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Bristol or The University of Nottingham for LLM

Boys and girls,

Which one would you choose for Masters in law and why?

Taking into account grad prospects, Uni reputation for law and general university rep.

Yours views are much appreciated.

Thanks

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Reply 1
Original post by Durham_
Boys and girls,

Which one would you choose for Masters in law and why?

Taking into account grad prospects, Uni reputation for law and general university rep.

Yours views are much appreciated.

Thanks


I know nothing of law. But Bristol is typically seen as the more prestigious university of the two. I attend Bristol so if you have any non-subject specific questions then fire away.
Reply 2
Thank you for your reply. I visited the department and the Postgrad coordinator was so nice!!!

Re prestige: I thought Bristol was seen as higher too albeit for law both are top 10 but I do tend to agree that employers seem to favour Bristol more.

How is the city? do you find it safe? accommodation wise and stuff? Is there like a "canteen" where you can get cheap meals and deals like that?
Reply 3
Original post by Durham_
Thank you for your reply. I visited the department and the Postgrad coordinator was so nice!!!

Re prestige: I thought Bristol was seen as higher too albeit for law both are top 10 but I do tend to agree that employers seem to favour Bristol more.

How is the city? do you find it safe? accommodation wise and stuff? Is there like a "canteen" where you can get cheap meals and deals like that?


Bristol is a lovely city. Safety will not be a problem at all. Accommodation will depend on whether you are an international student; if you are not then you will have to look at the private sector for accommodation as the university only give accommodation to international postgraduates and some PGCE students. There is no canteen, so to speak. But there is the Hawthornes which is a posh sort of cafe in the Woodland area. That is not a problem though as there are lots of supermarkets less than five minutes walk away.
Reply 4
If accommodation is important to you, Notts has plenty of choices. Broadgate Park is just outside the gates and (from memory) accepts grad students. Albion House is a little further from the University Park campus (perhaps a 15, 20 minute walk to the law building) and accepts only grads. To make up for its distance from campus, it's only a hop, skip and a jump from Sainsbury's. Both are self-catering, but there are some reasonably priced food options on campus.

I was only an undergrad exchange student at Notts, so I can't give any real insight about the LLM programme, but I was very impressed by the standard of teaching and the facilities.
If you look at stats, employers ctually target Nottingham more than Bristol and in terms of general rep they are virtually equal - Nottingham is more famous globally.

For law there is nothing to choose between them, although Nottingham did better in the RAE and ranks higher doemstically for law on a consistant basis.
Reply 6
yeah, Bristol a better uni in general. However, notts does have quite a good rep for its law school. It's that good old fashioned question again, subject or university?
Reply 7
thks guys..

I would do the same sort of modules in the two Universities, however Notts does allow you to do semester and yearly subjects. In Bristol you pick 4 and thats it. I don't know if they would allow you to do 5 for example.

I visited the law school in Bristol and the department is good...good facilities.

But it seems that Notts may edge it and I agree that has been such a good law school for so long.

The reason to go to Bristol would be to do a research degree after the taught course, but I could always attend one and then the other....

I will visit Notts in January and go from there, however reputation does concern me!
Reply 8
Reputation is one of my main concerns...hence my confusion!!!!
Reply 9
Original post by AfghanistanBananistan
If you look at stats, employers ctually target Nottingham more than Bristol and in terms of general rep they are virtually equal - Nottingham is more famous globally.

For law there is nothing to choose between them, although Nottingham did better in the RAE and ranks higher doemstically for law on a consistant basis.


What do you mean there is nothing to choose between them?
Reply 10
Original post by ProfPlum
yeah, Bristol a better uni in general. However, notts does have quite a good rep for its law school. It's that good old fashioned question again, subject or university?


And the answer? what do you tend to prefer?
A few years ago people were saying that Notts had a better overall rep than Bristol. Rankings change all the time and Nottingham had higher entry standards and more applications per place than Bristol for many years just 5 years ago.

Uni's fortunes go up and down, Notts is suffering in rankings at the moment but will probably go up again. Both are well respected and one of the unis that can lay claim to being in the UK ivy league. Notts does have a better intl rep though which counts for a lot. It also has the best campus in the UK.
Reply 12
Again, I do not know law (which AfghanistanBananistan might be talking about specifically). But I seriously question whether Nottingham has a better general international reputation than Bristol; in every university ranking Bristol is ahead:

QS 2010 - Bristol 27 versus Nottingham 73
Shanghai 2010 - Bristol 66 versus Nottingham 84
THE 2010 - Bristol 68 versus Nottingham 174

I assume the above perception might be influenced by the fact that Nottingham has two campuses in Asia, but that is just a guess.
Reply 13
Original post by Durham_
And the answer? what do you tend to prefer?


It's entirely a personal choice. There's no right or wrong answer. However, I would choose Nottingham for various reasons. 1- Law firms really do know where the better places are and in this case, nottingham trumps Bristol. 2- Seeing you're already at/ were at bristol, a change would probably be good. 3- It's also much cheaper in nottingham.
Even though overall, bristol is a better and more 'prestigious' uni, i'd shoot for Notts seeing as it's better for law.
Original post by evantej
Again, I do not know law (which AfghanistanBananistan might be talking about specifically). But I seriously question whether Nottingham has a better general international reputation than Bristol; in every university ranking Bristol is ahead:

QS 2010 - Bristol 27 versus Nottingham 73
Shanghai 2010 - Bristol 66 versus Nottingham 84
THE 2010 - Bristol 68 versus Nottingham 174

I assume the above perception might be influenced by the fact that Nottingham has two campuses in Asia, but that is just a guess.


What I am saying is that most people disregard rakings because they are useless.

Bristol ranks better than LSE in world ranking, but we all know that LSE is miles better than Bristol. It shows that rankings have major flaws.

Universities have highs and lows in popularity. What I meant was that from 1990 to 2005 Nottingham had the highest (or at least top 3) for the most applications per place of any university and averaged the 6th highest entry standards (higher than Bristol). Notts was harder to get into than Bristol so carried more prestige then, or at least equal. Nottingham was also in the top 10 of most rankings between this period (and still has an average rank of 11th in all tables)

Nottingham city had a few bad media reprts back in 2005 and applications turned away from it. It was not the unis fault but Notts suffered from decreased applications, slightly lower entry standards and thus ranking. These things are going back up now so Nottingham may be back where it used to be.

Look at Durham. A few years ago noone mentioned it in ther lists of 'top 10's' and it ranked outside of the top 15 and had far lower entry standards. It has had a massive boost in popularity recently and people are now saying that it is in the top 5.

Swings and round abouts. But employers know that places like Bristol and Nottingham are the same, with many AAA+ students and therefore there is little to choose between them.
Reply 15
Original post by ProfPlum
It's entirely a personal choice. There's no right or wrong answer. However, I would choose Nottingham for various reasons. 1- Law firms really do know where the better places are and in this case, nottingham trumps Bristol. 2- Seeing you're already at/ were at bristol, a change would probably be good. 3- It's also much cheaper in nottingham.
Even though overall, bristol is a better and more 'prestigious' uni, i'd shoot for Notts seeing as it's better for law.


I agree... but law firms target both I guess... I have seen online and big firms go to both!!!

I did not study at Bristol...I got an offer and visited and very much liked it!!! However from what I hear, Notts has amazing facilities in the law school.

I tend to think that Bristol overall is better....I also was accepted at Durham but their postgraduate course is the worst out of the 3.

Did you study at Notts or Bristol?
Reply 16
Original post by AfghanistanBananistan
What I am saying is that most people disregard rakings because they are useless.

Bristol ranks better than LSE in world ranking, but we all know that LSE is miles better than Bristol. It shows that rankings have major flaws.

Universities have highs and lows in popularity. What I meant was that from 1990 to 2005 Nottingham had the highest (or at least top 3) for the most applications per place of any university and averaged the 6th highest entry standards (higher than Bristol). Notts was harder to get into than Bristol so carried more prestige then, or at least equal. Nottingham was also in the top 10 of most rankings between this period (and still has an average rank of 11th in all tables)

Nottingham city had a few bad media reprts back in 2005 and applications turned away from it. It was not the unis fault but Notts suffered from decreased applications, slightly lower entry standards and thus ranking. These things are going back up now so Nottingham may be back where it used to be.

Look at Durham. A few years ago noone mentioned it in ther lists of 'top 10's' and it ranked outside of the top 15 and had far lower entry standards. It has had a massive boost in popularity recently and people are now saying that it is in the top 5.

Swings and round abouts. But employers know that places like Bristol and Nottingham are the same, with many AAA+ students and therefore there is little to choose between them.


I tend to agree!!!!

I am a bit confused...if I decide to go to Bristol is solely because of the research degree I want to do after the LLM so my familiarity with the faculty will be good.

However it seems the course at Notts is a lot better and with better Lecturers/ Professors.

It is also cheaper at Notts (the tuition).

A lot of people on this forum tend to point that Nottingham University is not prestigious and consider it a civic university below the likes of Bristol and Durham. However for law I tend to think that Notts trumps both Bristol and I would be tempted to say Durham!
Reply 17
Original post by Durham_
I agree... but law firms target both I guess... I have seen online and big firms go to both!!!

I did not study at Bristol...I got an offer and visited and very much liked it!!! However from what I hear, Notts has amazing facilities in the law school.

I tend to think that Bristol overall is better....I also was accepted at Durham but their postgraduate course is the worst out of the 3.

Did you study at Notts or Bristol?


No, but I have friends at both and have thought about an LLM. However, I've decided I might give it a miss. To be perfectly honest, Bristol seems like a better bet for you seeing what you're writing. I'd actually personally go for Birmingham, but hey, that's just me.
Reply 18
Original post by ProfPlum
No, but I have friends at both and have thought about an LLM. However, I've decided I might give it a miss. To be perfectly honest, Bristol seems like a better bet for you seeing what you're writing. I'd actually personally go for Birmingham, but hey, that's just me.


I am not sure it is...I will get to do 6 modules at Notts, 4 at Bristol (maybe 5 if I ask nicely to the Postgrad office).

One of the Professors that I want to have at Bristol may be on study leave next year and I don't want to be taught by (with all due respect) PhD students. So that may be the deciding point between the two.

The faculty on the LLM at Nottingham is very impressive so it is a tough call.

Birmingham is also a very good option!!!! Are you a trainee/graduate?
Reply 19
Original post by AfghanistanBananistan
What I am saying is that most people disregard rakings because they are useless.

Bristol ranks better than LSE in world ranking, but we all know that LSE is miles better than Bristol. It shows that rankings have major flaws.

Universities have highs and lows in popularity. What I meant was that from 1990 to 2005 Nottingham had the highest (or at least top 3) for the most applications per place of any university and averaged the 6th highest entry standards (higher than Bristol). Notts was harder to get into than Bristol so carried more prestige then, or at least equal. Nottingham was also in the top 10 of most rankings between this period (and still has an average rank of 11th in all tables)

Nottingham city had a few bad media reprts back in 2005 and applications turned away from it. It was not the unis fault but Notts suffered from decreased applications, slightly lower entry standards and thus ranking. These things are going back up now so Nottingham may be back where it used to be.

Look at Durham. A few years ago noone mentioned it in ther lists of 'top 10's' and it ranked outside of the top 15 and had far lower entry standards. It has had a massive boost in popularity recently and people are now saying that it is in the top 5.

Swings and round abouts. But employers know that places like Bristol and Nottingham are the same, with many AAA+ students and therefore there is little to choose between them.


Did you study law in the UK? LLM as well?

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