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The University Of East London - good or not???

silken1987

Heya,

I'm starting to decide which universities I will be applying to for 2007 entry and am interested in what UEL is like and whether it is a good choice of university? I am interested in a joint degree in English Literature and Media Studies. Could anyone give me any information?

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Ha Ha Ha Ha.

You could do worse silken...much worse.

The Met (basically the alton towers of North London) or Thames Valley would surely be the death of you...

East London on the other hand could cause minor/ moderate trauma.

Um...yeah :smile:

Reply 3

josh2716

I'm thinking of UEL too. Its seems an ok university and East Londons meant to be wicked. The campus is in a safe area with the DRL cyprus station on site. The only thing that concerns me is that it's situtuated right next to London city airport (the prospectus photo shows a plane landing directly opposite the docklands campus) which could be problematic at night when your trying to sleep. I'll definately put UEL on my shortlist though.

Reply 4

silken1987

Ok thanks I think I put it on mine for the time being. Was going to put Met down but seeing how everyone is slating it I don't think I will now hehehe.

Reply 5

fonzievision

I wouldn't put down UEL either...

Reply 6

Matt Murdock

What's so bad about? I've been seing a lot of people badmouth London unis at these boards, but have any of you actually gone to the Unis you're bashing?

I think people are just exxagurating and that UEL is actually pretty decent.

Reply 7

Element54

I live by it - it's pretty bad trust me

Reply 8

Cranberry

To be blatant, it's crap. My dad did his MBA there a couple of years ago (he also lectured there for a short while) and he says it's awful. It's at the bottom of the league tables, the lowest of the low...

Reply 9

fundamentally

silken1987

Media Studies.

Media studies from UEL will be highly respected. :rolleyes:

Reply 10

Nickyc

Don't go. Trust me. :smile:

Reply 11

fonzievision

It's academic and jobmarket masochism..

Reply 12

Element54

Whats funny is that UEL beat Westminister in the Times 2007 rankings....

Reply 13

santogold

UEL offers a BA in Special Needs Education, which is very rare for undergraduate.
But I doubt I'd recommend it for Media Studies.

Reply 14

Fooglex

UEL is a magnificent university to study at. The Times University Guide ranking system favours the older universities... Maybe UEL does have less reputation, if any, but you can still have a great chance for employment if you end up with a first honours degree - with the lower facilities and teaching quality, if you do manage with a first honours degree, it speaks volume of your learning abilities whereas others can get a 2:2 degree from a top 10 university.

The main reason people are insulting UEL is because of the rank in The Times. They have not studied at this university. If you choose this university you will need to be prepared to want to study hard because the lecturers are "easy going" and wants to make you feel relaxed. Motivation and encouragement from others in this university is less but you can succeed.

UEL is a new university, not a failing university. If you choose a university solely because of the league table then you are one of those who have not researched the university as a whole, the department, and the course you want to study. And if you are this person, you are likely to fail no matter which university you pick. In the end, you are the one looking for employment, not the university.

If it makes you feel any better, UEL is not at the bottom of the league table anymore. It has risen by quite a bit in rank. 93/109 excluding London Metropolitan University.

Read the QAA report on UEL and you'll see that this new university has been given a "broad confidence" meaning it has the potential to rise up in the league table in the future; kind of like investing - you do not pick which shares to buy because a lot of others tell you to buy that one, or it appears to be profitable out of face value. Instead, you buy shares based on proper research.

If you have any actual proof that UEL is bad, such as past experience, then feel free to say so. Words such as "hahaha" and "Do not go, trust me" are obviously immature kids who categorises a university as good or bad from the league table.

Reply 15

Dragonbaby

I was going to go to UEL. It was my nearest uni and I wanted to live at home, it offered the course I wanted. But when I went to their open day I found them terribly unproffessional. I was told I could get onto the course I wanted purely with my GCSE results, which suggested to me they were willing to take anybody. There was no one from the anthropology department even there, they sent me to speak to the woman who ran the modern history course instead. My friend got told she was on the wrong campus for her course, went to the other campus and got sent back to Docklands again. But the campus itself was lovely (Docklands) and everything was new and modern, with major work still being done to upgrade some areas.
I still put UEL as one of my choices, but I am extremely grateful that I got into UCL, all round it just seemed better when I went to visit it.
I would say put UEL if you like the look of it, and it has the course you want, but apply to some other uni's too. If you can get into a more established uni then it will probably do you more favours when it comes to employment. But if UEL offers a unique course you want, or appeals to you for location, or generally feels right when you go to visit, then go there, work hard, get a good degree and lots of extra experience and I'm sure you will do fine.

Reply 16

James201

i live local to UEl and know a few people who study there. I can confirm it is not very good but if its the only place you can get in then go for it.

Reply 17

xavier2k3

For psychology, it's a good university. In 2004 for example, it came 16th out of 96 Psychology departments in the UK.

As regards to what fooglex said, i'd like to show this, taken from the guardian, written in 2006. Hopefully, it'll instill some confidence in those interested in the university.

With a student population of over 19,000, UEL is undergoing a period of rapid expansion. In 2001 there were just 12,000 students, and there are projected to be over 21,000 by next summer. In part, this could be due to the 'Olympic effect': Stratford, the historic heart of the university, is now the hub of one of Europe's largest urban regeneration areas and the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. New campus developments are on schedule for completion this year, centralising the university at Docklands and Stratford. A new student village will open on the waterfront at Docklands in 2007. The projected drop-out rate remains relatively high, at 26%, but this is mainly due to the extraordinary diversity of the student population: 41.7% of young full-time first degree entrants are from working-class backgrounds and 96.5% hail from state schools. 63% of young students enrolled on full-time first degrees in 2004/5 came from ethnic minorities. Roll on 2012; UEL is definitely on the up.

regards
--marty

Reply 18

Fooglex

Cranberry claims his father worked at UEL for a short time. Did he leave because he found a better university to work at or was he fired? The latter might explain a possibility of a biased opinion of UEL. ¬_¬

Did you know Queen Mary was rated average in teaching quality by the QAA report? It appears that Queen Mary is worse than UEL in some departments... University of Warwick's law department is highly sought for and it's better than KCL despite running its law programme for a much shorter period of time. I've also heard some students from Manchester and KCL say something similar to "I can't believe the likes of Royal Holloway is ranking higher in The Times". Students from the older and more reputable universities are afraid that the new developing universities produce higher calibre students in the future so they keep insulting universities such as UEL to reduce chances of smart students from enrolling.

There are some students who managed to get a place in Oxbridge to study postgraduate courses after graduating from UEL so I believe that UEL graduates can be as able as graduates from a top 10 university.

Reply 19

Whisper

For my course (physiotherapy) UEL is excellent, it offers so much more than other unis... and UEL also is in the top 10 according to Guardian for my subject :smile: