Manchester vs Bayes (Cass) vs Lancaster

All are good business Schools. Manchester is a Russell Group uni and a civic university. Lancaster and City are plate glass unis (Lancaster was created de novo in 1964 and City gained university status in 1966). City is also a constituent college of the University of London, similarly to Royal Holloway, LSE, UCL etc.

In the latest Masters in Finance pre-experience 2021 Bayes ranks 5th in the UK and Lancaster 10th. Here is the link:
https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/286...xperience-2021

Personally, I would prefer Bayes over Manchester and Lancaster but this is my own biased view.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

OP

I am will be an undergrad. For Postgrad, I would have picked Cass blindfolded, but I am a bit unsure for undergrad.

Do you find networking being more important than the uni itself, if undergraduate at Manchester being better was the case?

My thought process is: if you go to Cass you can network and find internships easier for 3 years and then go to something like LSE or LBS for postgrad. While if you go to Manchester you lose all of that and the career prospect (finance/consulting, although I would like to be in VC or PE) after graduating are fairly the same.

Did you go to Cass?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

Networking is important as is also the ranking of the uni, the research it does the type of the student it attracts etc. But the most important factor is you, what you make out of it. Yes I went to Cass/Bayes. Overall I was very satisfied with the course and Cass/Bayes in general.

In terms of Business School rankings (or unis which do not have a business school but offer masters in finance courses) in the UK most people would agree that it goes something like this:

Band A+: LBS, LSE (note that LSE does not have a business school per se. The finance courses of LSE are usually offered from the department of finance in collaboration sometimes with other departments)
Band A: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Warwick, UCL
Band A-: Cass/Bayes, Kings, Manchester, Cranfield,
Band B: Henley/Reading, Lancaster, Bath
Band B-: Edinburgh, Bath, Exeter, Nottingham, York, Queen Mary etc.

Now obviously these rankings are not carved on stone and people can argue about moving one uni a bit further up or down (for example Cambridge and Oxford from A to A+ or Cass/Bayes to A). But generally speaking I believe most people would kind of agree with the above mentioned rankings. If you finish a solid course from one of the above mentioned courses you have good chances of landing a good job.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

OP

Do you know a lot of people who got internships at those big firms? Allegedly, on their website, undergrad students get summer jobs at firms like Morgan Stanley, JPM and GS and other consultancy jobs. I checked on LinkedIn but few people get those jobs without further study and those who get these are from master's programmes.

Undergrads are in the main building right?

What is the quality of your peers there? Are they very carrier driven/ passionate about the business world?

Reply 5

I don't know about undergrad courses since I was at Bayes as a postgraduate. But if they state that on their website I believe them. Back in my time most of the undergrad courses where in the main building but you should check if this is still the case.

My peers where almost all of them very carrier driven and almost all of them got good jobs in IB.

Reply 6

OP

Thank you for sharing the info.

I think I will go for Cass. I've seen the professors are all very qualified, some come from oxbridge and US universities or Bocconi and most of them have significant work experience/are working on projects. I can't say the same with professors at Manchester, most of them are teaching for 10 years straight out of phd, so I value this a lot.

Reply 7

I think Bayes/Cass is a good choice, other good choices are obviously LBS, LSE and Warwick. Also have a look at the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) results that come out on the 12th of May 2022. The REF is a research impact evaluation of British higher education institutions. The REF is very important in terms of research funding allocation and rankings.

Reply 8

OP

I have applied for LSE, but I have very low hopes. I'm planning to do a master's maybe at LBS or if not at LSE or Imperial. I'll try to have a look at that :smile:

Reply 9

All the above schools are really good and very competitive. LBS and LSE are my personal favorites after that I would place Imperial and Warwick and after that Bayes/Cass. I personally had a very good experience Bayes/Cass as a postgrad, I think it is an excellent business school.

Wishing you all the best!

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 10

Original post by xwj01

I have applied for LSE, but I have very low hopes. I'm planning to do a master's maybe at LBS or if not at LSE or Imperial. I'll try to have a look at that :smile:

The latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) results are out today. The REF, a sector-wide research audit held every six years that decides how about £1.6 billion of quality-related funding is distributed annually. REF is undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies. Bayes/Cass ranked 5th together with Warwick in the subject Business and Management. Here are the top 5:
Cambridge
Imperial
LBS
LSE
Warwick and City (got the same grade point average and are both tied 5th).

Analysis of the results (Overall and per subject) are published by the the times higher education here:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ref-2021-subject-rankings

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ref-2021-golden-triangle-looks-set-lose-funding-share

The official REF results can be found here:
https://results2021.ref.ac.uk/

The REF is important because it is used to allocate the funds for research and it has a heavy weighting in most of the rankings that are produced. In addition the latest REF differs from its predecessor in that unis could not be selective, they are required to submit all staff with significant responsibility for research.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 11

iikingaii

5

hey! how is bayes as a school now that you've been there for a while? I need help deciding between Plymouth and Bayes/Cass

Reply 12