American Curious About UK University Reputations - Help!

Hi everyone,
I'm an American student hoping to get an idea of UK university reputations, specifically for Masters programs in the realm of human rights or gender studies.
Here are a few programs I'm looking at:
- University of Leeds, MA in Gender Studies (Global Genders)
- University of Sussex, MA in Human Rights or Gender Studies
- University of East Anglia, MA in Media & International Development
If anyone could give me an idea of the reputations of these universities or even other specific programs in the UK (or Europe), that would be wonderful.
Thanks a ton :smile:

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Reply 1

millie-rose

Where as the USA have the 'Ivy League' we have the 'Russel Group' which are the UK's leading research led universities. Out of your three, the University of Leeds is the only one which is the member of the Russel Group. I would pick that one as it's reputation has been recognized by an influential body.

Also, I'm unsure about Surrey but East Anglia used to be a polytechnic and then was converted to a University. (i.e. it used to teach vocational degrees). I'm not damning it's reputation but I would say Leeds reputation is better as it has always been an established university and is historically old.

You can see this in the buildings, Uni of Leeds is many old historical buildings whereas Surrey's campus is almost brand new and to be quite frank Uni of East Anglia's looks like an office block.

Reply 2

redferry

Leeds and Sussex are both really good for your subject, I would definitely say it was worth applying :smile:

Reply 3

bownessie

UEA has a good reputation and isn't an ex poly...?

Reply 4

cambio wechsel

Original post by millie-rose

pretty well total bull**** from beginning to end.

Reply 5

sj27

Plus, she was going on about Surrey when OP was talking about Sussex...
Isn't Sussex supposed to have quite a good reputation in this area?

Reply 6

Tcannon

Sussex has pretty high entry requirements for most of its undergrad courses (equiv. SAT) and a fine reputation in your course. Its Development Institute is well known for academic excellence and attracts strong domestic and international students. Some internationals are funded by their governments and Sussex is on list of target unis (after LSE and Oxbridge). Profs publish in high impact acad. journals, student satisfaction is good, range of electives and some postgrads join PhD programmes. It also invites guest speakers from other unis, government and NGOs.

Leeds is a good red brick uni with known reputation in the UK. Possibly what you call a Top 20 school in the US.

Reply 7

ella12345

Original post by psychedelicious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankings_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Higher_Education_World_University_Rankings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings

Use the above to acquaint yourself generally with how Universities work and are ranked in the UK and what they're like in global terms. Have a look at the academics teaching the courses at the Universities you're interested in. What is their research like? Does it tie in with your interests?

What is your GPA? If it's 3.6/4.0 or higher you can probably get into most of the top Universities over here.

Thanks - this was very helpful! My European friend also told me to judge based off European rankings, excluding the US and elsewhere. I graduated Cum Laude Honors (between 3.5-3.65 GPA), so I'm not sure where that leaves me. In the US, honors are considered good and I noticed most UK schools look for 2:1 honors (which is a 3.3+ GPA and above, I believe). The only top university I was maybe considering applying to was LSE, which is obviously highly competitive! I would imagine they look for top honors.

Reply 8

marcusfox

In the UK there are league tables and the universities are ranked in terms of academic excellence, which should give you some idea as to prestige and reputation.

Also, look at whether or not the instituton is a member of the 'Russell Group".

Reply 9

ella12345

Original post by Tcannon

Thanks for your comment! That's what I also read about Sussex. They also seem like they try to cultivate an international environment, which is important to me. I'd been reading about the 'red brick' universities, but also conflicting stuff about the importance of the 'Russell Group.' Basically I just want confidence that I'm going into a strong academic environment.

Reply 10

Josh93

The University of Sussex is brilliant - it doesn't have as entrenched a reputation as the old 'red-brick Russel Group' universities but employability is almost comparable and student satisfaction is actually higher. It really depends what sort of experience you are looking for.

Leeds has a good reputation for research but I've never been there so I can't really give it the same reference as Sussex - the other thing in favour of Sussex is that Brighton is a fantastic city to be a student in and you have really easy access to London which is brilliant for recreation and I imagine useful if you need to do research placements for human rights etc (I think several huma rights charities are based in Brighton too but I can't confirm that off the top of my head).
Feel free to pm me if you want more information anyway :smile:

Reply 11

Tcannon

Russell Group means research based uni with origin of medical schools, it is also a lobbying group. But honestly for MSc courses, some smaller or specialist non Russell Group unis have strong MSc in selected areas. See SOAS, London School of Tropical Medicine are known for international centre of excellence among academics, strong research institutes and their postgrads have good careers. Admittedly though the Joe Sixpacks may not know. human rights or gender studies is a specialist degree and is not offered by many unis.

Reply 12

evantej

Original post by millie-rose

[...] Also, I'm unsure about Surrey but East Anglia used to be a polytechnic and then was converted to a University. (i.e. it used to teach vocational degrees). I'm not damning it's reputation but I would say Leeds reputation is better as it has always been an established university and is historically old. [...]

Despite popular belief, polytechnics taught 'academic' subjects too. Likewise, lots of them are way older than lots of established universities.

Reply 13

sj27

Original post by ella12345

If your references are good enough and you don't mind the odd application fee, no reason not to apply to the top unis. There may be one or two where your GPA is a bit on the low side, but I seem to recall (in general, not sure of your field) that a 3.5 GPA is usually acceptable for most, and if you have strong references it may swing the application in your favour.

As another poster said this is a fairly specialist MA, and I'm not sure rankings based on undergrad (what some other posters are linking to) should really be the major decision factor. The types of organizations you are probably aiming for will know which unis produce good MA students in the field. It may be worthwhile doing some searches on the websites of some of the types of employers you're aiming for, or on LinkedIn, to see if any unis come up regularly in the employee profiles.

Reply 14

millie-rose

Original post by evantej

Despite popular belief, polytechnics taught 'academic' subjects too. Likewise, lots of them are way older than lots of established universities.

I know, I was just explaining briefly the division between polytechnics and traditional unis, wasn't trying to insult it

Reply 15

millie-rose

Original post by psychedelicious

You are incorrect. UEA was founded in 1963. It's a 'plate glass' University. Someone who posted in the Cambridge thread is has been offered a place on an M.Phil there and is in her final year at UEA. It can't be that bad...

How am I incorrect? That still makes unis such as Leeds which was founded in 1831 older than UEA? I do not also doubt that it is bad at all, I'm simply saying Leeds has a better reputation via the Russel Group

Reply 16

sj27

Original post by millie-rose

Leeds is a lot older than Warwick, does that make it better?

You're giving advice in a postgrad forum, have you even started undergrad yet?

Reply 17

returnmigrant

Age isnt everything.

The 1960s saw an expansion of the Universities in Britain - Unis of that era (they were NEVER Polytechnics) are Sussex, UEA, York, Surrey, Exeter etc. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/expansion-of-universities-in-the-1960s/12711.html

Along with the Russell Group is the 1994 Group that was formed as a result of the 1990s 'turning Polys into Unis' event and a move away from the Russell Group. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Group.

*Around half of the top twenty universities in UK national newspaper league tables are 1994 Group members.* As I said it isnt age that matters - its the quality of the education, the innovation of the insitution and the excellence of the teaching staff that counts. Dont get hung up on the idea that the Russell Group are great and everything else is rubbish.

Reply 18

nulli tertius

Original post by ella12345

You have rather walked into a private war because of one or two ill-advised comments by other posters.

The UK rankings that have bandied about are heavily orientated to undergraduate study and may therefore ne of less relevance to you.

Leeds is an older institution and a member of the Russell Group which is a club of large research institutions.

Sussex and East Anglia date from the 1960s, are small and are members of the 1994 Group, a club of smaller research institutions.

Obviously you are wanting to read a social science and that is an area in which many of the 1960s universities have their strengths.

I am quite a lot older than most of the posters on here. 25-30 years ago Sussex was the leading "modern" university. You ill see a lot of references on TSR to the University of Warwick. Sussex and Warwick are of comparable age and Warwick enjoys now, the reputation that Sussex did then. That legacy may well be reflected in the opinions of folk outside the UK.

You are looking at programmes in quite different fields. My view in this case would be to sound out the opinions of your lecturers. They will know where the best researchers are based.