Bath vs Durham

matthang

I have both offers for Business management from both unis but i have no idea which one should i go for. Any help ?

Reply 1

University of Bath

Official Rep

Original post by matthang

I have both offers for Business management from both unis but i have no idea which one should i go for. Any help ?

Hi,

Many thanks for your message, I'm Rob a first year engineer.

Firstly, I presume you have been and visited both Unis? For some people it can be a very difficult decision, and asking questions and finding out as much information as you can is the best thing you can do to help aid your decision.

There are lots of different factors you could consider when deciding upon the best university. There is no set formula and people make decisions based on different things. The most important thing is that you are happy at the university you choose. In essence, you will be living and breathing the university every day, so you need to be completely happy with your choice.

Sadly I've never been to Durham so can't comment on it. Bath is a reasonably small campus university and it has everything from shops to cafes and banks to a chaplaincy all on one site. Personally, when I decided which university was right for me, I saw it as a positive that it was a small campus and everything was so local. However, I know for other people, they don’t like the ‘bubble’ effect and much prefer the more open ‘city university’.

You should also think about the performance of the universities. A good way to do this is to look at league tables however, don’t become too dictated by these. A good place to start might be: the complete university guide or the Guardian league tables. Another consideration is ‘student satisfaction’ which is also published in league table format. Bath generally does well in these and is the most satisfied in the UK according to the results of the 2014 National Student Survey (NSS).

Another thing that might matter to you is location (maybe you want to get away from home or stay close to home!), or accommodation (however in my opinion all student accommodation is very similar and depends more on how much you pay than the location).
These are just things that I considered when applying to university however there might be more obscure things that really matter to you. For example, one of my friends went to Cardiff University because he loves kayaking and they have a white-water canoe centre very close! Personally I think you should focus more on the factors listed above, but each person is different.

I hope the advice aids you in making the right decision - I wish I could help more – I was in the same situation last year, and I know how you’re feeling! Ultimately, both are very good universities and the likelihood is that you’ll be happy at any of them, but spend time thinking through the options and make sure you chose the one you think you’ll be happiest at!

I hope that my response is of some assistance to you. Apologies for its length, but I wanted to answer your questions in enough detail for you to be able to make an informed decision.

Best of luck with your decision making process and if you need any more help, please don’t hesitate to get back to me.

Rob

University of Bath

Bath

Reply 2

Sweetcorn_1

As someone who previously attended Durham (diff. course, dropped out) I can say it is a great place to be and honest very very similar to Bath (starting 2015).

However if my memory serves correctly, I think business students live on Queens campus? Outside the collegiate network in the actual town/city? You'll be a bit alienated.

All in all, they're both really similar unis, I'd give Durham the edge in terms of overall prestige however. But despite this, if I was in your position I'd be edging towards Bath as you have to take into account the above, and also in a course like business you'd want as much hands one experience as possible which Bath is known for with their placement year.