Selection of university

Which university is better out of the following for MSc Automotive engineering, Oxford Brookes Uni, Coventry Uni or Huddersfield Uni ??

I recommend Oxford Brookes. We have an extremely successful formula student team that you can be part of (its a team where students build a race car and compete in various competitions worldwide) and employers value this experience a lot. We are also presented so well in the automotive industry that we were asked to offer electromechanical engineering degrees by an employer.

Coventry is also very decent and has a fairly good reputation in industry for automotive engineering.

I would not recommend Huddersfield tho.

Which university is better out of the following for MSc Automotive engineering, Oxford Brookes Uni, Coventry Uni or Huddersfield Uni ??

Why not huddersfield? It ranks highly in graduate prospects

I've never heard of Huddersfield being excellent in engineering anywhere. Their formula student team was also classed as the best UK team only once back in 2000, compared to Brookes who has been awarded the title 7 times in the past 13 years. I also haven't seen a lot of huddersfield graduates in engineering industry or companies mentioning its name.

As for rankings, I don't trust them. The only rankings I look at are QS for international reputation and even they can't reflect the actual graduate prospects or teaching quality but they are at least more accurate than the other rankings.

thecompleteuniversityguide ranks huddersfield as 28th, and 4th best in terms of graduate employment for mechanical engineering

14 places higher than oxford brookes, and 2 places behind manchester

how do you define how accurate the rankings are? Huddersfield isn't world class for engineering, but it is by no means poor

The way I check if a certain ranking is accurate or not is how it accurately reflects what most people think of the universities' position.

I'll tell you why I think the complete university guide is not reliable.

First of all, it misplaces universities. For example, Lancaster is 7th while King's College London is 25th. This is, by no means, right. King's College London is one of the founding members of university of london system and educated many leaders of mankind including Florence Nightingale. And every year, many students from Asia and the middle east pay thousands of pounds to get its degrees. If you go to Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, King's College London will be known and highly respected by almost any educated person who has studied overseas while they won't even know Lancaster is a british university (this is my singaporean friend's experience).

Second of all, it includes irrelevant institutions. For example, it ranks St George's University of London, SOAS University of London, Royal Agricultural University, University of the Arts London and Ravensbourne in its 2020 rankings. Now, every british art student knows University of the Arts London is an art-focused university and one of the best art schools in the entire world, and where is it ranked in the complete university guide? Surprise! 61st! Likewise, St George's University of London is a specialist medical university and same for Royal Agricultural University, etc. These institutions cannot be fit in an ordinary university rankings since they are not ordinary universities.

Now, if you go to QS rankings and select art & design ranking, you'll see University of the Arts London is ranked 2nd in the world. This is what I call accuracy. Select medicine and St George's University of London and London school of hygiene and tropical medicine, which don't include in ordinary QS ranking, will appear. Select mechanical engineering and you'll see TU Delft ranked 5th. Many british and european engineers recognize TU Delft as one of the best in the world for aerospace engineering, and it is reflected in QS ranking. Select Economics and LSE comes 5th in the world, followed by Oxbridge, UCL, Warwick and London Business School, which are also the institutions which most people agree as the most reputed for economics.

Sure, it is not flawless (like LSE being 44th in the world in QS 2020 ordinary ranking) but QS is far more accurate than any ranking out there. And the complete university guide is not an accurate ranking.

I think you have a different point of view, due to the fact you are an international studying in the uk.

I would say thecompleteuniversityguide is very accurate if you are from the uk and planning on working in the uk. The international prestige of universities will not matter the vast majority of uk students, who just want to better their chances of employment within the uk itself.

For engineering especially, international and even national prestige really isn't that big of a factor. Experience is much more important, and being taught the skills to better your career chances is also much more important.

The way I check if a certain ranking is accurate or not is how it accurately reflects what most people think of the universities' position.

I'll tell you why I think the complete university guide is not reliable.

First of all, it misplaces universities. For example, Lancaster is 7th while King's College London is 25th. This is, by no means, right. King's College London is one of the founding members of university of london system and educated many leaders of mankind including Florence Nightingale. And every year, many students from Asia and the middle east pay thousands of pounds to get its degrees. If you go to Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, King's College London will be known and highly respected by almost any educated person who has studied overseas while they won't even know Lancaster is a british university (this is my singaporean friend's experience).

Second of all, it includes irrelevant institutions. For example, it ranks St George's University of London, SOAS University of London, Royal Agricultural University, University of the Arts London and Ravensbourne in its 2020 rankings. Now, every british art student knows University of the Arts London is an art-focused university and one of the best art schools in the entire world, and where is it ranked in the complete university guide? Surprise! 61st! Likewise, St George's University of London is a specialist medical university and same for Royal Agricultural University, etc. These institutions cannot be fit in an ordinary university rankings since they are not ordinary universities.

Now, if you go to QS rankings and select art & design ranking, you'll see University of the Arts London is ranked 2nd in the world. This is what I call accuracy. Select medicine and St George's University of London and London school of hygiene and tropical medicine, which don't include in ordinary QS ranking, will appear. Select mechanical engineering and you'll see TU Delft ranked 5th. Many british and european engineers recognize TU Delft as one of the best in the world for aerospace engineering, and it is reflected in QS ranking. Select Economics and LSE comes 5th in the world, followed by Oxbridge, UCL, Warwick and London Business School, which are also the institutions which most people agree as the most reputed for economics.

Sure, it is not flawless (like LSE being 44th in the world in QS 2020 ordinary ranking) but QS is far more accurate than any ranking out there. And the complete university guide is not an accurate ranking.