Why is Manchester University ranked so low?

People use tables, sadly Manc is in a hole in the tables due to their system and the new merger, but we all know the tables affect many prospects.

Because league tables are meaningless.

I read an amusing article claiming all the most intelligent prospective students go for uni's higher in the rankings! To be honest if you are dumb enough to think that some very arbitrary and outdated rankings give any great indication of what a university is like then i would suggest you aren't as clever as you think...........

Firstly you have to remember that some of the data used for Manchester is well out of date. With the Merger in 2004 everything's changed but statistics have yet to change. The next RAE is next year and i'm pretty sure with all the new investment Manchester will come very high up the pile.

Secondly, Manchester isn't particularly fairing well in the newer rankings because of the recent addition of student surveys. Manchester faired badly in the last one, no doubt because the survey was probably only completed by a couple of anarchist students pissed of at evil organisations like uni's I hate student surveys, if you know anything about students you'll realise the people that respond to them are usually not that representative of the student body (pretty much like the student union ). With Manchester's history of a very active SU then the results are unsurprising.

I also don't like the student spend factor in rankings. City universities don't need to provide so many facilities for students unlike campuses in the middle of nowhere *cough*Warwick*cough* so i always am dubious about those.

Manchester usually does well internationally due to it's historical scientific leanings, for example some rankings emphasize Nobel Prizes which Manchester has quite a few of compared to universities of a similar standard. Manchester (and the old UMIST) have considerable international reputation.

All in all, the league tables are meaningless. The methodology of most is entirely subjective to whether you think that makes a good uni or not. UoM is a very strong uni and with the current massive investment is no doubt going to get better.

**** league table results

general rule of thumb

oxbridge > Imperial/UCL/LSE/King's > ancient scottish > red bricks> plate glass> post 92's.

Now go on someone.... start ranting what about London or all the other London Collegiate Univerisities? What about Durham. What about Southampton? What about Leicester? Go on . . .

(I did say general)

Southampton, Leicester and Newcastle I'd put in between red bricks and plate glass.

**** league table results

general rule of thumb

oxbridge > Imperial/UCL/LSE/King's > ancient scottish > red bricks> plate glass> post 92's.

Now go on someone.... start ranting what about London or all the other London Collegiate Univerisities? What about Durham. What about Southampton? What about Leicester? Go on . . .

(I did say general)

Do they? It appears that those companies that do operate a discriminatory policy based on institution name (rather than the more backdoor but slightly fairer method of UCAS points) are not based on league tables at all, but something far more persistent - the old boys network. If you are really trying to argue the toss between attending Manchester and say, Edniburgh then good luck but you are splitting hairs in the least.

I meant student applications to uni.
I'm more or less arguing oxbridge and Manc and the whole golden dimond.

Yeah, they are neither. I would say they are closer to Red Bricks than Plate Glass, as they are all civic, city campus based universities, and grew out of colleges of other universities. Plate Glass Universities are very distinct in that they were all founded as universities after a specific piece of legislation. Sotan, Leics and Newc are not like that at all.

Warwick below Reading?...interesting ranking there

**** league table results

general rule of thumb

oxbridge > Imperial/UCL/LSE/King's > ancient scottish > red bricks> plate glass> post 92's.

Now go on someone.... start ranting what about London or all the other London Collegiate Univerisities? What about Durham. What about Southampton? What about Leicester? Go on . . .

(I did say general)

Yes, it's so general, it's just rubbish.