This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

QS Rankings 2018 : Many UK unis fall in rankings.

Hey! Which year are you in? Thank you for making that clarification in the ranking. I picked Edinburgh because of what it looked like too to be honest (I wanted to go to one of the ancient institutions) and also I applied for History and Politics and it seems to have a good alumni for that. I also heard from people who applied for History at Edinburgh and other institutions and they said Edinburgh is friendlier etc. I also didn't want to go to universities in London.

I did get an invitation for offer holders but it is not possible for me to visit all the way from Asia due to costs etc.

I'm a first-year.

Don't expect your lectures to be in one of the grand buildings the university owns if you're doing History & Politics. The place with the green patch of grass in the middle? That's Old College and it's where the law school is based (as well as David Hume Tower). That big tall gothic building? That's New College, where the Divinity School is.

Reply 41

transient life

14

Original post by Blue_Cow

I'm a first-year.

Don't expect your lectures to be in one of the grand buildings the university owns if you're doing History & Politics. The place with the green patch of grass in the middle? That's Old College and it's where the law school is based (as well as David Hume Tower). That big tall gothic building? That's New College, where the Divinity School is.

Yeah I was aware of Old College after I looked more into Edinburgh. I was kind of silly during the process thinking I would get into Oxford so i didn't pay much attention to the other universities I applied to - so Edinburgh seems like the best option for me. As a first year - are most people 17/18? I feel kind of strange as people in my country start uni at 20/21 and I'll be 21 when I start this year. I hope that's not going to be a barrier for me to make friends.

I know my classes will be held in the Social Science & Archeology building - is it very modern looking?

Reply 42

Blue_Cow

22

Original post by transient life

Yeah I was aware of Old College after I looked more into Edinburgh. I was kind of silly during the process thinking I would get into Oxford so i didn't pay much attention to the other universities I applied to - so Edinburgh seems like the best option for me. As a first year - are most people 17/18? I feel kind of strange as people in my country start uni at 20/21 and I'll be 21 when I start this year. I hope that's not going to be a barrier for me to make friends.

I know my classes will be held in the Social Science & Archeology building - is it very modern looking?

Believe me. No one will be able to tell you're 20/21. Most people do indeed start university here at 17/18 though.

Archeology is at the Old Medical School I think. Fairly old building (nice looking as well). Social Sciences I'm not too sure - you might be dotted around the place.

Reply 43

FinnToScotland

10

Original post by Blue_Cow

Believe me. No one will be able to tell you're 20/21. Most people do indeed start university here at 17/18 though.

Archeology is at the Old Medical School I think. Fairly old building (nice looking as well). Social Sciences I'm not too sure - you might be dotted around the place.

I actually applied for Law at Edinburgh and luckily I would get to study in the main building. Would you recommend the University and what are the pros and cons?

Reply 44

Blue_Cow

22

Original post by FinnToScotland

I actually applied for Law at Edinburgh and luckily I would get to study in the main building. Would you recommend the University and what are the pros and cons?

If you start a new thread here with your question I'll be happy to answer it. I'm conscious that I'm de-railing the thread here. Sorry @Doonesbury :tongue:

Reply 45

FinnToScotland

10

Original post by Blue_Cow

If you start a new thread here with your question I'll be happy to answer it. I'm conscious that I'm de-railing the thread here. Sorry @Doonesbury :tongue:

New thread started

Reply 46

username2752874

22

Original post by Realitysreflexx

this is ancient been out since september,

im hotly awaiting the UKs best league table release should be April-May time.

The complete university guide :smile:

Nah, CUG is fake news. Lancaster and Loughborough are top 10s according to them.

Reply 47

Realitysreflexx

22

Original post by Kyber Ninja

Nah, CUG is fake news. Lancaster and Loughborough are top 10s according to them.

Guardian is Fake news,

CUG is quite balanced and seems the most unbiased.

Loughborough and Lancaster are definitely good universities,

they do well for what they are meant to be, they are smaller schools they arent going to garner the media attention and pull of the big names but that doesnt mean they dont have bright students and great courses.

Reply 48

username2752874

22

Original post by GapYaar

those asking why KCL > LSE, different rankings have different weightings. CUG has a lower student satisfaction weightings so LSE is always top 5, generally top 3. QS has a higher weighting to more social/lifestyle factors. From a purely academic standpoint QS ranks LSE as number 2 overall across all 15 social science courses, second only to Harvard. King's is ranked 54th by this metric.

I thought CUG had higher?

That was the reason why the London unis were getting banged to an extent on it.

The employer reviews on QS put LSE on par with Oxbridge and Imperial. Probably the main thing most people will factor. The 4 of them are 100. It states that academic reputation is based on academics who have knowledge of the UK region, so LSE got downed by UK/EU academics.

It seems that UK/EU academics value Imperial, Oxbridge and UCL more so than NA academics value their top unis.

@Doonesbury judging by the methodology, this seems more legit than every other ranking system I've seen, and you can filter based on what matters to you (employer v academic).

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 49

username2752874

22

Original post by Realitysreflexx

Guardian is Fake news,

CUG is quite balanced and seems the most unbiased.

Loughborough and Lancaster are definitely good universities,

they do well for what they are meant to be, they are smaller schools they arent going to garner the media attention and pull of the big names but that doesnt mean they dont have bright students and great courses.

Lol guardian is the worst.

Reply 50

sueright

6

So only Sheffield and Edinburgh have improved - the rest have all fallen?

Reply 51

Blue_Cow

22

Original post by sueright

So only Sheffield and Edinburgh have improved - the rest have all fallen?

Don't read too much into it.

Reply 52

username2752874

22

Original post by sueright

So only Sheffield and Edinburgh have improved - the rest have all fallen?

brexit

Reply 53

username3675786

14

Original post by Doonesbury

But perhaps not so good at teaching it? (TEF bronze...).

Posted from TSR Mobile

That's the product of being comparable academically only to Imperial and Oxbridge, while not providing STEM contact hours or an absurdly large budget for 1 to 1 lessons. TEF has some of the lowest ranking uni's with gold, therefore one would imagine it's relative to the student body. I can't fathom that LSE, one of the best universities in the world, has worse teaching than one of the worst universities in the UK. It could only perhaps be justified by a lack of quantity rather than quality.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 54

Wired_1800

20

Original post by 04MR17

Manchester down. Anyone want to give Wired a tissue?

Lol. I have already seen the table and wept for Manchester. Those that were and are still against the Big 8 idea did not comment on the dominance of those unis, but we should not digress.

Reply 55

WiSi

12

Original post by Doonesbury

QS has just released their 2018 rankings. The top 3 remain the same, and the UK still has 4 in the Top 10. Cambridge (now 5th) has swapped places with Caltech.

But overall UK universities haven't faired so well with 51 fallers out of 76 in the ranking.

Top 10 Universities
1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Harvard
4. Caltech (+1 place from last year)
5. Cambridge (-1)
6. Oxford
7. UCL
8. Imperial (+1)
9. Chicago (+1)
10. ETH Zurich (-2)

Selected others
23= Edinburgh (+4)
23= KCL (-2)
34. Manchester (-5)
35. LSE (-2)
44. Bristol (-3)
57. Warwick (-6)
65. Glasgow (-2)
78= Durham (-4)
82= Sheffield (+2)
84= Nottingham (-9)
84= Birmingham (-2)
92. St Andrews (-22)

St Andrews is the biggest UK faller in the Top 100 since last year.

https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018

What about the ranking by subjects?
The news was this, the ranking by subject 2018, cause the general ranking was available months ago.

Reply 56

Realitysreflexx

22

Original post by Doonesbury

But perhaps not so good at teaching it? (TEF bronze...).

Posted from TSR Mobile

No coddling of students likely the culprit here, either you hack it or you dont lol. Had a friend who attended here claiming rude professors and not bothered with support, in todays snowflake society thats no longer accepted.

Reply 57

Capricancer

10

Original post by Doonesbury

It's so important we've done it twice... :wink:

(well spotted!)

shouldn't you edit your post then to stop spreading misinformation?

Reply 58

RoyalBeams

17

Original post by SarcAndSpark

International academics seem to rate it- more so than they rate LSE (for example). I wonder if it's the name? Or maybe some of them are confusing it with King's College, Cambridge?

International academics don't rate KCL higher than LSE. LSE just does not offer the range of subjects required to get the points used in international rankings.

Secondly, the international academics surveyed in these rankings are leading figures in their respective fields. I am pretty sure they are not that stupid not to know, or be aware, of the existential difference between a London university and a college of University of Cambridge while being asked to rank individual universities that includes Cambridge as a whole.