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St Salvators Quad, University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews

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Original post by mrkl
A World top 100 university ? Says who , you ? You study there so of course you would be bigging up your own uni.

This is trolling.

Most major UK tables have UEA and Surrey higher than you and RG don't mean nothing, unless you're saying Cardiff, QMC, QUB, Liverpool, Leeds are great universities, so you need to justify your statement.


They are great universities, yes. And "most major"? They might have Surrey, but not UEA. I don't know where you plucked that **** from.
St Salvators Quad, University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
Original post by King of the Ring
If you look at the websites for Durham, St Andrews, Birmingham, UCL and Bristol to name but a few, they all mention their QS World ranking. At the least, QS = THES for respectability.

And yes, Nottingham is ranked =70th in the World by QS, just 2 places behind the so called prestigious St Andrews, a university that you seem to have your nose up their rear end for whatever reason.

St Andrews is good, always has been, and always will be. But it isn't quite a UK top 10 university according to the international rankings (THES, QS, ARWU) or according to REF.

UEA and Surrey are ranked higher in some national tables than KCL and Edinburgh, but that doesn't mean they are better, that would be an extraordinary claim to make based on tables that include student satisfaction and graduate employment and green score amongst other daft things. Most top universities choose research power over GPA for REF, and research power is what brings the extra research income, not a high GPA score.

You obviously have a thing for the national league tables, but the reality is they have been a running joke ever since they included student satisfaction over teaching quality scores.

What is more worrying is that you are actually trying to trick other uninformed students into thinking the likes of UEA and Surrey ARE actually better than some much more prestigious ones like KCL and Leeds. Please do not be purposefully stupid on TSR, you are not fooling anyone with your little game.


St Andrews is about 4x smaller than Nottingham and considering that world rankings favour larger institutions, St Andrews is certainly punching above its weight. Research power also favours larger institutions again, so it wouldn't be a surprise if St Andrews did worse, than say Nottingham in that aspect.

It's also about half the size of the other universities (except for LSE) on this list of universities in the world top 100, so when you take its size and its distance from major cities into account, it's done very well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_enrollment

Anyways, I don't see the need for you to be bashing St Andrews' reputation, you're detracting from the main point of this thread.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Capricancer
St Andrews is about 4x smaller than Nottingham and considering that world rankings favour larger institutions, St Andrews is certainly punching above its weight. Research power also favours larger institutions again, so it wouldn't be a surprise if St Andrews did worse, than say Nottingham in that aspect.

It's also about half the size of the other universities (except for LSE) on this list of universities in the world top 100, so when you take its size and its distance from major cities into account, it's done very well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_enrollment

Anyways, I don't see the need for you to be bashing St Andrews' reputation, you're detracting from the main point of this thread.


I am not bashing the reputation of the University of St Andrews, only a fool would say it isn't quite prestigious. I wouldn't call it prestigious though, that is reserved for Harvard, Oxbridge, LSE and the like. Based on the facts, I just don't think St Andrews is quite there yet as a UK top 10. It is in the top 11-15 bracket. If offered a place, I'd choose St Andrews over at least half of the universities in the Russell Group.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by King of the Ring
I am not bashing the reputation of the University of St Andrews, only a fool would say it isn't quite prestigious. I wouldn't call it prestigious though, that is reserved for Harvard, Oxbridge, LSE and the like. Based on the facts, I just don't think St Andrews is quite there yet as a UK top 10. It is in the top 11-15 bracket. If offered a place, I'd choose St Andrews over at least half of the universities in the Russell Group.


You say that only a fool wouldn't call it prestigious but then you say it's not prestigious.... ok. I acknowledge that St Andrews is not at the level of (e.g) Harvard or Oxbridge though.

Both national and world rankings have their merits (and faults), however if you base your opinion solely on rankings/criterion which favour larger institutions then I can understand why you would think that St Andrews isn't in the top 10 of British universities.

Not necessarily an opinion I would agree with but I respect it anyways :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Capricancer
You say that only a fool wouldn't call it prestigious but then you say it's not prestigious.... ok. I acknowledge that St Andrews is not at the level of (e.g) Harvard or Oxbridge though.

Both national and world rankings have their merits (and faults), however if you base your opinion solely on rankings/criterion which favour larger institutions then I can understand why you would think that St Andrews isn't in the top 10 of British universities.

Not necessarily an opinion I would agree with but I respect it anyways :smile:


Quite prestigious: Imperial, UCL, KCL, Edinburgh, Bristol, Warwick, Durham, St Andrews etc

Prestigious: Oxford, Cambridge, LSE
Prestige is for fools and only serves to reinforce their cognitive dissonance once they see the place is not as great as it looks on paper or as other people claim it to be. That's why the majority gets so defensive when someone dares to criticize the uni.

Just a hypothesis
Original post by King of the Ring
Quite prestigious: Imperial, UCL, KCL, Edinburgh, Bristol, Warwick, Durham, St Andrews etc

Prestigious: Oxford, Cambridge, LSE


I like your quite prestigious and prestigious rankings... :troll:
Original post by alexkol
I like your quite prestigious and prestigious rankings... :troll:


At a time like this, with France in mourning, I think you should keep your comments to yourself.
I think you just described every single university...
In my opinion, St Andrews University is actually an amazing university to study undergrad in. I've now experienced a larger university and i'll be perfectly honest and say i can definitely see why St Andrews student satisfaction is so high. I've never gotten a better education than at St Andrews. In terms of teaching and admin, St Andrews is actually second to none. The only thing I would improve is the amount of information about competitions and start ups etc, I feel St Andrews can be a bit isolated when it comes to conferences etc.

When it comes down to it, there is definitely a correlation between larger undergraduate student bodies and lower student satisfaction. Money and funding can alleviate some of that, as you can see with Oxbridge but as a whole it seems to follow this curve. The way I theorize it is that if you had 5,000 students and 5 admin vs 50,000 students and 50 admin, the ratio of admin to students is the same but it is so much easier for 5 admin to work as a team than for 50 admin to work as a team. When you work in a team of 50, its harder to make team decisions and harder to get things done, its also easier for one person to slack off and not do their jobs properly and sort of hide under the team umbrella.

About research, there are soo many prestigious universities in the US that don't do much research. In fact, Americans don't even look at world rankings just because they are so often based on research and not actually selectivity and student satisfaction that they are not useful. For example, schools like UCSB and UC Boulder do amazing in research based rankings but in reality they are just state schools with huge student bodies that basically cater mainly to your average state student, while schools like Brown, Dartmouth, Rice etc are top schools at teaching and highly selective but don't do research but definitely provide a better student experience.

IMO, St Andrews is the closest thing the UK has to a Brown or a Dartmouth. They share many similarities, being smaller universities with a strong arts faculty with a long history. We can all say St Andrews are Oxbridge rejects, but the truth is a Brown student is probably a Harvard reject, but at the same time that Brown student probably rejected a huge number of top universities to go to Brown and is very likely to be hired by a top firm no different from that Harvard student if of the same capabilities.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 690
Original post by callum_law
They are great universities, yes. And "most major"? They might have Surrey, but not UEA. I don't know where you plucked that **** from.


Just because you go there don't make them great. They are relatively low ranked places - end of.

Not only is UEA rated higher than Notts but so is Surrey, L'boro, Kent and even crappy Sussex, been that way for a number of years already. Can't feel good but that's the truth.

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings
http://wonkhe.com/blogs/times-and-sunday-times-2016-ranking/
Original post by mrkl
Is it ?

Most people use THES for internationals and Notts is nowhere near top 100


Yes, there are two World ranking tables that people tend look at, THE and QS. They used to be the same people and split in about 2010.

Yes, Notts in lower in THE at 143, but that's not "nowhere near top 100", and considering that there are over 20,000 higher education institutes in the world, being in the top 1% is not bad.
Original post by mrkl
Just because you go there don't make them great. They are relatively low ranked places - end of.

Not only is UEA rated higher than Notts but so is Surrey, L'boro, Kent and even crappy Sussex, been that way for a number of years already. Can't feel good but that's the truth.

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings
http://wonkhe.com/blogs/times-and-sunday-times-2016-ranking/


When I mentioned that Surrey was ranked higher than UCL, my friend and UCL Law student laughed it off and said UK league tables are arbitary nonsense. If you choose to rank universities this way, it says a lot about how you think.

St Andrews - a warning? Not if you do your research and come and visit the place at least once (twice if possible).
I can totally confirm that. The teaching quality is horrible compared to where I have studied so far (South Korea, Germany, USA). Professors don't seem to give a single f*ck on their students and just want to have as less work as possible. The organization is terrible, classes were always one lecture behind, and you cannot really rely on your timetable because lectures get changed almost every two weeks. Additionally, which makes you feel even worse, is that you receive emails from the university informing you that again a student commited, which happens every month on average. In an official statement the university denies that those suicidal deaths can be related to university... Fortunately, I'm just here for one year doing my masters degree, I will never come back to this place!
Stay away from that university!!!
Reply 694
Original post by la_banane_verte


Yes, Notts in lower in THE at 143, but that's not "nowhere near top 100", and considering that there are over 20,000 higher education institutes in the world, being in the top 1% is not bad.


THES is THES, the other one looks bogus.

The 20,000 number is also false THES world ranks are out of 400.

Face it Notts is a post war non - traditional uni which is currently outside the local top 20 and world top 100. Improve yourself, stop trying to hype yourselves out of it - it will make it worse .
Reply 695
Original post by King of the Ring
When I mentioned that Surrey was ranked higher than UCL, my friend and UCL Law student laughed it off and said UK league tables are arbitary nonsense. If you choose to rank universities this way, it says a lot about how you think.

St Andrews - a warning? Not if you do your research and come and visit the place at least once (twice if possible).


Who cares what you and your friend thinks. The ranks are made by bina fide newspapers which is more than I can say for you and your friend.

I am ex UCL and I predicted it would fall outside the top 10 years ago because of what I saw there recently. So what ? I admit it is not as good as ICL or LSE and nowhere near Oxbridge.
Original post by Carlbenz
I can totally confirm that. The teaching quality is horrible compared to where I have studied so far (South Korea, Germany, USA). Professors don't seem to give a single f*ck on their students and just want to have as less work as possible. The organization is terrible, classes were always one lecture behind, and you cannot really rely on your timetable because lectures get changed almost every two weeks. Additionally, which makes you feel even worse, is that you receive emails from the university informing you that again a student commited, which happens every month on average. In an official statement the university denies that those suicidal deaths can be related to university... Fortunately, I'm just here for one year doing my masters degree, I will never come back to this place!
Stay away from that university!!!


This is a really bad review. St Andrews please come forward and reassure students that this is not the case!
Original post by mrkl
Who cares what you and your friend thinks. The ranks are made by bina fide newspapers which is more than I can say for you and your friend.

I am ex UCL and I predicted it would fall outside the top 10 years ago because of what I saw there recently. So what ? I admit it is not as good as ICL or LSE and nowhere near Oxbridge.


You have an outdated mindset. The UK league tables aren't as respected as they were 10-15 years ago, mainly because of the criteria they now use. UCL is ranked in the top 10-20 bracket in all major World rankings, and does not need the UK rankings to confirm that it is a genuine rival to Oxbridge for research.
Interesting.
Original post by mrkl
THES is THES, the other one looks bogus.

The 20,000 number is also false THES world ranks are out of 400.

Face it Notts is a post war non - traditional uni which is currently outside the local top 20 and world top 100. Improve yourself, stop trying to hype yourselves out of it - it will make it worse .


Nottingham is a top 10 UK university for research power, and World top 70 according to QS. Which of course points to a pretty good university. They also have nice overseas campuses, making it a global research university. They could have kept their very superficial prestige by keeping students numbers small and focusing on maintaining a top 10 UK ranking, but ultimately they would have stood still and not made any progress as a global brand.

Apologies to all for deviating from the original thread topic, I just wanted to shut up mrkl and his crusade against Nottingham, one of the more prestigious universities in the elite Russell Group.