The Student Room Group

Is really Cambridge the best university in the Uk?

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Reply 20
Original post by Tsunami2011
don't you think that your third group has too many unis? I agree on the whole though, but would go

Tier 1:
Oxford
Cambridge

Tier 2:
LSE
Imperial

Tier 3:
UCL
Warwick
St Andrews
Durham

Tier 4:
Bristol
Bath
Kings
York
Nottingham

Tier:5
The other russell groups/94


I find your lack of Edinburgh in a high tier...disturbing.
Original post by Tsunami2011
Nah its based on my general perception of university and others. Its not really a big deal, but you can ascertain how highly a university is rated by how people react to it. I.e when I tell people where I applied, in order of preference, they get less impressed, the further down the list we go. Also basing it on where top firms recruit from which isn't entirely relevant.

Yeah, that's just prestige though, which is all very subjective.

Original post by Tsunami2011

Wasnt LSE around 60 something? doesn't seem infaliable to me.

In general, I believe so, but for Law it's 7th in the world or 3rd in Britain.
How many universities have yous all studied at to know whether they are good or bad :-P Im sure on paper these uni's look great, and the people who go to them on here will big them up as much as they can because they know they are the 'better' uni's in the country. But im just abit unclear where people are getting their data from to feel like they can rank them.

Its nothing personal towards anyone, just quite confusing how you can judge a uni if you havnt been to them all and you are not basing your information on the rankings either.
That list is just stupid, too many flipping variables i.e what course you are doing. Merge tier 2 and three. There is no best University, as it is pretty much entirely subjective when you get past the top 20.
Reply 24
look at a league table ...
Reply 25
Who cares which is best on paper?

I defined the best university as the one that offers the course I want, the atmosphere I'm after and the career opportunities I would like to have after completing the course so in my case, Durham.
(edited 12 years ago)
The queen visited my university today, your argument is invalid
Original post by MartinKellyisagod
The queen visited my university today, your argument is invalid


To meet the King?
Reply 28
Original post by Tsunami2011
don't you think that your third group has too many unis? I agree on the whole though, but would go

Tier 1:
Oxford
Cambridge
Imperial

Tier 2:
LSE
Imperial
UCL

Tier 3:
UCL
Warwick
St Andrews
Durham

Tier 4:
Bristol
Bath
Kings
York
Nottingham

Tier:5
The other russell groups/94


It isn't 6th in the world for no reason.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 29
For undergrad I'd say oxbridge's teaching style puts them ahead of all other unis. For postgrad, it really depends on the subject.
How many universities have yous all studied at to know whether they are good or bad :-P Im sure on paper these uni's look great, and the people who go to them on here will big them up as much as they can because they know they are the 'better' uni's in the country. But im just abit unclear where people are getting their data from to feel like they can rank them.

Its nothing personal towards anyone, just quite confusing how you can judge a uni if you havnt been to them all and you are not basing your information on the rankings either.
Reply 32


Fair enough. Depends which tables you look at.
Original post by Alex-92
It isn't 8th in the world for no reason.


By your logic LSE should be in Tier 3, considering that its below Warwick and a few others.
Reply 34
Original post by History Student
How many universities have yous all studied at to know whether they are good or bad :-P Im sure on paper these uni's look great, and the people who go to them on here will big them up as much as they can because they know they are the 'better' uni's in the country. But im just abit unclear where people are getting their data from to feel like they can rank them.

Its nothing personal towards anyone, just quite confusing how you can judge a uni if you havnt been to them all and you are not basing your information on the rankings either.


Good point. There is a difference between prestige and a good brand name and the quality of teaching for instance. Hopefully a prestigious university where people report excellent teaching would be best! Thats why they've started including the student feedback in the data for each university. It has thrown up some surprises with Bristol and Imperial apparently reporting student disatisfaction with the quality of teaching and interaction.

Apart from data like this I suppose its a case of talking to lots of people who have been to university or using resources like TSR.

Its also very subject specific. Obviously for humanities and the arts the list might look different. No Imperial or Bath for instance. Social sciences would be different again. For the fine and visual arts or performance disciplines then a completely different set of institutions altogether would emerge. If I wanted to be a Forensic Anthroplogist I would be looking at Bournemouth rather than Oxford. That's why league tables are also produced subject by subject. None of it is an exact science but people do like to have a steer in the right direction so I suppose its the best we can do.

This thread is answering someone's question about a maths based degree so the universities being discussed are biased to this.

:smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
THe older/traditionally good ones are normally the best. People's opinions very massively.

Dunno why loads of people are hyping up Nottingham it's just a standard middle class uni, same as Exeter.

Warwick is world class for Econ, but not much of a reputation for the humanities, and is relatively new as far as prestiege goes.

Oxford and Cambridge are good - and are famous for giving undergrad students a world class education.

But many of their professors, a majority actually, didn't do their undergrads at Oxford or Cambridge etc etc.


Just look at the Russel Group and you've got your answer there. If you want more, look at companies in the field you want to work with, look at the 'our people' section, and look at the unis the high up people on there went to. You should be able to get a pretty good idea from that.

Also should be considering what is a good uni for you - there isn't much point going to Cambridge if you don't think you can get a 2.1 there (employment wise).
Reply 36
Original post by FDR
The UK has some of the best universities in the world. I think, in general, they can be put into groups as such (In no particular order in each group)

group 1

Cambridge, Oxford

group 2

LSE, Imperial

group 3

UCL
Edinburgh
Warwick
Nottingham
Bristol
Bath
Durham
St Andrews
Kings
York

group 4

The rest of the Russell group and 1994 group


Sounds about right to me. Group 1 & 2 are consistently in the top 10 or 20 world rankings overall (depending on which league table you look at). Sometimes - but not always - UCL joins them. But yeah, pretty much spot on. Only quibble I would have is you may be being a bit kind to Nottingham...
Reply 37
Original post by Alex-92
It isn't 8th in the world for no reason.


Heh. I'd like to agree... in reality it's probably about tier 1.5. The thing is, it's much closer to LSE in national rankings, but absolutely trounces LSE (and so does UCL usually) in world rankings.
Reply 38
Damn straight :wink: No bias there.


Oh and there are other good universities out there.
Reply 39
Original post by Noldorin
Sounds about right to me. Group 1 & 2 are consistently in the top 10 or 20 world rankings overall (depending on which league table you look at). Sometimes - but not always - UCL joins them. But yeah, pretty much spot on. Only quibble I would have is you may be being a bit kind to Nottingham...


I think it's pretty fair to include Nottingham in the top 14 uni's in the UK (assuming 'group 3' isn't actually ordered). It is certainly a well established, research-led and large university in terms of size, student population, resources and funding. It came 8th in the league table by the Sunday Times (or I think it was the ST) that took an average of league table positions over 10 years between 1997-2007, which shows consistent performance nationally at least.

On top of this it is rated strongly in international league tables compared to it's UK counterparts, is a staple member of the Russell Group and part of the "Sutton 13".

It's campuses in China and Malaysia have given it a genuinely strong international reputation, or at least a reputation in Asia, and this is expected to grow.

To add to this, Nottingham's position in the league tables is believed to have taken a hit in recent years due to the 'Shottingham' reputation. Go back five years and I'm under the impression that it was viewed as a solid top ten UK university, a belief that is certainly backed up by the aforementioned '10 year average' league table... This suggests it has a reasonable amount of 'prestige' in the UK, even if it has been viewed more in the top 15 these days.

However, as has stated by others previously, in practice it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the UK universities that make up the group outside of Oxbridge, LSE, ICL, UCL, and the particular subject you're looking at can be crucial. International league tables also cater strongly towards physically larger universities (ie. Manchester).

(Worth mentioning I don't go to Nottingham, though I did apply there, which is why I know the above information.)
(edited 12 years ago)

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