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Top students concentrated in just 12 elite universities

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What he means is that most people who have to deal with this issue have their own subjective views of the "worth" of a university and sometimes of specific courses built up over many years which may or may not reflect the true quality of an institution or which may be wholly out of date.

Only rarely would someone need to resort to anything as crude as a league table?

where else, dare i ask, are they supposed to get their information from then? people in hiring positions are from a generation where there were only about 10 unis worth knowing...

Reply 281

aspirinpharmacist

Yes, and 79% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Reply 282

nulli tertius

Original post by Charlieeeeee

where else, dare i ask, are they supposed to get their information from then? people in hiring positions are from a generation where there were only about 10 unis worth knowing...

That isn't the case. The university sector was remarkably stable during this period. Between the creation of Ulster in 1970 and the 1992 earthquake, the only new university was Buckingham.

Of the first 50 universities in the Times league table, 49 are pre-1992; of the next 10 four are pre-92 and there are three pre-92 universities in the remaining 56.

In the same table for law, 39 of the first 40 are pre-92, five of the next 20 are pre-92, and one of the remaining 35 is pre-92.

Reply 283

BluesMan

Original post by nulli tertius

I found this post fascinating! It's really interesting to see this kind of data. Where did you obtain it?

Reply 284

nulli tertius

Original post by BluesMan

I found this post fascinating! It's really interesting to see this kind of data. Where did you obtain it?

I knew when Ulster was founded (Wikipedia is incorrect in ascribing a date of 1968-see http://plangov.ulster.ac.uk/governance/pdfs/charter_&_statutes_1011.pdf for a copy of the Royal Charter)

I also knew no other university was founded apart from Buckingham in 1983 before the events of 1992.

There are certain conventions (not altogether consistent) in dating universities. They date from their charter as universities (not when they first opened their doors) or in the case of 1992 institutions from the assumption of the university title. Where two institutions merge they rank from the date of the oldest charter. Where they separate, they date from the date of separation. The schools of London and the colleges of Wales date from their foundation as schools or colleges and not from the date of the own degree awarding powers. The effect of these conventions is that the traditional antiquity of universities is preserved. No "new" institution leapfrogs because it was around in some form or other at an earlier date. No old institution loses its place by re-organisation.

I then simply went down The Times list.

Reply 285

BluesMan

Original post by nulli tertius

...

Kudos for doing the research.

Reply 286

nulli tertius

Original post by BluesMan

Kudos for doing the research.

It is hardly research. When you are my age you know which universities were around when you were young! That is the point I was originally making that recruiters d'un certain age don't need league tables to have an opinion (not necessarily a correct opinion) about the quality of particular institutions.

Reply 287

BluesMan

Original post by nulli tertius

Yeah I agree - while of a lot of people recommend taking the league tables with a 'pinch of salt', they clearly are used in the industry to a certain extent. I would hope that with regards to employing a particular individual, the quality of the department is also taken into account, but that's another story.

Reply 288

Millz

Original post by bbq1948

LOL! amusing typo is amusing, but yeah they should

HAHAHAHAHAHA, LOL, wow, I never noticed. :colondollar:

Reply 289

1crazydude

Original post by Chief Wiggum

Probably pretty accurate though... is someone with 3 As really going to choose London Met over Durham?

ermm..*must think of plausible come back* ermm if you cant say something nice dont say anything at all, lol nah your probaly right, i messed up my A levels this year so i got into london met through clearing, after reading all these posts on it though i am honestly feeling pretty ****ty right now, only because if its as bad as people say it is etc, its going to be a real struggle to get employment afterwards..

Reply 290

intellectual1

Some members of this forum have neg repped, I must assure you all, that I did not write the article, but it sure has caused the intended debate and the opinions are very interesting ones :smile:

Reply 291

hau28

In what world is are English Literature and RE on the same level as DT and Drama? Don't be so delusional.

Original post by Black Butler

Alevels such as further maths and physics should be encouraged which actually force students to 'think'.

Im not trying to be offensive but the less able students tend to be concentrated in the subjects like DT, english literature, drama, RE (and they tend to do quite well in these too). Subjects like these should really be taken out of a-levels because none of them require you to think intelligently only maybe perhaps imaginatively :rolleyes: