Should I considered University ranking, subject ranking or both

Hi, I am an international student and I have a question about uni ranking. UK have lots of good unis some are the top U and some aren’t. But some of the top tier universities aren’t good at some subject. of course, it is very normal . For example I want to study business management, so I have searched some unis that I want to study and it is a top tier and well known uni such as KCL and UCL, but they aren’t good at business as some lower tier uni.what should I consider? University ranking or subject ranking? I know it is very complicated and it is a tough situation. My family need to pay huge amount of money therefore I just want to choose the best one out there.

Reply 1

University of Portsmouth Student Rep

Official Rep

16

Original post by Paphon

Hi, I am an international student and I have a question about uni ranking. UK have lots of good unis some are the top U and some aren’t. But some of the top tier universities aren’t good at some subject. of course, it is very normal . For example I want to study business management, so I have searched some unis that I want to study and it is a top tier and well known uni such as KCL and UCL, but they aren’t good at business as some lower tier uni.what should I consider? University ranking or subject ranking? I know it is very complicated and it is a tough situation. My family need to pay huge amount of money therefore I just want to choose the best one out there.

Hi!
Personally, I think that the subject ranking would be more important than the university ranking because a uni could be great but be bad at teaching your specific course. You want to go to the best place for your needs. Usually subject rankings are based on things like the facilities they have for certain subjects, the teaching of the subjects, course satisfaction, etc. This is why I think that the course reputation is more important than the uni reputation.
When I chose my uni, the uni was in the middle rankings but my course was in the top rankings and it was the best decision I could've made.
Hope this helps!
Michaela - UoP Rep :smile:

Reply 2

Joinedup

20

I'd try not to take the rankings too seriously, I don't know which subject ranking you're looking at but on the complete university guide we can see that this year LSE is at #4 up by 12 places since last year and Loughborough is at #11 down by 6 places since last year... that's the sort of 'bobble factor' you get in these ranking systems.

Probably the LSE and Loughborough haven't actually changed very much in 12 months.

Reply 3

A Rolling Stone

20

Original post by Paphon

Hi, I am an international student and I have a question about uni ranking. UK have lots of good unis some are the top U and some aren’t. But some of the top tier universities aren’t good at some subject. of course, it is very normal . For example I want to study business management, so I have searched some unis that I want to study and it is a top tier and well known uni such as KCL and UCL, but they aren’t good at business as some lower tier uni.what should I consider? University ranking or subject ranking? I know it is very complicated and it is a tough situation. My family need to pay huge amount of money therefore I just want to choose the best one out there.

1. pick the course/uni that most suits you. 2. look at the CRITERIA that makes up the ranking rather than the ranking itself (which changes from year to year) and decide which criteria are most important to you. basically, as long as 2 unis are not wildly different in scores, you should focus on picking the course/uni that suits you, as the difference between many of the scores is 'like splitting hairs' and completely inconsequential

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 4

lalexm

16

Original post by Paphon

Hi, I am an international student and I have a question about uni ranking. UK have lots of good unis some are the top U and some aren’t. But some of the top tier universities aren’t good at some subject. of course, it is very normal . For example I want to study business management, so I have searched some unis that I want to study and it is a top tier and well known uni such as KCL and UCL, but they aren’t good at business as some lower tier uni.what should I consider? University ranking or subject ranking? I know it is very complicated and it is a tough situation. My family need to pay huge amount of money therefore I just want to choose the best one out there.

I'd say Uni ranking, plus maybe graduate prospects and student satisfaction for your particular course, so using some of the subject rakings info, but not all of it. This should just give you the starting point though, and like others have said, don't take too much notice of rankings, particularly if they are roughly in the same segment of the table, as rakings fluctuate, so whether it's position say 7 or 11 makes no practical difference.

Reply 5

Mr Wednesday

19

Original post by Paphon

Hi, I am an international student and I have a question about uni ranking. UK have lots of good unis some are the top U and some aren’t. But some of the top tier universities aren’t good at some subject. of course, it is very normal . For example I want to study business management, so I have searched some unis that I want to study and it is a top tier and well known uni such as KCL and UCL, but they aren’t good at business as some lower tier uni.what should I consider? University ranking or subject ranking? I know it is very complicated and it is a tough situation. My family need to pay huge amount of money therefore I just want to choose the best one out there.

If you have a really strong financial reason here, then research industries you are interested in working in (e.g. using Linkedin) and look at where their senior management studied. This will give you an idea of the career trajectories of people, e.g. did the university or course matter ? For non UK positions, a more known brand, e.g. UCL or KCL might be better value long term, but treat this as an investment exercise and look at the numbers.

Should I considered University ranking, subject ranking or both

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