[city_chic]

Sorry, I just had to say this..the BA in French doesn't even offer a year abroad! Not that I'd consider going there anyway..but still

[paddy]

So? Were you expecting something good from them?
[/bitchy commentary]

[city_chic]

Just saying..I know it's not one of the best unis but this just makes it worse.

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by city_chic)
Sorry, I just had to say this..the BA in French doesn't even offer a year abroad! Not that I'd consider going there anyway..but still

Yeah, what rubbish indeed!

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sshl/page-1289

https://srs21live.wmin.ac.uk/ipp/U09FUFNS.htm

The focus of the Language degrees is communication in a multi-cultural world and our students themselves come from a wide variety of countries and backgrounds.
Students studying on the BA in Modern Languages spend one academic year abroad, as students in one of the many institutions with which the University has an exchange programme. These include universities and other institutions in continental France (Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Nice, Lyon, Angers), French overseas departments (Martinique and Réunion) as well as French-speaking countries such as Switzerland (Geneva), Belgium (Brussels), Tunisia (Tunis) and Canada (Montréal). Students from these institutions come to London and study for a semester or a year alongside BA students at Westminster.

Introduction
There are a number of ways to study languages at Westminster.

1.The BA (Hons) Modern Languages is a four-year full-time programme (5-9 years part-time) which incorporates a full academic year abraod.

2.The BA (Hons) Language Studies is a three-year full-time programme (4-6 years part-time). It has a similar content to the BA (Hons) Modern Languages but does not include a compulsory period abroad.

[city_chic]

^ Hmm, contradictory or what?!

[Empyreal Rhapsody]

(Original post by C_D_forever)
Students studying on the BA in Modern Languages spend one academic year abroad

Haha, owned.

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by city_chic)
^ Hmm, contradictory or what?!

Hmmm....maybe you should do your research in future, I mean they even have French overseas departments and have opened university campuses in Paris, so I think they'd be offering an academic year abroad. :s

http://www.wminac-paris.org/index.html

[akmd]

I wouldn't go as far as calling it rubbish. It may not be the best London has to offer but it is well rated for things such as media. I understand their media facilities are among the best in the country!

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by akmd)
I wouldn't go as far as calling it rubbish. It may not be the best London has to offer but it is well rated for things such as media. I understand their media facilities are among the best in the country!

I think city chic meant that the “fact” its French degree didn't offer a year abroad and that (quite rightly), would have been more than rubbish - fortunately for Westminster her research skills were a bit off. How she came to that conclusion is beyond me.

It's far in advance when it comes to its media department and facilities - why people keep banging on about UAL for fashion and media is strange, as Westminster is probably more selective and it probably a stronger place to do a degree in this type of field.

Westminster is doing fine and is one, if not best "new" university in London - when you look at it's RAE ratings, facilities and independent subsidiary bodies that are a part of it. It's even acquired the PSI (Policy Studies Institute) which laid the blueprint for what is (or was) the NHS.

http://www.psi.org.uk/about/default.asp

PSI undertakes and publishes research studies relevant to social, economic, industrial and environmental policy. The Institute is a charity, run on a not-for-profit basis. In 1998 it merged to become an independent subsidiary of the University of Westminster.

PSI takes a politically neutral stance on issues of public policy and has no connections with any political party, commercial interest or pressure group.

[akmd]

People always go on about UAL because it has a 'cool' factor that Westminster does not possess.

[gingham_pirate]

(Original post by C_D_forever)
It's far in advance when it comes to its media department and facilities - why people keep banging on about UAL for fashion and media is strange, as Westminster is probably more selective and it probably a stronger place to do a degree in this type of field.

That is true, there's only 34 places on the fashion course and it has the strongest industry links I've seen in any of the undergraduate courses. CSM is only good for MAs. But then I'm biased

[JakSmit]

two of my friends go Westminster uni. they say it's appalling.

[akmd]

(Original post by JakSmit)
two of my friends go Westminster uni. they say it's appalling.

Which subjects are they studying just out of interest?

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by JakSmit)
two of my friends go Westminster uni. they say it's appalling.

You usually find that the weaker students are the one who complain about any institution if they aren't able to keep up or aren't doing very well. They need to lay the blame somewhere, instead of taking responsibility for their own shortcomings.

The stronger students who find that their complaints are valid, concerning any particular institutions academic standing or just the way they conduct themselves, move somewhere else or take a different direction instead of wasting their time and generally being lazy and avoiding all responsibility.

On the whole you’ll find that this doesn’t happen with these types of people, as they have strong direction and know what they need to do. Have your friends tried to apply somewhere else? I’m guessing they haven’t.

[JakSmit]

Which subjects are they studying just out of interest?

Computer Science

You usually find that the weaker students are the one who complain about any institution if they aren't able to keep up or aren't doing very well. They need to lay the blame somewhere, instead of taking responsibility for their own shortcomings.

The stronger students who find that their complaints are valid, concerning any particular institutions academic standing or just the way they conduct themselves, move somewhere else or take a different direction instead of wasting their time and generally being lazy and avoiding all responsibility.

On the whole you’ll find that this doesn’t happen with these types of people, as they have strong direction and know what they need to do. Have your friends tried to apply somewhere else? I’m guessing they haven’t.

LOL. Actually they are both studying for an MSc, so already have degrees from other universities. In fact, one of them has a BSc from one uni and already has a further MSc from another university. Therefore they probably are quite well placed to judge a university and probably wouldn't have continued their further education if they were lazy...

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by JakSmit)
Computer Science


LOL. Actually they are both studying for an MSc, so already have degrees from other universities. In fact, one of them has a BSc from one uni and already has a further MSc from another university. Therefore they probably are quite well placed to judge a university and probably wouldn't have continued their further education if they were lazy...

Well I must say that's unusual and bizarre, the school of informatics at Westminster is suppose to be very strong with good facilities and a strong research base, why anyone would do two MSc instead of either moving on to a PhD or in to the job market is beyond me.

If they are both studying for a Masters they must have Bachelor degrees already granted, but you can judge a university from doing your research well in advance and it shows how second-rate someone is if they go to another university to do something as expensive as a masters and then complain about it, especially if they are postgraduates. If they had specific complaints about administration or the running of the place, fine – but every university has these types of problems and you can usually get around these problems yourself by being proactive.

I personally, from my research can not say academically Westminster is poor, far from it.

[JakSmit]

whether a place is good or not is always going to be personal opinion really but looking at the rankings or whatever and just from personal advice, i wouldn't personally rank it as brilliant.

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by JakSmit)
whether a place is good or not is always going to be personal opinion really but looking at the rankings or whatever and just from personal advice, i wouldn't personally rank it as brilliant.

Well like you've said, a person’s university preference is a personal thing, which is usually built up after a person has spent some time there. As for the rankings, Keele University has decided to join London Metropolitan and embargo their data from being used to place them in these highly subjective tables. Keele is a good reputable plate glass university and just because it has decided not to appear in these tables, is it automatically now going to be seen as bad?

Tables which are compiled on spurious data and doesn't take in to account students entering the university that are 21 or over or part-time students or uses entry scores is somehow lacking. All it says is how exclusive or inclusive a place is. As you can see from this, places like Westminster enter more people who are 21 or over in age than the traditional universities, so it’s obviously going to reflect their rankings in the table.

As far as research (RAE Research Assessment Exercise) and teaching, facilities go - Westminster is clearly one of if not the strongest out of the post 1992 universities and is catching up or matching some of the plate glass universities founded in the 1960's
.

[JakSmit]

I dunno. The fact that it used to be a polytechnic and only became an actual university in 1992 can't be too good, I don't know any post 1992 unis that are good.

[C_D_forever]

(Original post by JakSmit)
I dunno. The fact that it used to be a polytechnic and only became an actual university in 1992 can't be too good, I don't know any post 1992 unis that are good.

Well - no offence, but it might cause offence, but you don't appear to know much about anything when it comes to universities and what they do and how they are rated by the people that are in the know. These being the academics and people in research. A fair few ex-polytechnics are flying high, Plymouth is one which has partnered with Exeter to create the Peninsula college of medicine and dentistry (medical and dental schools were the preserve of red bricks and ancient universities - this is no longer so) along with good results in the last 2001 RAE, Oxford Brookes is beating Oxford in the last Research Assessment Exercise for History (Oxford scored 5 and Oxford Brookes scored 5*) and along with Westminster has an impressive RAE 2001 result for research considering the budgets they have to work with.

Can I just say that many plate glass universities haven't been around that long either, just because a place was an ex-poly doesn't make it bad, plus for your information it’s been around since 1836. In fact Westminster was the first of its kind and was a tourist attraction in Victorian times due to the exhibits, shows and attractions it put on for the general public and was very well respected. Basically what I'm saying is, people who just throw insulting comments about the place concerning institutions such as Westminster without doing their research, goes to show how lacking in many respects they are.

Funny because Kings College London actually pay Westminster lecturers to be visiting lecturers for many of their masters degrees, not just for some of their undergraduate degrees. I can also show with examples from the Kings College website how Kings collaborate with Westminster on research projects, it seems that Westminster in some of the examples have more principal researchers on these teams:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/ed...c.html?m=print

Full title: Cross-National Equivalence of Vocational Skills and Qualifications Principal researchers: Chris Winch (King's), Linda Clarke (University of Westminster), Michaela Brockmann (University of Westminster) Funding body: Nuffield Foundation Award amount: £99,315 Duration of project: 1 June 2006 - 31 December 2007

Kings is part of the Central London partnerships - this partnership is made up of ten partner universities - led by Westminster:

The CLP is led by the University of Westminster and is made up of ten partner universities including King’s. It runs the flagship Focus scheme to train student ambassadors across the partnership.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/structure...ships/clp.html

I could go on, but I think I've proven my point. But like you said "I dunno", hmmm, maybe in future you should try doing some actual research and drop the "I dunno".