Best RG Uni of the Mid-North? Leeds, York, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield?

Durham went to all the trouble of having beautiful old buildings, colleges, ****y nightlife and all the other things the Oxbridge rejectee presumably so loved in our most venerated institutions. Then shot itself in the proverbial by basing itself in a North Eastern mining region.

You really think that puts applicants off (particularly as there's no longer such a thing as coal mining in the whole of County Durham, let alone in and around Durham, for over 20 years?

I don't understand the obsession with York. Personally, I'd say Leeds. They are strong across the board, also it's a great looking university, and a nice city. When I went to visit I felt at home instantly, and was impressed by all aspects of the uni, even the accommodation. I am applying to transfer there btw.

Maybe we all felt the same about York.

I'm hoping to firm York for 2013 entry History, so my word carries little clout, and is based on league tables, friends' experience and my limited personal experience.

However, at least for my subject, History, York is the strongest in the universities listed above. It is consistently in the top 10 for History and seems to be battling with Warwick for 7th/8th place in most league tables. Having visited both York and Warwick, I think I prefer the Warwick campus because there are fewer 60s blocks, but York overall.

For starters, York Medievalists appear to be among the best in the world, the Centre for Medieval Study at Postgrad has a great international reputation. Presumably, this would trickle down into UG teaching because they're all the same academics? York's city is brilliant. The other mid-North unis might be better for nightlife, but I don't think anything can compare to York Minster, if you're as gay for old buildings as I am.

So is bristol's

Overall, I would say that Bristol's name still commands more respect than York, although obviously the gap is narrowing.

Not for me, I'd say York has overtaken Bristol in the last few years.

Exactly. What Rebecca says goes (unless it is opposition to what I say)

Briefcase from the inbetweeners chose Bristol over Warwick...does that mean anything?

How can you say this? Nearly all of Bristol's courses are A*AA! York is very strong for humanities going by league tables but overall one has to give the nod to Bristol; going back to my earlier post I think Bristol is something like 8th overall for subjects in the top ten to York's 14th.

I think the first point would be that league tables are a very rough guideline as to what the good universities are. Certainly exact positioning is not absolute. We have to also consider that there are at least four recognised UK league tables, world rankings and also subject rankings. If for example we take the Times 2013 league rankings, your university is 20th, but Lancaster is 12th. Both are excellent but I think Nottingham's reputation would put it ahead of Lancaster. I just think if you did a survey of employers/people in academic circles, they'd favour Nottingham. So we can't really go by exact positioning. Bath is ranked 3rd in the Sunday Times 2013 league rankings. Again excellent university, but most would favour Durham or LSE.

I don't really think offers are a way of justifying the difference between quality, certainly not in the upper echelons when we are talking A grades. Some universities just don't recognise the A*'s as much. One can hardly say a university is better because the offer is A*AA rather than AAA.

I think you go by reputation. We were Sunday Times university of the year 2010, we were ranked the best "new" university in the country, we have links with Ivy League institutions, I would say that we are absolutely just as good as Bristol, and if I had to pick I'd give us the nod.

But I think both, as is the case with your uni and Warwick are all traditional top 10 universities.

I am approaching this from the viewpoint of York being an option for me when applying whereas Bristol was out of my league asking for A*AA. I don't take league tables that seriously but I am interested in how many subjects in the top ten a uni has as it gives a rough overall idea which is why I posted what I did.

What you said about York is applicable to at least 20 uni's; Nottingham was the Sunday times uni of the year a few years back and Exeter was this year but I would consider the three comparatively similar and below Bristol in terms of pecking order. I say this again from the point of view that Exeter was an option for me when applying.

I am merely adding to the debate I am not deriding York in any way. Your point about the A* grade is a good one.