Newcastle vs Northumbria

Hey everyone!

This is my first post so I hope you all can give me some help and or advice!
So I am applying to Uni for the start of 2021 (Sept) and I am pursuing a career in Law. I live in Newcastle and either have a choice of the two rivalry schools University of Newcastle and Northumbria University. I have friends who attend both uni's and have gotten a few mixed responses (obviously due to bias). I am wanting to go into law and according to my friend who is in her third year at Northumbria she says that Northumbria is better than Newcastle with the following reasons. Please note that she went to both Newcastle and transferred to Northumbria.
1. Northumbria has a dedicated student law office that gives you the opportunity to witness and handle real cases which, in my opinion, gives someone an edge as opposed to Newcastle which does not have a student law office. It would be safe to assume that law firms would rather hire law graduates that have had some type of real-life work experience during uni? as opposed to not having that type of experience at Newcastle?
2. Northumbria has an integrated masters programme and according to their website, "The M Law (Exempting) programme route is designed for students who intend to pursue a career as a solicitor. This integrated Master of Law programme allows you to combine your LLB (Hons) degree with an exemption from the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and a master’s degree award." I would like to think that this is better because you get exempt from the LPC and instead work towards your masters degree, and since it is integrated to your undergrad apparently it is better in terms of student finance because instead of getting a full masters loan (around 10-11k), it will be funded with the tuition fee loan and get a maintenance loan on top of this?
3. I have been looking at uni stats and comparatively, Northumbria has better overall statistics as opposed to Newcastle, although Newcastle is higher at certain ones, overall Northumbria looks to have the better stats.
4. In terms of having a name for itself, Newcastle is more "branded" than Northumbria if that makes sense? Would one go to a school with a better name or a better programme?

I have an idea which uni I want to go to, but I have not firmly committed to a single uni as of yet. I want to know everyone's opinion if any, and if anyone attends either or uni please convince which is the better choice?

Reply 1

PetitePanda

Study Forum Helper

Hi I'm also a year 12 that wants to do law for 2021 entry as well so my advice is quite limited.

Northumbria has a dedicated student law office but it's only available to you if you go to the solicitor route and it's a module option but it's quite competitive so you need to research a bit more on this. Newcastle doesn't have a law office but it does have a law clinic which isn't in the uni because its more connected to the North East legal clinic - plus Newcastle has more pro bono opportunities. Yes, the law firms will want to hire law graduates will real-life work experience but you can do that with opportunities outside uni and Newcastle has more connections to the pro bono so both unis aren't lacking in that aspect.

It's much cheaper but you don't need to get a masters for law anyways. It's more beneficial in the LPC aspect but there's a new exam called SQE so I would research more into that, which is so cheap, but LPC will still be there till 2032 if I remember correctly so I would look at which exam will be more suited to you.

Stats are a bit reliable in my opinion because a lot of factors affect those stats + Northumbria has more students so the ratio isn't really great. I suggest if you were looking at the factors personally I would go to open days and ask a lot of students of their own experience to see if you would like which uni better. Have you asked them about their personal social life instead of the academic side of it?

It depends if you want to be a solicitor or barrister. They both have good programmes and it's up to one's perspective of what is considered better.

Which uni is better depends on your career choices, the modules at the uni is available, what facilities are there, what social life is like there and more but it's more up to your interests unless you were looking at reputation and Newcastle is better in that aspect but Northumbria is still a good law school? Furthermore, you have to also look at your grades and if you are able to go to both. :smile:

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and good luck :biggrin:

I might see you there next year

Reply 2

marcellasm

I've applied to Newcastle Uni and Northumbria for Media and Communication studies, but talking to various students, they said that Newcastle is not a media hub, have very few links in the industry, not so many classes ans sometimes very rude teachers and that I should go somewhere else like Manchester or Birmingham because they are bigger cities that have more opportunities during and after college! what should I do??? I just received my offer and now the deadline for the russel group is gone and I'm kinda lost because my first choice was london, I wasn't insightful and looked for a plan c!! help!!!!!!