Swansea University

Teaching Quality at Swansea? (CompSci)

I have heard reasonably decent reviews about Swansea.

However, the Times university guide rated Swansea low at teaching quality -- only 11/100 which appears quite abysmal.

If you are at Swansea in computer science, or have friends there, please let me know if this score feels accurate. Cheers.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

EPhill98

Maybe the Times hates Swansea? I used the guardian to pick Swansea at its ranked 18th, which I thinks pretty good.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2019/jun/07/university-guide-2020-league-table-for-computer-science-information

Swansea University

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Reply 2

Swansea University Enquiries

Official Rep

Original post by Krood

I have heard reasonably decent reviews about Swansea.

However, the Times university guide rated Swansea quite low in this -- only 11/100 which appears quite abysmal.

If your are at Swansea in computer science, or have friends there, please let me know if this score feels accurate. Cheers.

Hey @Krood :smile:

We're proud to hold a Gold TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) Award, a government recognition for teaching excellence!

If you'd like to chat to students about how they found the course, or life in Swansea in general, then drop them a message using our Ambassador Chat

If you've got any questions then let me know and I'll find out the answer for you, I hope this helps!

- Mia :smile:

Reply 3

Krood

Anyone studied there this year?

Reply 4

Krood

Original post by Swansea University Enquiries

Hey @Krood :smile:

We're proud to hold a Gold TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) Award, a government recognition for teaching excellence!

I acknowledge the TEF award, but it's very hard to ignore the 11% teaching rating from the Times.
Could you address this discrepancy? It's a bit bizarre.

If the Times is incorrect about this rating, can you please explain how they miscalculated?

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 5

swanseajack1

Original post by Krood

(Original post by Swansea University Enquiries)Hey @Krood :smile:

We're proud to hold a Gold TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) Award, a government recognition for teaching excellence!

I acknowledge the TEF award, but it's very hard to ignore the 11% teaching rating from the Times.
Could you address this discrepancy? It's a bit bizarre.

If the Times is incorrect about this rating, can you please explain how they miscalculated?

Rating bodies assess things differently.. Perhaps you ought to ask the Times why their view is so different to the official Government view and also the Guardian. No rating is totally reliable. Have the Times been in and studied teaching methods or as often applies have they taken the word of a couple of disgruntled students which often happens. This is why student satisfaction figures can sometimes be very unreliable. If you prefer to accept the Times view than the official government figures and you are not happy going to Swansea maybe you best go elsewhere

Reply 6

Krood

If I accepted the Times ratings blindly I wouldn't be asking here. Nor do I blindly accept other ratings, such as the notoriously wonky Guardian league table.

That's why I'm mainly keen to hear objective opinions from CompSci students there now.

This is the THE methodology for teaching incidentally
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/europe-teaching-rankings-2019-methodology

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

swanseajack1

Original post by Krood

For many years THE and QS has consistently ranked older universities in bigger cities highly and places in smaller places that arent in bigger cities lowly. This isnt new it has happened for years. As an example THE has Queen Mary in London 12th in the UK and 110th in the world yet the UK rankings show a totally different story. The Complete University guide has it ranked 35th in the UK and the Guardian University Guide 83rd. THE has St Andrews university as =198th in the world and well down its UK rankings yet that university is considered in the UK to be one of the UKs leading universities just below Oxford and Cambridge. The Complete University guide has it 3rd in the UK. St Andrews is however a very small Scottish city so does badly in THE. There are many other examples.

It depends which rankings body you believe. None of them are accurate and depending on which you choose to read you will have totally different opinions.

The teaching excellent framework award is given by the UK government having studied lectures. it is probably more accurate than THE but you can believe whichever you want. If THE is important to you then perhaps you will be better off looking elsewhere because whatever anyone tells you that is what you will believe.

Most people would advise you that none of the rankings are totally accurate and my personal view is THE and QS are not reliable for the reasons provided.