Placement of Manchester in the league tables

This is sort of similar to the other million threads in GUD about top unis and whatnot...

I was led to believe that Manchester was a bordering on top 10 uni in Britain. However, reading said threads in GUD seems to imply that Manchester's waaay down, not as good as many unis that I would have placed beneath Manchester. In addition, The Times Good University Guide recently placed Manchester 26th. While I know we shouldn't go by league tables only, does Manchester really have a worse reputation than I thought?

Reply 1

sweet_fluffy_nuke

thatwhichiam

TThe Times Good University Guide recently placed Manchester 26th. While I know we shouldn't go by league tables only, does Manchester really have a worse reputation than I thought?

It isnt too bad. The Guardian (admittedly not very reliable for rankings ) rates it 16th overall and 36th for modern languages.

Reply 2

Anannya

8

No it isn't. Its a very good university. And if you really want to go by league tables then THES ranked it 52 among the world's best. Bitter students of other universities will tell you that that that league table is bad and all and that you should look at the Times and even if they do you will see it named as the university of the year :smile:

(shows you the flaw in the league table by placing it at 26th :p:

)

. THES in my opinion is the most reliable actually as they have reasonable weighting scores and they are actually immersed in higher education and so will definetly know more than a league table published by a newspaper.

But you shouldn't really rely on any ranking so much. I have gone through those posts too. There is a current verbal spat going on there in between Durham Warwick and the likes of Manchester etc, about which is better than which :p:

. I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you...manchester is very good and I don't think unless someone has a pea sized brain will disagree with it. :p:

Reply 3

champ_lal

According to the THES, Manchester is ranked 40th in the world and 7th in Europe. As far as the 'university of the year' thing goes, I really wouldn't be bothered as to who wins it. C'mon, Exeter was the runner-up(no offence).

Actually I'm in a bit of dilemma as to whether I should keep Manchester or Warwick as my insurance choice.

Reply 4

s.elena

I think ARWU is the most renowned ranking internationally. http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking2006.htm

According to that, Manchester is ranked 50th in the world, 9th in Europe and 5th in the UK so not bad...

Reply 5

champ_lal

I don't think ARWU is very reliable.It ranks Oxford 10th and close on its heels is University of Wisconsin-Madison at 16th spot(above universities like UCL and Michigan).Also....LSE does not feature in the top 100.....

Reply 6

s.elena

University of Wisconsin-Madison is huge in research... ARWU is very scientifically based so that's probably why LSE isn't in top 100. ARWU emphasises Nobels and Fields Medals, research and the size of the university so of course unis that are good in sciense will do well. I'm not saying it's the right way to rank them but the statistics itself is the one people and media follow here in Northern Europe. Here it's considered to be the most objective ranking.

Reply 7

MikeyB!

5

League tables mean jack ****. Especially for someone like me who is doing Music... Go by the department, not necessarily the uni as a whole.

Reply 8

Jono310

8

MikeyB!

League tables mean jack ****. Especially for someone like me who is doing Music... Go by the department, not necessarily the uni as a whole.

Well said MikeyB! rep for yooou! I couldnt have put it better myself...

Well i could have done, but i dont think i need to now!

J

PS you spend too much time on here....

Reply 9

daggy

Yeah league tables don't mean a huge thing generally...
you need to look at the department you wanna go to....
No use going to the best uni if the department you're studying in isn't all that great :smile:

Reply 10

jackdanniel

who cares guys? manc deserves within top 10 and top 40 in the world. some univs are famous in the uk, but the same could not be said in the international context. but manc wins both. i think manc holds a good leverage between both and, achieves a 6th place in this leverage both for uk and international reputation, just after cam ox ic lse and ucl, together with edinburgh.

Reply 11

graemematt

12

jackdanniel

who cares guys? manc deserves within top 10 and top 40 in the world. some univs are famous in the uk, but the same could not be said in the international context. but manc wins both. i think manc holds a good leverage between both and, achieves a 6th place in this leverage both for uk and international reputation, just after cam ox ic lse and ucl, together with edinburgh.

Ahem...and st andrews :p:

Sorry, had to make a shout-out. But yeah, on that note, I dont feel at all like I'm going to a "lesser" university, even though Manchester is about 16 or so places below st a. Infact, quite the opposite...the dept I'm going into utilises £126 million/year into research, I think. Or was it £51 mill...even so it's very impressive!

Reply 12

pghstochaj

11

League tables mean nothing, be it general or subject specific. If Manchester was number 1 or number 1000, I would say the same.

Reply 13

bluesky5

yeah i don't think that rankings seems very relaible. LSE not in the top 100?? and Cardiff, Sussex, Liverpool and Leeds better than Durham and Uni of East Anglia on a par?? Perhaps it goes more on research than things like graduate prospects and reputation. The way I see it, in the UK there are groups:
(In no particular order in the groups)

ox,cam,imperial,lse;

then other london, durham, bristol, edinburgh, manchester, bath maybe one or 2 more

Then other russel group

Do you guys agree?

Reply 14

Clarence

14

I agree with the groupings.

I'd put . Oxford, Cambridge, LSE together then

Warwick, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, UCL then

Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Exeter, Kings etc....

Reply 15

daggy

Clarence

I agree with the groupings.

I'd put . Oxford, Cambridge, LSE together then

Warwick, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, UCL then

Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Exeter, Kings etc....

I agree with most of that, although I'd wack manchester in the second group!!

Reply 16

graemematt

12

daggy

I agree with most of that, although I'd wack manchester in the second group!!

Haha, slightly biased view there if I may be so bold as to say...I mean, with Sheffield and Kings in the third group there, I dont see Manchester as better than either of those two institutions, but definetely on par :biggrin:

And why does everyone mention Edinburgh and still remain completely oblivious to the fact that St Andrews is the best university in Scotland? :p:

Reply 17

IR Postgraduate

4

graemematt

And why does everyone mention Edinburgh and still remain completely oblivious to the fact that St Andrews is the best university in Scotland? :p:

:dito:

Reply 18

daggy

graemematt

Haha, slightly biased view there if I may be so bold as to say...I mean, with Sheffield and Kings in the third group there, I dont see Manchester as better than either of those two institutions, but definetely on par :biggrin:

And why does everyone mention Edinburgh and still remain completely oblivious to the fact that St Andrews is the best university in Scotland? :p:

loool maybe just a little Biased :p:

Reply 19

IR Postgraduate

4

daggy

loool maybe just a little Biased :p:

I think it's a reasonable question. St Andrews generally has a higher ranking with better research, teaching, and student satisfaction scores. Further, its acceptance requirements are significantly higher than Edinburgh. It seems that some people on TSR pay more attention to Edinburgh than St Andrews. Why?

Placement of Manchester in the league tables

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you