Most overrated and underrated universities in Britain?

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Reply 340

xGarethx

Such a stupid thread. :rolleyes:

Reply 341

Poem boy

The most overrated uni's are the ones like Leicester, Loughborough, Lancaster, UEA, Royal Holloway, that seem to do well in the newspaper rankings but are actually just total fluff. I actually hate these universities for even trying to pretend to be good.

The most underrated uni's would be Glasgow, Liverpool, Sussex, Sheffield and Leeds. They are all much better than the crap mentioned above.

Reply 342

MarkNoble

Original post by Millz

The link works now. However, I believe that these results will be very different now, although I do accept it could go either way.

Well you would be foolish to think that (and of course there's no basis to your view). Warwick has been a big hitter in Economics for decades. That's not going to change at the next Research Excellence assessment. It won't change much for Oxford or Cambridge either. They will all get rather similar, and very strong, results because all three have a large group of world class academics

Reply 343

Dnator

Before I went to uni I would have partaken in this thread but seriously, this is extremely pointless - and who can comment on somewhere they don't go?

Reply 344

MarkNoble

Original post by ChemistBoy

It arises, but isn't the purpose or design of the RAE (hence why it changed this time to a more complex output). The RAE does not recommend any ranking methodology. As such you can't simply say that, for example, a department is better than another because it has more 4* research when it also has less 3* research, for example. Is a department that has a smaller number of world-class academics surrounded by more average ones, better than one that has less world-class academics but they are surrounded by more internationally renowned ones?

If you are going to refer to the RAE you should use the RAE terminology.

A department with more World Leading research (4*) relative to internationally excellent or internationally recognised (3* and 2*) has by definition performed better than one that has less 4* research relative to 3* and 2*, assuming that they have each submitted the same proportions of staff.

In any case the point in the case of Warwick is a technicality - even the most cursory glance at their results in the Economics and Econometrics unit of assessment shows that they performed pretty well the same as Oxford and Cambridge (in fact a bit better than Cambridge)

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 345

gunmetalpanda

Original post by Dnator

Before I went to uni I would have partaken in this thread but seriously, this is extremely pointless - and who can comment on somewhere they don't go?

The experts on tsr of course.

Reply 346

lightningfist

Did any of you see this article about some research about A Levels and SATs and Universities in Britain?

At one point it said something along the lines of "students of the same ability perform better at less competitive universities than at competitive ones".

It implied you would get a First Class Honours degree more easily at a less competitive school than someone of equal calibre at a highly competitive one. This makes sense, more competition means better students on average, yet a lof of people seem to dispute this.

Overrated universities have all the hype, but they may not be very competitive in reality, right? That means attending an overrated university could benefit some. Don't bash me for this, just saying.

Reply 347

ChemistBoy

Original post by MarkNoble

If you are going to refer to the RAE you should use the RAE terminology.

Why? People know what I mean. The terms I used are hardly different in any case.

A department with more World Leading research (4*) relative to internationally excellent or internationally recognised (3* and 2*) has by definition performed better than one that has less 4* research relative to 3* and 2*, assuming that they have each submitted the same proportions of staff.

What about a department with more 4* but also more 2* than a department with slightly less 4* but more 3* than 2*? Like I said, what is better a department with an average better standard of research or one that has a few excellent researchers and the rest who are not so good?

The new RAE format was specifically designed to make it harder to unambiguously rank departments because that is not what it is for. It is for calculating the HEFCE block research grant each university gets, which is a very small proportion of the research funding a university receives. I personally think it is neither timely nor really very relevant in terms of assessing the real research strength of a department, for a start it doesn't include researchers on fixed-term contracts - which is utterly ridiculous!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 348

Crazydavy

I'm just glad employers have the opposite views to a lot of people on this thread.

How can people pass a well informed opinion about a university unless they've actually studied there? Personally I think nobody here has a right to bash down a university they've never studied at or vice versa. I'd like to mention that rankings and RAE are generally a good way to compare universities; speculation and hype however, is not. It's also not surprising to see many people say that the university they study at is underrated. Universities enter the top rankings for a reason, to say they don't deserve their place at x, y or z ranking to me just sounds like jealousy.

Reply 349

ThePurpleRose

Original post by ConorMC

ah you'll be fine. Have they asked for reasonable grades? What's your backup? francais est facile, oui? (my GCSE French :biggrin:

, I'm also kidding, it's not that easy :P) good luck with that though! It's impressive to get an offer from Uea for that course though! They ask for a short story (I believe). Yours must've been good :smile:

do you want to be a writer then?
I plan to go to Aberdeen University :smile:

Haha. Non. Je n'aime pas parler francais... And I actually think that might be wrong... :rolleyes:

I have to look that up... But thanks! :smile:

I'll need it! :smile:

They asked for 7 pages of whatever creative writing you've done in the past 3 months. It literally took over my life for the week before I sent it off... Thank you! :smile:

And yeah, that would be the dream! :biggrin:

Unlikely though it is. Plan B is to become a teacher and write books in my spare time. Publishing a book is the goal though!

Aberdeen, that IS far away. Good choice though. :smile:

I hope you have a great time there!

Reply 350

sorafdfs

Leeds is overrated. Only from their own perspective though, which seems to be the thinking that they're some top 5 uni lol...

Underrated all I can think of is City, I never see anyone mention it and don't know much myself but I think it's meant to be good for churning out high earning professional types.

Reply 351

ConorMC

Original post by ThePurpleRose

Haha. Non. Je n'aime pas parler francais... And I actually think that might be wrong... :rolleyes:

I have to look that up... But thanks! :smile:

I'll need it! :smile:

They asked for 7 pages of whatever creative writing you've done in the past 3 months. It literally took over my life for the week before I sent it off... Thank you! :smile:

And yeah, that would be the dream! :biggrin:

Unlikely though it is. Plan B is to become a teacher and write books in my spare time. Publishing a book is the goal though!

Aberdeen, that IS far away. Good choice though. :smile:

I hope you have a great time there!

thank you! Also I think that French is right :cool:

(says the person who only did GCSE French.... :P) good luck with your writing, I hope to see your name on the cover of a book in waterstones in the future then! (whatever your name is :wink:

)

Reply 352

Locke54

Original post by Txi

It reminds of the West country but better condition, flat and less congested.

The West Country is congested? Have you been past Bristol and/or Swindon? By and large the West Country is pretty sparsely populated and laid back. In fact I'd go as far as to say that Torbay and Exeter have amongst the best quality of life in the country...Plymouth less so but it's still hardly 'congested' for a city of 250k.

Reply 353

ThePurpleRose

Original post by ConorMC

thank you! Also I think that French is right :cool:

(says the person who only did GCSE French.... :P) good luck with your writing, I hope to see your name on the cover of a book in waterstones in the future then! (whatever your name is :wink:

)

Naawwww! Thank you! :biggrin:

I don't know which curse you've decided on, but I hope it goes fantastically for you and gets you to where you want to be! :biggrin:

Reply 354

ConorMC

Original post by ThePurpleRose

Naawwww! Thank you! :biggrin:

I don't know which curse you've decided on, but I hope it goes fantastically for you and gets you to where you want to be! :biggrin:

Thank you! I'm planning to do Economics & International relations. Quickly on a French note: :subjontif:

where are you going to put for your insurance? :^_^:

Reply 355

Txi

Original post by ajp100688

That's the South West.

I grew up in the WC boyo.

Ex public school Bath; can't get more WC than that can you.

Bath id definitely run down and Bristol is ok but not as nice as Norwich; clean, fresh, well maintained.

Reply 356

Txi

Ha ha

laff at all trollers-haters here.

Bottom line; let the people decide, your jealous rethoric has no effect.

If you don't like thread then don't come here !

And if you don't like your Uni, F'g change it, are you tied to a ball and chain !

if you haven't got the balls to do that, then tough !

Jokers.

Reply 357

ThePurpleRose

Original post by ConorMC

Thank you! I'm planning to do Economics & International relations. Quickly on a French note: :subjontif:

where are you going to put for your insurance? :^_^:

I can't say I know a lot about that, but I hope you have a great time studying it. :smile:

Subjunctive is a strange thing to love... But I don't mind it - it's nowhere hear as bad as just general speaking! :tongue:

I've insured Brunel. How about you? :smile:

Reply 358

chrislpp

Underrated: One I go to

Overrated: One I didn't get into

/thread

Reply 359

lamiaelayouby

Original post by lionboy

I think at Manchester your research will thrive more but not miles away from what it would be at Lancaster. I think you have your head screwed on in not taking a kid to manchester especially given the choice over Lancaster(which is quite nice) so Im sorry I havnt presented much of a debate but you are doing the right thing...also it comes down to your dissertation that will be the defining feature of your Phd not neccessarily where you studied :u:

Thanks for the advice.. I think what you say concerning the disseration and later on publishing is the thing that would make sense...I actually think that one of the major determinantes would be the supervisor even