The Student Room Group

Warwick Law School vs. Sheffield Law School?

I am definitely a city person. I visited Warwick and I liked the looks of it. However, the lack of freshers and its isolation puts me off. Sheffield is great in terms of social life but it does not have as high of a reputation as Warwick. Which one should I choose? So confused because I like them both equally. It is my 5 option.
Original post by PKB2503
I am definitely a city person. I visited Warwick and I liked the looks of it. However, the lack of freshers and its isolation puts me off. Sheffield is great in terms of social life but it does not have as high of a reputation as Warwick. Which one should I choose? So confused because I like them both equally. It is my 5 option.


If its the fith option then its hardly oing to matter.
Warwick has the more prestige. Do you have her cjoices on a similar level?

If I had the choice I would go to Warwick, but as a fith choice id make sure I had an insurance. Sheffield is more like Leeds and Newcastle where you are going to get a student experience that has good student social life as well. Have you visited? Maybe it should be your insurance? All depends what your other three were as you might well be going to those instead so fith choice doesnt matter.
Original post by PKB2503
I am definitely a city person. I visited Warwick and I liked the looks of it. However, the lack of freshers and its isolation puts me off. Sheffield is great in terms of social life but it does not have as high of a reputation as Warwick. Which one should I choose? So confused because I like them both equally. It is my 5 option.


Choose Warwick
I would reiterate what Wired said. If Manchester is not on the cards, Warwick is the next best thing.
Original post by Notorious_B.I.G.
I would reiterate what Wired said. If Manchester is not on the cards, Warwick is the next best thing.


Nice, you have been paying attention.

Once a member of the Big 8 is there, one has to choose that Big 8 uni, unless the other uni has an excellent department or course better than the Big 8 uni.

The Big 8 is Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE, Manchester, Edinburgh, UCL and Kings College London
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Wired_1800
Nice, you have been paying attention.

Once a member of the Big 8 is there, one has to choose that Big 8 uni, unless the other uni has an excellent department or course better than the Big 8 uni.

The Big 8 is Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE, Manchester, Edinburgh, UCL and Kings College London


I don't know why I started this.
Original post by Notorious_B.I.G.
I don't know why I started this.


I know you go to Warwick and it is a really decent university.
Reply 7
Original post by Wired_1800
Nice, you have been paying attention.

Once a member of the Big 8 is there, one has to choose that Big 8 uni, unless the other uni has an excellent department or course better than the Big 8 uni.

The Big 8 is Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE, Manchester, Edinburgh, UCL and Kings College London


My choices are UCL, KCL, Nottingham, Leeds and ?

Manchester? Are you sure? I know it’s a great uni but is on the same level as UCL or Cambridge? Hahaha
Original post by PKB2503
My choices are UCL, KCL, Nottingham, Leeds and ?

Manchester? Are you sure? I know it’s a great uni but is on the same level as UCL or Cambridge? Hahaha


In this case, for Law, I think you should select Warwick over Sheffield.

The Big 8 universities are strong universities based on overall quality. However, one must check the individual subject tables to see the strength of the university.

What about Durham? I hear it is quite strong in Law. You may enjoy it there, esp with the collegiate community.

https://www.dur.ac.uk/courses/info/?id=11730&title=Law

I don't have experience in Law by the way. Please take my comments as suggestions.
(edited 6 years ago)
At the end of the day though it's still a Law degree. If you get a Law degree from Sheffield it's not gonna open less doors than one from Warwick, and if you think you'll enjoy Sheffield more then that's totally fine, it's still a good university and you want to enjoy the place that you're going to be living in for at least the duration of your degree!
Do not apply to Warwick Law School unless you want to waste your money and make studying considerably harder than it needs to be. It does not offer value-for-money, and hasn't done for the past couple of years. Word has slowly been getting out.

For the same grades you'd be better of applying to a more supportive, better funded school with an international research profile.

Although employers still send the milkround to Warwick Law School, WLS has not kept apace with recent developments in legal education, and students are not gaining the same experience that employers desire. The milkround casts its net far and wide, but WLS is not in any sense more attractive than, frankly, its mid-tier peers.

The school is a shadow of what it was 10 - or even 5 years ago with academic staffing now about half the size that it was in 2014. Its down to bad management and a lack of innovation. Since 2014 approximately half of it's research-active staff have moved on, but the school has struggled to replace them. Of those academic staff that remain, only one-or two that remain are genuinely of international caliber. Also in terms of admin support, student services are absolutely incompetent.

As a consequence, in recent years it has lagged far behind other departments and faculties at Warwick in terms of teaching and research, and (as you'll read elsewhere on this forum), it merely trades off the University brand and the endeavours of e.g. the WMG, WBS and PAIS.

Today Warwick Law School is far from Russell group caliber, and numbers of research students in particular have been hard hit as word is beginning to get around its traditional recruiting grounds overseas. In particular, the number of LLMs has been declining for the past couple of years, which is unfortunate given that the school is now almost entirely dependent on international students for income generation. Another tragedy is that the school has not won any external research awards in recent times and it's PhD students are all self-funded or on internal Chancellors scholarships. This means that external research councils are not deeming it to be a sufficiently supportive, or prestigious research institution either.

Please be cautious therefore that the school is selling something of a fiction in its marketing when it talks about research excellence - Warwick Law school is still placing considerable weight on a Research Excellence Result (REF) based on publications made in the period 2011 - 2013. The reality is that most of the staff that contributed have since now moved on, and that the school is struggling to replace them. Of most concern is that the school no-longer has a credible commercial law offering at all - and certainly not of international caliber. Only last week it lost another lecturer in this area. Those with any promise are getting out.

All this leaves undergraduates with especially poor value for money. The departures and prevailing ideologies mean that the school is simply not equipped to deliver the qualifying law degree for solicitors or barristers. For those staff left teaching core modules, it is a 3rd/4th language to them. The school lacks any form of credible expertise in several core areas e.g. property law. It is also ideologically opposed to any form of vocational legal education being blended into the curriculum, even where that offers a healthy balance, or might support theoretical studies. This is because the school is now run by a group of homogenous, stale, crusty academics who have been promoted above the level of their real market ability/worth and who are incapable of innovation.

Understandably therefore, teaching and student experience have been rated consistently poorly. For the last 7 years student experience has been rated 1/5, or less on NSS (taken on the basis of the responses from 80% of finalists). The issues behind these extremely poor results are not being addressed where other schools do make more effort, or at least seem to do much better. One of the key issues has been that innovations designed to improve teaching and student experience are perceived as threats to the established status quo, and have therefore been thwarted for internal political reasons. Each year the same old excuses are then proffered, the current director of student experience (who has presided over all these lousy scores) blames student immaturity and the unreliability of NSS for the issue. Unfortunately she's been with the school for 30 years and isn't likely to be replaced.

....another thing, don't even think about bringing a car as a student - places are non-existent and campus security have their own little army patrolling this. Student parking is very expensive, and you take the risk of a disciplinary offence by over-staying your welcome by accident. Campus security at Warwick is of course populated by a group of former Police with attitudes towards equality and diversity that belong...well, in the...police.

Quick Reply

Latest