Cambridge top in Psychology?

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Reply 20

Scipio90

brimstone

No one actually calls it PPS and I doubt I ever will, and probabl y the same for most of my year.

Same here.

Reply 21

Craghyrax

parkerpen

It is therefore a slightly meaningless statement.

I thought of all those points, but I was too tired/impatient to write a painstaking long post at that point. I think it says alot, when its a comparison between this course and others, and I don't think its meaningless, even accepting your very particular definition.

parkerpen

If Cambridge SPS/PPS really wanted to make teaching even better than it already is they'd just import a tonne of good teachers rather than excellent researchers...

I'm not a Psychologist, but my first year paper was really well taught all the way through. I often felt that I didn't much like Psychology itself, but at least the lectures were really good (and supervisions in my case)

afoneleri

As for the lecturers - so far this year, all my lectures have been very prominent in their areas, or if not, at least connected to others who are.
I'm confused. Have you switched course, or is Psychology an option in medicine? I remember that a medic friend, who is now in Oxford for clinicals, had the option of taking some SPS papers when she reached final year.

Reply 22

Meliae

Thanks for the responses. My main motivation behind asking this was to find out if Cambridge was worth considering for psychology over Oxford, as obviously I can only apply to one (for 2010 entry).

Reply 23

afoneleri

Craghyrax

I'm confused. Have you switched course, or is Psychology an option in medicine? I remember that a medic friend, who is now in Oxford for clinicals, had the option of taking some SPS papers when she reached final year.

Third year medics have a choice of subjects, and most of us do natsci part IIs. I'm doing a BBS degree, with psych as my major and history and ethics of medicine as my minor. Much less work than the previous two years!

Reply 24

Craghyrax

afoneleri

Handy. This would explain your presence in a play this term - I thought it was quite strange for a third year :smile:

Reply 25

DarkWhite

Craghyrax

DarkWhite

Going aside fom the specifics mentioned in the OP, leagues tables aren't really the best things to rely on. They take Student Satisfaction and such into consideration which would, quite rightly, give them a higher rank. The rank in the tables doesn't necessarily correspond to quality of teaching and value of degree though.

Ok.. how about when for 50% of the areas you learn about, your lecturers' names are the most prominent or frequently repeated names to be found when researching the areas stretching back for a good 20years? And the lecturers supervise you...

I never said anything against this argument; why did you quote me?

Reply 26

Craghyrax

DarkWhite

I never said anything against this argument; why did you quote me?

To demonstrate that its up on the league table for a good reason, not a misleading one.

Reply 27

DarkWhite

Craghyrax

To demonstrate that its up on the league table for a good reason, not a misleading one.

Again, why did you quote me? I never said Universities weren't up there for a reason. I said nothing against your arguement... :confused:

Reply 28

Craghyrax

DarkWhite

Again, why did you quote me? I never said Universities weren't up there for a reason. I said nothing against your arguement... :confused:

If its not clear from what I've written then I'm not sufficiently attached to my argument to press it. Apologies for any miscommunication.

Reply 29

DarkWhite

Or perhaps my argument wasn't clear enough. I'm not saying league tables are worthless; I'm simply saying that a University can have excellent teaching, but because it spends less money per head, it receives a lower rank.

Take Bristol for example: the Computer Science department falls under Engineering. Money for the building comes from the Engineering department and spending on individuals comes from Computer Science. For the league tables, this means that less of their expenses are taken into consideration and thus their rank is lower.

My argument is more that league table rankings don't necessarily reflect the quality of teaching and content at the University. The 'necessarily' part is key, as the league tables might quite often reflect these qualities, but they might not.