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Cardiff Law School...resting on laurels?

Hello all!

As a student of Cardiff University's Law School, I'm beginning to feel a bit of an arse, and I know several others that are in my position and feel the same way as I do! Why you ask? Well it's because in my infinite wisdom I turned down two well thought of law schools to come to Cardiff.

The law schools I rejected were Reading and Exeter. Since enrolling at Cardiff these two law schools have maintained the prestige befitting themselves, particularly Reading which has gone from strength to strength and has soared in the league tables.

Now I've heard and read all the threads on 'not paying attention to league tables' or the eloquently put 'not being a league table whore' but the point is this: how can a university which claims to be as esteemed as Cardiff justify its status in the face of such catastrophic league table performance?


Times Law League Table 2012

Oxford
Cambridge
LSE
UCL
Nottingham
Durham
Queen Mary
Reading
Newcastle
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Leicester
Edinburgh
Birmingham
Strathclyde
King's
Bristol
SOAS
Lancaster
Warwick
Exeter
Southampton
Sussex
Dundee
Leeds
East Anglia
Kent
Cardiff
Manchester
Sheffield


It must surely be agreed that one can only go on saying "League table positions don't matter" for so long. Being persistently below par in these tables does damage a law school's reputation as well as put off prospective students, and while you may deplore the students' fickle selection of university, can you really blame them? University reputation will always have a large degree of objectivity to it, but the tables are the single scientific approach there is to rank universities. So try as you might you cannot simply brush aside rankings on the basis that they do not matter, even though you may argue they should be taken with the obligatory 'pinch of salt'.

At times I'm very fond of Cardiff Law school but at others I do despair when I see it touted round the forum with no real basis to back up its merits. So what I suppose I'd really like to know firstly is why?

a) Why has the University fallen in the tables over the last 4-5 years?

b) Are the reasons for the fall irreparable?

and finally
c) How is the reputation of Cardiff Law school faring in the city and at firms/chambers? How long can it continue before it will be considered 'dim' for want of a better word, and does the student community or others hold Cardiff in any esteem any more?

Answers awaited in trepidation!
Jermynstreet
Given Manchester is almost at the bottom of that league table, I'm disinclined to put much faith in it (despite my own department featuring well, so I would like to 'believe' it! :biggrin:)

Regarding Cardiff, my younger brother went there. He was unimpressed with the teaching, and felt unsupported and unchallenged a lot of the time. I don't know how much of the Times league tables are to do with student experience, but if my brothers experience was a majority one, perhaps it explains it?
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Reply 2
Original post by flying plum
Given Manchester is almost at the bottom of that league table, I'm disinclined to put much faith in it (despite my own department featuring well, so I would like to 'believe' it! :biggrin:)

Regarding Cardiff, my younger brother went there. He was unimpressed with the teaching, and felt unsupported and unchallenged a lot of the time. I don't know how much of the Times league tables are to do with student experience, but if my brothers experience was a majority one, perhaps it explains it?


I believe there may be some issue here. I think at a lots of universities there are certain academics that the the university 'carries' based on their previous work who are now just coasting for retirement. I've had 8 law tutors so far (one per module) and 7 were very good...one however is dreadful and is unfortunately a tutor for a core module!

I too was surprised by Manchester's position, is Manchester suffering for the same reason Cardiff is? And what is that reason?!
Reply 3
Original post by JeRmYnStReEt
I believe there may be some issue here. I think at a lots of universities there are certain academics that the the university 'carries' based on their previous work who are now just coasting for retirement. I've had 8 law tutors so far (one per module) and 7 were very good...one however is dreadful and is unfortunately a tutor for a core module!

I too was surprised by Manchester's position, is Manchester suffering for the same reason Cardiff is? And what is that reason?!

Name and shame?
I don't understand the need for a high ranking on league tables. Everyone knows Cardiff is an excellent university, as are the others in the Russel Group.

Newcastle University is ranked 24th for Mathematics, and I've firmed having achieved 4 As at AS level...

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