Ranking Scottish unis from best to worst (to prove a point)

Strathclyde Engineering and Business School are better than Glasgow and Edinburgh tbh should be tier 1, St Andrews doesn’t even have Engineering

My opinion:

Tier 1: St. Andrews and Edinburgh (leagues ahead of all the other Scottish universities imo)
Tier 2: Glasgow and Strathclyde
Tier 3: Aberdeen, Dundee and Heriot-Watt
Tier 4: Stirling and RGU
Tier 5: Napier, Caledonian and Abertay
Tier 6: West of Scotland, Queen Margaret and Highlands and Islands



lol wut?

Glasgow is a Russell-Group uni and should be tier 1

You could, if you were of a mind, rank them by long term earnings outcomes:

1. St Andrews : £31,864 median earnings 5 years after graduation
2. Edinburgh : £31,530
3. Aberdeen : £29,988
4. Glasgow : £29,467
5. Robert Gordon : £28,682
6. Heriot-Watt : £27,190
7. Strathclyde : £27,094
8. Dundee : £26,082
9. Highlands and Islands : £25,967
10. Stirling : £25,179
11. Glasgow Caledonian : £25,000
12. Edinburgh Napier : £24,540
13. West of Scotland : £23,569
14. Queen Margaret, Edinburgh : £23,267
15. Abertay Dundee : £23,125

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/graduate-outcomes-for-all-subjects-by-university

Or you could rank them by their Scandinavian languages offering (a much better metric than earnings, to be sure):

1. Edinburgh
2. Aberdeen
3. Highlands and Islands
0. St Andrews
0. Glasgow
0. Robert Gordon
0. Heriot-Watt
0. Strathclyde
0. Dundee
0. Stirling
0. Glasgow Caledonian
0. Edinburgh Napier
0. West of Scotland
0. Queen Margaret, Edinburgh
0. Abertay Dundee

Somebody need to update/expand the Duck Density ranking.
http://duckdensity.org.uk/uni_index.php?sortby=duckdensity&reverse=yes

Only 1 Scottish uni gets a quack at it.

Or you could rank them by their Scandinavian languages offering (a much better metric than earnings, to be sure):

1. Edinburgh
2. Aberdeen
3. Highlands and Islands
0. St Andrews
0. Glasgow
0. Robert Gordon
0. Heriot-Watt
0. Strathclyde
0. Dundee
0. Stirling
0. Glasgow Caledonian
0. Edinburgh Napier
0. West of Scotland
0. Queen Margaret, Edinburgh
0. Abertay Dundee

Why is Strathclyde often put into a different tier than Stirling in this thread? They are joint in The Complete University Guide, Stirling are in front of Strathclyde in the Guardian, in front of Strathclyde in Times Higher Education and Strathclyde in front of Stirling in QS. Where’s the difference?

For me (from my experiences visiting the universities and seeing the type of students that get accepted into these universities) -
Tier 1: Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow
Tier 2: Strathclyde (Strathy is in a tier of its because IN SOME CASES it is better for certain courses than the universities in tier one, although for some subjects like english or history it might even be below the universities in tier 3. Courses like engineering, science and business are extremely strong at Strathclyde, arguably better than Glasgow, Edinburgh etc.)
Tier 3: Aberdeen, Heriot Watt, Dundee.
Tier 4: Glasgow Caledonian, Edinburgh Napier, Stirling, RGU.
Tier 5: Abertay, UWS, Queen Margaret, UHI.

This can change a lot depending on the course offered.
University ranking systems are pretty flawed in general, and I think the difference between universities in the top ten (and even the top twenty) is pretty minimal. Ranking universities into tiers, or looking at specific courses, seems to be more beneficial than determining which university is number one, number two or number three...

Its probably because strathclyde does so well in individual subject rankings. League tables dont always represent how good a university is. If you look at entry standards strathclyde has the 5th highest so it is obviously a popular choice which is why people may view it as a better university. Nonetheless Stirling is still a good uni and is probably better than strathclyde for some subjects.
id probably
tier 1: St andrew and edinburgh
tier 2: Glasgow and Strathclyde
tier 4: Aberdeen and Heriott watt
tier 5: Dundee and Stirling
the rest

Obviously for many subjects these ranks wouldnt apply. For example, for engineering/ business glasgow and strathclyde would be better than ed or St andrews. Most are good unis anyway so if one is more convenient than the other it probably wouldnt make a big difference in career prospects.