What’s better for Law, University of Exeter or Queen’s University Belfast?

As the title says, I’m struggling to pick between these two universities. I’ve been offered places at both already with similar conditional requirements. They’re both pretty equal to me in terms of student life and how I like the location, so could anyone give me some insight into which is an actual better university for Law? Which university will give me better prospects and set me up for the future? Rankings from different sources consistently place them near each other, so if anyone has any extra bit of information or insight that would help me pick the better law school, that would help. Thank you!

Reply 1

josesh

Original post by m4ttgr1m

Hey!! Congrats on your offers!!

I have gone through the law process recently and I would say both QUB and Exeter are roughly the same sort of standing for Law. Law is one of the better subjects QUB offers and I know somebody who went off to LSE and had QUB as their insurance. I wouldn’t say Law was a flagship course or one Exeter was particularly known for but it’s good at it still like most subjects. Exeter isn’t really “top of the country” in any one subject but it has a good reputation in pretty much all the subjects it offers. QUB maybe has a slightly weaker overall reputation but with law, I’d say it was on par with Exeter and both have pretty similar entry standards which shows that. I know some people worry about job prospects when going to QUB due to it being in N. Ireland but I know of a top criminal barrister working in London who did her undergrad at QUB (LLM at Cambridge) so.

I think it really depends on slight differences in the courses and overall the social life! Do you want to be in Belfast which is still a small city but it’s still a capital city with a very different student makeup to Exeter (northern Irish, more state students as opposed to the “rah” stereotype of Exeter) or do you want Exeter which perhaps feels more like a town at times than a bustling city. I don’t think you would be harming your career chances by choosing either.

If you really are focused on the rankings, for law it is generally seen as something akin to this:

Tier I:
Oxbridge

Tier II:
LSE, UCL, Durham, King’s (?)

Tier 2.5:
King’s, Bristol, Nottingham

Tier 3:
Bristol, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Queen Mary, Leeds, Manchester/Warwick debatably

I would put both Exeter and QUB in a Tier IV with middle-lower ranked Russell’s when it comes to law but both are great unis regardless and congratulations! I think most in your position would choose Exeter as it’s probably more of a known quantity than QUB to most but there really isn’t any sizeable difference at all!

good luck 😊