The Student Room Group

Should we get rid of weaker universities?

I have never understood why suddenly it's everyone's God given right to go to university, I don't believe it is. I believe if you reach a certain standard of academic excellence, then you get to go to university, so a university degree is still something we aspire to. Nowadays we just hand out degrees like leaflets in the streets. They've lost their value.

Just recently the top UK universities dropped down in ranking on the global top 100. To solve this we could get rid of all the universities outside of the top 50 and invest that money into our top 50 universities. Boosting the standards of those said universities.

Anglia Ruskin, London Met and the likes are appalling institutions and are basically conning their students off £9000 a year. When videos like these are made by students:

[video="youtube;cV_Wqcdt1YM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV_Wqcdt1YM[/video]

You know there is an issue.

I say we should cull a huge tranche of the universities at the bottom, that are not meeting the standards and invest the money from that into our top 50 universities. Some of these universities are better off being vocational technical colleges and should be free or have lower tuition fees.

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Original post by DraculaMihawk
I have never understood why suddenly it's everyone's God given right to go to university, I don't believe it is. I believe if you reach a certain standard of academic excellence, then you get to go to university, so a university degree is still something we aspire to. Nowadays we just hand out degrees like leaflets in the streets. They've lost their value.

Just recently the top UK universities dropped down in ranking on the global top 100. To solve this we could get rid of all the universities outside of the top 50 and invest that money into our top 50 universities. Boosting the standards of those said universities.

Anglia Ruskin, London Met and the likes are appalling institutions and are basically conning their students off £9000 a year. When videos like these are made by students:

[video="youtube;cV_Wqcdt1YM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV_Wqcdt1YM[/video]

You know there is an issue.

I say we should cull a huge tranche of the universities at the bottom, that are not meeting the standards and invest the money from that into our top 50 universities. Some of these universities are better off being vocational technical colleges and should be free or have lower tuition fees.


I agree but top 50 is too many, maybe top 5 would be better and they should get all the funding. You can fire everyone else.
Original post by 999tigger
I agree but top 50 is too many, maybe top 5 would be better and they should get all the funding. You can fire everyone else.


Having just 5 universities in our country would be detrimental to our country's standing in the world. At the very least we should have 30 universities. I think top 50 is reasonable.
Reply 3
I'm largely in agreement with you, however:

How do you decide which universities are top 50?
What about specialist universities? I.e royal veterinary college or Harper Adams? Are they axed?
How do you make sure they are geographically spread? I.e a vast majority will be in/around London, how is that fair for people in Scotland, or Northern Ireland?
If they aren't geographically spread, and someone cannot afford living costs due to a small amount of student loan, how will they go to university, even if they achieve top grades? I think there are too many faults for it to ever be possible, although I do believe anything below 50 is pointless imo
Original post by DraculaMihawk
Having just 5 universities in our country would be detrimental to our country's standing in the world. At the very least we should have 30 universities. I think top 50 is reasonable.


Too many . Not a god given right and just the best students from the best schools could go. It would make a degree rarer and worth having. It would also make sure the top 5 were adequately funded. Top 50 way too common. MIght even be better if we went back to just Oxbridge. Imperical could be a technical college and LSE just be able to teach economics to the Chinese.

Everyone who wasnt able to get in should know their place and be made to do apprentichships or work in a shop.
Reply 5
Who's top 50?


The thing about this is that a fair few smaller unis are very good in one or two areas. My uni was ranked about 80th in the country overall, but was top 20 for my subject (engineering) and was number 1 in the country for some music subjects. Should that have been forced to close because it had a few not-so-good departments?
Ahh I am sick of the idea that if it's not Oxbridge/UCL/imperial/Warwick/Durham blah blah it's not worth going. I know that wasn't your original point OP but some of these posts...

Having only 5 universities is not feasible! We have far too many people who can achieve great things with degrees and surely the demand for graduate jobs would be much more than what they could provide!

People can get jobs from a degree from any university, maybe higher unis have better job prospects but I don't see the problem with people trying to get a degree and better themselves regardless of where it's from! If people are wanting to go to a lesser ranked uni let them pay the 9 grand and be done with it! The elistest attitude on tsr vexes me and makes me feel worthless sometimes...
(edited 7 years ago)
My Mother went to an awful university, but boy she was so happy when she got that certificate lmfao.
Original post by Goaded
I'm largely in agreement with you, however:

How do you decide which universities are top 50?
What about specialist universities? I.e royal veterinary college or Harper Adams? Are they axed?
How do you make sure they are geographically spread? I.e a vast majority will be in/around London, how is that fair for people in Scotland, or Northern Ireland?
If they aren't geographically spread, and someone cannot afford living costs due to a small amount of student loan, how will they go to university, even if they achieve top grades? I think there are too many faults for it to ever be possible, although I do believe anything below 50 is pointless imo


- I think league tables suffice. Most of the league tables out there are in consensus with what are the worst universities. If not league tables just make a comprehensive ranking system and use it to measure universities to see if they reach the standard we want.

- Specialist universities like those you mentioned should be kept.

- We are one country, doesn't matter if you're Irish or Scottish. And we increase the loan size which is made more possible if we cut off the funding the universities outside of the top 50 get.

Original post by 999tigger
Too many . Not a god given right and just the best students from the best schools could go. It would make a degree rarer and worth having. It would also make sure the top 5 were adequately funded. Top 50 way too common. MIght even be better if we went back to just Oxbridge. Imperical could be a technical college and LSE just be able to teach economics to the Chinese.Everyone who wasnt able to get in should know their place and be made to do apprentichships or work in a shop.
No you're being silly.
Original post by Drewski
Who's top 50?


The thing about this is that a fair few smaller unis are very good in one or two areas. My uni was ranked about 80th in the country overall, but was top 20 for my subject (engineering) and was number 1 in the country for some music subjects. Should that have been forced to close because it had a few not-so-good departments?


They can be devolved to specialist colleges and have lower tuition fees.
Original post by Drewski
Who's top 50?


The thing about this is that a fair few smaller unis are very good in one or two areas. My uni was ranked about 80th in the country overall, but was top 20 for my subject (engineering) and was number 1 in the country for some music subjects. Should that have been forced to close because it had a few not-so-good departments?


The thing about these arguments is it never affects the person proposing it. so really they are decising for other people.
I think a lot of people are pushed to go to uni because there's more of an opportunity to go these days (due to more uni's being available to people of lower academic standard) and they're not really making the most of their degree etc so the universities that don't produce very high level results should be closed down and investment should be made into the better ones
Original post by DraculaMihawk
They can be devolved to specialist colleges and have lower tuition fees.


Handily ignoring the fact that specialist degrees like that will almost always cost more than the tuition fees... So why reduce them?


Too many holes in what you propose.
Reply 13
I think we should be reducing the demand for universities rather than the supply of them. Too many people are going to university who would be better suited for alternatives.

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Original post by Drewski
Handily ignoring the fact that specialist degrees like that will almost always cost more than the tuition fees... So why reduce them?


Too many holes in what you propose.


Honestly a lot of these colleges could just be partners with the ones in the top 50. Paying £27,000+ for a degree in communication strategy from a low tier university is ridiculous. Where does all that money go?
Original post by 999tigger
The thing about these arguments is it never affects the person proposing it. so really they are decising for other people.


It affects my friends and it's heartbreaking to see my friends getting ripped off by universities like London Met.
Original post by DraculaMihawk
Honestly a lot of these colleges could just be partners with the ones in the top 50. Paying £27,000+ for a degree in communication strategy from a low tier university is ridiculous. Where does all that money go?


You completely ignored my question.
ok, lets to save money lets burn down every single bad university. It doesnt matter what bad means but because this user says we should i think we should......

also entry to london met is like CCC. To get this at A level is hard and just because you dont agree it doesnt mean ****..

Also what does top 50 mean? cant a university just pay its way also as student satisfaction is how they judge why dont they just rig the surveys

you sir are retarded
Nah, bad universitys means less competition for the good ones
The question would be: What is a top 50 university?

Universities right now play a game - In order to finish higher in the rankings, they give offers of(say) A* A* A*, then accept C C C. This games the system and gives them a higher ranking than would be otherwise suggested. The University of Nottingham has a very good YouTube video on this very thing. Some universities that don't play that game would end up being axed despite being clearly better.

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