What do you think of Robert Gordon university?

The employment rates are amongst the best in the UK.

This perhaps says more about what isn't taught there than what is.

I mean, suppose you have two universities each of which offers only three degrees:

A: Engineering, Biosciences, Surveying
B: Engineering, Biosciences, Media Studies

The first will have better employment rates than the second, but that won't make its Engineering or Biosciences graduates any more employable. AnotherBritish university with extremely high employment rates is Aston, but likely for the same reason.

I wish I didn't have to say it but unless the RGU course offerings are much more appealing than those at Aberdeen, my counsel would be to go with Aberdeen for brand value.

Not totally convinced that 148th in the world ranking quite equates with good international prestige.

Seriously you seem to make the point yourself that there is no correlation, in this instance at least, between employment rates and league table ranking. Seems RGU has a lot to offer, and if you prefer the course then is there really an issue. Have you visited both?

I go to the University of Aberdeen and although my degree isn't in management, I have taken some management modules. When choosing your uni, you have to consider what you value more; a good reputation or better employability statistics.
The University of Aberdeen doesn't offer a placement as part of the degree because they expect you to be finding experience and placements off your own back, not because they don't value them.

What looks better to an employer?
A student who has gone to an internationally recognised university plus gained relevant experience that they have sought out themselves or a student who has gone to a good university with great employability statistics, yet only has experience from the placement that is included in the degree.

Obviously, I'm slightly biased as I chose Aberdeen over RGU but ultimately you have to consider the course content. Going to a well recognised uni means nothing if you end up with a crap classification because you hated the course and didn't do any work.

Or maybe just because it is a "traditional" university?
And if you're right, why do RGu graduate students find better jobs than students from Aberdeen uni (look at statistics)?
I don't want to provoke you of course, I am really interested in the answers as I really like both universities.

And what do you think is more important: university prestige or working experience?

Ok, also at Uni of Aberdeen you can get working experience but not such a good one as at RGU.

Yes, there is that too, but the University of Aberdeen has had many opportunities to modernise and has chosen not to. The university prides itself on it's graduates having certain employability attributes that come from doing things for oneself external to the degree rather than being given the experience within the degree (there's a whole award process you can go through to do with this if you're interested in having that on your cv).

Each university does things differently, the University of Aberdeen promotes students seeking their external experience themselves rather than pushing them into it (just so you know, the placement year at RGU isn't guaranteed, you get help with finding a placement but you aren't guaranteed to get one, in that case you have to do a year long project instead). Personally, I prefer that approach.

Which statistics say that RGU students get better jobs? I haven't seen those.
Either way, I wouldn't dwell on them too much. Considering the percentage of students that get jobs after graduating? Yes, I would say that is important. Considering whether the jobs are better or not? Not so much. That is very subjective, something that is a better job in my opinion may not be better to another.

You also have to consider the courses each university offers when considering these statistics. RGU offers courses that are solely aimed at getting a career at the end of it. Aberdeen offers a mixture of courses that lead to a specific career and courses that can be taken out of sheer interest and passion for the subject, but may not lead specifically to a set job or career path. When you consider that aspect, the small difference between RGU and Aberdeen really doesn't mean anything.
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?o=Prospects

I would completely disagree with your point about not getting as good working experience at Aberdeen as you can get at RGU. Getting a year long placement at RGU doesn't necessarily mean you have better experience than summer placements throughout your time at Aberdeen. It is more about the relevance of your experience rather than the length of time you were there. I have many friends at RGU that were swayed by the promise of a placement and thought it would do wonders for their cvs, but there are only so many relevant placements available and some students end up doing something that is only vaguely relevant for a year. I know two girls in particular who worked in a company related to their degree, but spent their placements making coffee. Is that better than someone who completed a summer placement that involved hands on experience in the career of their choice? Not so much.
Obviously RGU students can do summer placements in other years if they want to too.

As for what I find most important: relevant work experience and good grades, ultimately. However when those are combined with a well recognised university you are on to a winner.

I am not trying to force you to change to Aberdeen by the way, I know many students at RGU that love it, however I would really look more into the placement year if that is what is likely to sway you. You may end up severely disappointed.

Are you from Aberdeen or are you just considering both Aberdeen unis?

I am from Switzerland hahaaha.
So you're telling me that the placement year isn't guaranteed? Are you sure? It depends on what? I didn't know it.
Regarding the statistics, I am talking about Unistats.
Honestly, I don't think that it matters a lot how you get your working experience. The important thing is getting a good one and I've read that RGU offers good opportunities to do so, but now i'm not sure anymore, lol.

Thanks a lot for your answers!

Oh that's awesome! I've always wanted to go to Switzerland!

Yeah I'm 100% sure it isn't guaranteed. If you can't find a placement for your placement year you have to complete another project (the ones specified in the non-placement route in the prospectus or online). Choosing the placement route doesn't automatically guarantee you a placement, you then have to find someone willing to take you on for that year.

I agree with you about getting good experience rather than basing the importance on how you get your experience, but you have to consider the fact that you may very well either end up in a vaguely relevant placement for a year or not doing a year long placement at all. Then you'll only have summer between 3rd and 4th to get your placements in.

You should focus more on the course content rather than experience possibilities if I'm honest. You'll have plenty of opportunities to gain experience whichever uni you choose, but the courses are vastly different.

RGU offers a BA in Management whereas Aberdeen offers and MA in Management Studies. Verrrrry different things. The RGU course is set in stone and entirely focussed on management, whereas the Aberdeen course allows for additional study in other areas that interest you. You then have the option of changing degrees at the end of first year (granted you've done all the pre-requisites for the other degree) if you find that you hate the management course.

What's the difference between BA and MA?
If I would solely choose the university for the content of the course, RGU offers something more interesting to me.
I know that at Aberdeen uni it's possible to combine your main subject with another one and this sounds really great, but isn't studying more subjects at the same time too hard?
The management course at the uni of aberdeen is also good I think, but less various than the one offered by RGU. Moreover, at the second year, at Aberdeen uni, you have to follow a statistics course which really scares me (I'm not really good at maths).

I just haven't understood 1 thing: why are you recommanding me to study at Aberdeen uni? """"Just"""" because it has more prestige?

I know that page, but I've also found this:http://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/arts/management_studies/

Why is it different from the one you showed to me?
On the webpage you posted, there's no accounting course at the first year and no statistics course at the second one.
Which is the right one?

So you have studied management at the first year? Why did you not like it? Is there a lot of maths?

Thanks a lot!

The one you have linked is the course info for the prospectus. The one I linked gives a detailed overview of the management courses. There is no accounting or statistics courses shown there because they are accounting courses and statistics courses respectively. They are not management courses, but they are compulsory for management students.

The management studies course calendar (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/registry/calendar/requirements/01N10070.doc) gives you all of the current compulsory modules for a management student. From there, you can check the codes against the course catalogue I linked in the last post to see the course content and structure and you can also have a look at other modules that may of interest to you if you choose Aberdeen.

No there is no maths whatsoever in either of the management modules in first year. I hated the modules because they were of absolutely no interest or use to me. The staff in that department aren't great either, so lectures and tutorials are just horribly boring when you combine the awful course content and boring staff. This is coming from an accountancy and finance student though, I have no interest in management. The fact that you are taking a management degree suggests that you find it interesting and won't have that issue. You will not have to do maths though. There is very little maths in the accounting module too, the first half of the module is financial accounting (balancing numbers, some VERY BASIC maths, but everything can be done on a calculator so you should have no issues with the maths if you can plug numbers into a calculator) and the second half is management accounting which doesn't involve maths at all.

Also, the compulsory accounting course for management students is the easiest module in the world.

Thanks a lot!
I have some further questions to ask, if you don't mind:
- How much maths is it involved in statistics (especially in the module of the management course)?
- If I choose to study another subject besides the management one, can I change it from the second year, if I don't like it?
- Is it easy to find a job during summer to get some relevant working experience?

Thanks a lot again!

I can't say about that particular stats module because I won't be taking it until the second semester of second year myself, but I know it has a lot of overlap with the stats module I'm currently doing (it's actually pretty much the same module, haha) which has had absolutely no maths whatsoever.

I'm not sure what you mean. If you choose to study other subjects alongside management (which you will have to do to gain enough credits) then you can change your degree if you want. If you decide you don't like the subjects you chose to do in first year then you don't have to continue those in second year, you can do other ones if you want.

Yes, Aberdeen has some of the best employment rates in the UK (if not the best, it fluctuates all the time). You won't have any problems finding relevant work experience in Aberdeen.

No, there is no maths in statistics. No maths of any kind.
There is maths in accounting, but very basic maths (addition and subtraction). There is also maths in the form of formulae, however these are again very basic and rely on basic division skills. If you can understand the formulae on paper and plug it into a calculator, you will have no problems.

A summer placement and a year long placement are very different. Summer placements generally range from 2-6 weeks. Most companies are much happier paying students for short 2-6 week placements rather than taking them on for a full year.
The placement year at RGU requires your placement to be a continual year with the same company. This is hard to find when you consider the amount of other students also fighting for the same year long placements.

You're most probably right about the placement year. I'll contact the uni to find out more details. Thanks you of giving these important answers, I was sure that the placement year was guaranteed (it's not written on the website that it's not).

One last question: what do you study at statistics if there's no maths? Sorry again for insisting with this question, but I really want to avoid maths and things which involves too much maths. Don't you have to use derivatives, integrals, probability calculus,...? I know I may sound stupid, but I always had a bad relationship with maths, lol.

Thank you so much, you have been really really helpful!