@Hulkamaniac Hi OP. I agree with you with many of the unis on your list as being overrated but I have to disagree with you on Durham. I also saw that you touched on the prestige level of the unis beyond UK's shores? Well let me let you in on a few secrets.
1) Most international students from real proper first world countries will always and only apply to Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, SOAS, Queen Mary, KCL, Nottingham, Warwick, Bristol and Durham.
2) Many students from second world countries will usually apply to the Russell Group unis because many of these unis have student agencies in those countries to recruit these students. Also these RG unis have affiliations to schools in these second world countries where students do the first year of their degree in their home country and finish the remaining two years in UK at the RG uni.
3) Students from third world countries will simply apply to just any British uni that they can get into. Most of them are not interested to study. They merely want to get into UK, study at the uni for a few weeks and then link up with their relatives who're either in UK running small businesses or have set up shop in Europe.
The other group of students from these third world countries enter UK on a student visa, go for classes at uni for a few weeks and then disappear to join the British military because you get British citizenship after you finish your contract with the army, along with many other perks.
Ok. I see that you've been banned
Why do all the good forum members who add value to this forum with their good productive posts always get banned?