much though for a full time degree.

Indeed - and this was very much the case when I was an undergraduate in 1976-79!

I think parents are much more involved in their children's university journeys these days; in my day - they were not involved at all and almost everyone was not accompanied to university for interviews (there were no 'open' or 'offer' days and most of us were interviewed for our top 2 choices. Parents should support and advise where appropriate (and I can understand that they may want more of an input into the decision if they're funding it) but should try to make their DC feel it's been their decision!

You say you can only do 3-4 open days but that might be a bit limiting. Bear in mind: some unis offer virtual tours also; you don’t have to go with her (though they are fun and i went to most of the ones my DDs attended); and many unis provide maps for self-guided tours. You don’t see as much as on an open day but you can get a flavour and it allows you to do a few unis in one go based on geography. My elder DD and a friend did self-guided tours of Manchester and Leeds during autumn half-term of yr 13 on the way up to an open day in Edinburgh. Gave my DD enough of a flavour for her to feel confident putting them down and she chose Leeds for her insurance (she firmed Edinburgh and is there now). Good luck to your DD.

@Dery It’s perfectly possible for normal people to attend 4 open days. My DDs boarded and they weren’t allowed to skip out for umpteen visits. It concentrates the mind on what dc really want. They talk to other dc, look at the courses and decide on city vs campus. Many boarding dc we know never had parents take them anywhere to view a uni. On MN you seem to be required to visit 10 or you haven’t weighed everything up and are a failure if you don’t have a spreadsheet. Too much into leads to indecision I think. Maybe boarding dc are less bothered about halls of residence and are less fickle? We didn’t delve into every aspect of the courses but my DDs liked certain cities and unis and their lists were mercifully short. No one really needs to visit more than 4.

Maybe boarding dc are less bothered about halls of residence and are less fickle

Probably because they are already used to sharing accommodation and feeling institutionalised (I don't mean this in a rude way BTW).

When DD was in halls most of the ex boarding school students had opted for the only catered halls at her university.

@RampantIvy Yes. As my dd did and shared a room (horror!!) too. Why are other dc so fickle though? They share on school trips. They share showers and changing facilities at school. Why, when they get to university do they suddenly demand en suite and the more expensive halls? No one did this 40 years ago. Why now? They will almost certainly share a bathroom in y2. Why are dc so fickle?

I don’t think those are the same type of thing at all as sharing a room on a school trip, or getting changed in the pe changing room once or twice a week. They go home to their own bedrooms with their own family, in the most part, and that’s where they’re used to living. Fickle is where you change your mind about something, not trying to understand how to picture a whole new lifestyle.

It’s not at all necessarily about the most expensive en suite rooms and fancy halls - some are likely seeing what the cheapest ones look like so they know what they’re going to encounter.

And most of the “which uni to choose” thoughts on the open days for my son was around the differences between the courses, what the department felt like, what the students said who he talked to, and what the town or campus would be like to live in. He poked around a few halls of residence and felt that it all looked fine and was totally unbothered about sharing bathrooms and living spaces, though as a private person and rather introverted, he is very much not up for sharing a bedroom.

When people talk about unis being "well regarded for the subject", what does that actually mean? Is it the CUG ranking?

Partially - that, the past rankings over many years, several of the other ranking schemes (CUG is just one of a number of options who all weight things a bit differently and ask different questions).
Employers views on the course, research rating, academic weight, what grades the students they attract tend to get etc etc.

Thanks @TallagallaPenguin . It's quite difficult to navigate through, I'm finding.

Sorry for the mini hijack, @UniversityQuestions!

If she would like a capital city/city amenities she could look at Trinity, Dublin- great for history and like Oxbridge has a copywright library which is advantageous for humanities.

They share showers and changing facilities at school.

Not showers, no @MeetMeOnTheCorner

I remember the horror of communal showers in the 1970s. Thankfully schools don't enforce this any more.

When I were a lass, and was looking at Unis for my UG, my parents came to precisely no Open Days with me, even though I think I went to about 7 or 8. We got a day off school for it, and I piled on a train with pals, and went to the Open Day, then a couple of (underage) drinks in the Union bar! I was based near Edinburgh, so did almost all the Scottish ones, Durham, UEA, and Queens Belfast - although we stayed with my friend's sister for that one.

I do get that parents are more involved now - especially given the financial burden being taken on - but, it is the choice of the young person, and their decision, ultimately. I know I chatted about it with my parents, but it was more of a 'what my life might be like in X or Y place'.

I think we sometimes under-estimate the capabilities of our young people, and (dare I say it) coddle them somewhat. These are young adults in most cases, and I often feel it woul dne less of a culture shock to them, if they had been hivem more opportunities for independance before university, as many do struggle with this when they get here.

Just my tuppence-worth from a long time HE employee, who spends a fair amount of time supporting students.

@RampantIvy I meant individual showers with doors. Do no sports facilities have them now? I just mean in a multi use building and not your own personal shower. Obviously not the horror of communal showers!

@ItGivesMeTheRightHumpQuite often it’s from an insider academic viewpoint. A favoured lecturer who writes books sometimes. Often it’s said when it bears no relationship to rankings which I find odd. It appears to be a favourite university these posters signpost to dc but they often have no idea what many employers would think. The might know what an academic institution might think but often these degrees are humanities and many employers won’t care what a grad knows about Emily Brontë or the inner workings of the Churchill war cabinet - “highly regarded” course or not. Skills for employment are a better gauge of a course in 2026. What are the outcomes? That’s what will matter now.

They do in gyms, but DD never went to any gyms. At DD's school there was no time for showers after PE anyway. I have no idea if there were the facilities.

None at my kids high school.

Thanks. For a lay person it can feel a bit impenetrable. If your DC isn't Oxbridge material and likes the look of a course outside Russell Group it's very hard to know whether it's 'good' or not. It seems there are quite a few ratings systems and lots of unis can say they rank highly in some of them!

You’re so right - everywhere we visited had its favourite stats and most favourable rankings of one sort or another up on the screen!

It was a bit of a pain, but I did find going through a few of the different ranking systems and looking back over a few years helpful - basically to identify the places that tend to come up over and over again, overall, in the “most likely entry grades” bracket, plus or minus a bit. It’s all about helping them to build a bit of a reasonable shortlist to start looking at.

Once you start visiting a couple of places, all the bumph on the websites starts to come a lot clearer for all of them. Best suggestion really is to get to any open day as soon as you can, as it helps to kick start understanding of what the courses are like and helps the student think about what is important to them.

We went to open/taster days as both ours picked on:

The feel of the campus
Feel of the accommodation
Feel of town/city
Whether they felt the curriculum of the course suited (they did differ quite a bit for the same course)
Do they feel safe
Would it offer enough social/night life
Cost of living in those areas (for us wasn’t a major issue as their choices were all similar. We may have struggled with London though)

One of ours had a definite first choice and second choice. The other felt they did but needed a second taster day to make up their mind.

DD wanted a slightly unusual subject combination, which narrowed things down quite a lot, and it was also narrowed down further by the fact that she wanted to do Maths as part of her degree, but hadn't done Further Maths A Level, so not every university would accept that.

Going to a few Open Days helped shape what she was looking for. I was encouraging her to look at campus universities (eg Lancaster) or those in small town/cities (Durham) but she decided that she didn't want this at all. She declared that St Andrews on a rainy Saturday afternoon was her personal idea of hell (I thought it was delightful) and she wanted a city.

The winning combination in the end was subject area plus a reasonable position in the league tables plus a likeable campus located in a big city a good distance from home.

blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/insiders/what-specifics-to-look-at-when-choosing-your-5-university-choices/

Start with the course, not the university. Think about the subject that genuinely excites your child whether it's business, engineering, art or medicine and consider how that aligns with long-term career goals. Some universities are known for research excellence while others focus on practical, industry-led learning. Subject-specific rankings often matter more than overall university league tables.

This is an excellent way to do some assessment of where to go. If your YP has an idea of the course(s) they are interested in, you're then comparing apples with other types of apple. If they aren't sure, it might be apples with cars, TBH.

Just be aware that many Unis now have whole teams of folk who have the job of making sure their Uni shows up well in all of the tables - so take them with a pinch of salt. Look at a number of league tables/good uni guides. The National Student Survey outcomes are quite good way to see what students actually think (it's final year student data), rather than with the Uni spin. Remember that the Russell Group is self-appointed too, so not the be all and end all! I've worked at HEIs at the top, and halfway down, the league tables. If they aren't sure, it might be apples with cars, TBH. I would say that they both have some things they excel at, and some they're poor at. Look at the courses they like, and speak to the staff in those areas, at the Open/Visit Days.

*(edited for spelling)