Which Uni

I'm guessing you are talking about the world rankings considering I don't think there is over 600 uni's in the UK

1. First of all do you actually need to care about world rankings? Most employers in the UK will use the UK ranking tables like the complete university guide, guardian, and times. World rankings will only really come in handy if you plan on working elsewhere when you are older (like the US for instance)

2. If the University does not offer extra funding support for the foundation year, then that's an additional £9250 + maintenance costs which is a hell of a lot of money for something which is essentially useless...

3. Additionally, you have to understand the time involved with taking an additional year, it is obviously going to delay how long it will take you to get into the industry, and especially considering you are young, do you really want to waste what little time you have?

I'm guessing you are only considering the foundation year because the grade requirements are lower but in my personal opinion you should just go to Essex... And I just did a quick check on the complete university guide and it appears Liverpool is #33 whereas Essex is #41.... an 8 position difference in that 30-40 category really is nothing and employers will simply not give a ****.. Do whatever you want but please don't base your decision on a stupid league table, especially if you don't plan on leaving the UK, in which case this question was totally stupid (no offense...)