Nottingham, Birmingham or Bath for Chemical Engineering?
Hey everyone, I currently have offers to study chemical engineering at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Bath and I'm at a loss at which one to choose. I know that Nottingham and Birmingham are ranked higher than Bath in chem eng ranking lists, but Bath is ranked higher than the other 2 in overall uni ranking lists. Which type of list should I take into account more or are ranking lists not as important as they seem? All 3 offer a year in industry at pretty much the same companies, so does one have better industry connections than the others and which one would be viewed as the most 'prestigious' for chemical engineering? Thank you 
Original post by BennyGoose
Hey everyone, I currently have offers to study chemical engineering at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Bath and I'm at a loss at which one to choose. I know that Nottingham and Birmingham are ranked higher than Bath in chem eng ranking lists, but Bath is ranked higher than the other 2 in overall uni ranking lists. Which type of list should I take into account more or are ranking lists not as important as they seem? All 3 offer a year in industry at pretty much the same companies, so does one have better industry connections than the others and which one would be viewed as the most 'prestigious' for chemical engineering? Thank you
Hi @BennyGoose,
I'm a third year mechanical engineering student so I think that I can help you out a bit. You should consider both the overall rankings and the ranking for your subject but you shouldn't forget that there are many other things to consider such as the city itself and the extracurricular activities that the uni offers. As for industry links, Birmingham was recently named the most targeted university by the UK’s top 100 graduate employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2021. However, when looking for a year in industry, it is a lot down to you selling yourself and finding the company that fits for you. Hope this helps and if you have any more questions feel free to ask!
~Caitlin~
Original post by UoB - Engineering and Physical Sciences
Hi @BennyGoose,
I'm a third year mechanical engineering student so I think that I can help you out a bit. You should consider both the overall rankings and the ranking for your subject but you shouldn't forget that there are many other things to consider such as the city itself and the extracurricular activities that the uni offers. As for industry links, Birmingham was recently named the most targeted university by the UK’s top 100 graduate employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2021. However, when looking for a year in industry, it is a lot down to you selling yourself and finding the company that fits for you. Hope this helps and if you have any more questions feel free to ask!
~Caitlin~
I'm a third year mechanical engineering student so I think that I can help you out a bit. You should consider both the overall rankings and the ranking for your subject but you shouldn't forget that there are many other things to consider such as the city itself and the extracurricular activities that the uni offers. As for industry links, Birmingham was recently named the most targeted university by the UK’s top 100 graduate employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2021. However, when looking for a year in industry, it is a lot down to you selling yourself and finding the company that fits for you. Hope this helps and if you have any more questions feel free to ask!
~Caitlin~
Hi Caitlin. Thank you for your reply and wow that's a very impressive statistic for Birmingham! Why did you decide to pick Birmingham as your final choice over your other offers?
Original post by BennyGoose
Hey everyone, I currently have offers to study chemical engineering at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Bath and I'm at a loss at which one to choose. I know that Nottingham and Birmingham are ranked higher than Bath in chem eng ranking lists, but Bath is ranked higher than the other 2 in overall uni ranking lists. Which type of list should I take into account more or are ranking lists not as important as they seem? All 3 offer a year in industry at pretty much the same companies, so does one have better industry connections than the others and which one would be viewed as the most 'prestigious' for chemical engineering? Thank you
Hi there! Congratulations on your offer
I am a chemical engineering student at the University of Bath so hopefully I'll be able to provide some insight.One thing I would say is do not look too much into the rankings. All Universities in the top 10-15 are really good but they tend to fluctuate in position quite a lot amongst themselves. As a result, Universities near the top when you apply may not be as high in a few years time and visa versa.
It's definitely more important to focus on the course content itself (I would recommend having a look at the modules list for each University, what optional modules available and even the research that is going on within each department as this can influence what you are taught, particularly regarding research and design projects). Secondly, I would recommend look at the University itself. Do you want a campus or a city University? Where is the University located within the city and what is the city itself like? What are the sports and societies like at the University? These things are really important to consider - more so than rankings in my opinion.
In terms of industry links between the companies, I can only speak on behalf of Bath here (my knowledge of placements and graduate jobs at the other Universities is next to nothing). A big factor for me in choosing Bath was the placement scheme. Bath’s placement scheme is excellent. Over two-thirds of students do a work placement (often it is higher than this). The faculty of engineering have a really supportive placement team who’s role is dedicated to helping students find placements and supporting whilst they are on placement. This help is invaluable in allowing students to secure placements. We have an online database where all the placement vacancies are posted, which means it is easy to see what you want to apply for. Some of these are open to all students but some are Bath specific, which makes securing a placement much more likely. The team also help with CV and application checking and interview preparation. After you have secured a placement, the team ensure your contact is in place and keep in contact with you whilst you are working to ensure everything is going well.
Again, I would really recommend looking into the course and the University itself, rather than league tables. I know it's really easy to do and I definitely used league tables way too much in my decision making process so I understand the temptation. But they fluctuate so much each year, and what and where you study makes all the difference to how you find University
I hope this helps - please let me know if you have any questions!
Leah
Placement Chemical Engineering
Original post by BennyGoose
Hey everyone, I currently have offers to study chemical engineering at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Bath and I'm at a loss at which one to choose. I know that Nottingham and Birmingham are ranked higher than Bath in chem eng ranking lists, but Bath is ranked higher than the other 2 in overall uni ranking lists. Which type of list should I take into account more or are ranking lists not as important as they seem? All 3 offer a year in industry at pretty much the same companies, so does one have better industry connections than the others and which one would be viewed as the most 'prestigious' for chemical engineering? Thank you
Hi, congrats on your offers!
I'm a 4th year chemical engineering student at UoB who also had offers from those Universities and I agree with what Caitlin and Leah have said - as the unis are all so close together in the league tables and they change each year, it's worth focusing on the other factors such as course content, industry links, accommodation, societies and the city when deciding on where you would to go.
I'll tell you a bit about chem eng at Birmingham:
We have a careers advisor in the department and an industrial rep in our Chemical Engineering Society who regularly collate and communicate information about placements and arrange talks with companies. You can arrange 1-on-1 sessions with the careers advisor to discuss your applications, CV and interview technique. The society also holds an Industrial Dinner each year where you can network with employers and find out about placements and graduate schemes, which can really help you during your applications. In terms of optional modules, research at Birmingham focuses on three main themes - energy, healthcare technologies and formulation engineering (food and other FMCG). But there are also other modules you can take in 3rd and 4th year in areas such as business and data science.
In terms of why I myself chose Birmingham apart from the course and industry links, was a combination of several things. I really liked the variety of societies on offer (particularly in music, the arts and volunteering), the links with other Universities if I wanted to do a year abroad, the campus itself (it's beautiful!), transport links between the Uni and the city center as well as from Birmingham to home, the accommodation sites and their facilities, sports facilities and the city of Birmingham itself. I understand that this year it's not really possible to visit the Universities as easily to get a feel for them, but if you do some research into some of these other things that you feel are most important to you (videos online are great for this), then I'm sure it will help you make your decision. Remember that the decision is personal and you should choose what you feel is best and works well for you!
~ Prithvi
(edited 3 years ago)
Thank you both so much for your replies I really appreciate the detail you've put into them! It seems like all these unis have great systems and facilities in place to help with industry placement and interview preparation, and so I should look more at the social side of each uni to see which one appeals to me more (like societies, the campus and the city). Thank you again for your insight and good luck to you all on your course!
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