The Student Room Group

Which uni is best in terms of reputation Westminster, Plymouth or Portsmouth?

I am currently holding offers from these three unis for architecture and I wanted to know which university has the best reputation. I also wanted to know if doing Westminster’s Architecture and Environmental Design will give me an advantage when it comes to employment. Any opinions on these three unis would be greatly appreciated!
Reply 1
Original post by ChessKitten8
I am currently holding offers from these three unis for architecture and I wanted to know which university has the best reputation. I also wanted to know if doing Westminster’s Architecture and Environmental Design will give me an advantage when it comes to employment. Any opinions on these three unis would be greatly appreciated!


Had a quick read of all three, Westminster's BSc Architecture and Environmental Design looks good, particularly if you already have an interest in sustainable design - it's also an area of knowledge that is desirable atm for practices. Westminster has a lot of individual modules covering aspects of sustainable design that would be lumped into one 'Technology' module in other courses. Plus theres a built in placement year, and having some experience is really useful for getting a job. (speaking as someone who didn't get any experience during archi undergrad and struggled a lot to find a job afterwards 😅) Portsmouth placement year option looks good for that reason too. However Westminster's course doesn't have things like working with live clients / 'fine art' aspects to it like the other two

Worth noting too that Portsmouth and Plymouth are both BA degrees whereas Westminster is a BSc. Having a BSc could make you a slightly better candidate for STEM-related grad schemes/careers in case you decide to switch fields after your degree (e.g., the schemes you can find on Gradcracker). The BA on the other hand could be better for going into creative industries such as graphic design etc.
(bear in mind STEM graduates tend to earn slightly higher than non-STEM, but up to you obviously)

Also afaik I don't think any of the three unis are particularly different in terms of reputation, they're kind of 'middle of the road' I guess, decent unis but not going to have the instant impact on your CV that say Cambridge or Bartlett will. (Probably a better day to day for you too considering the pretty shocking allegations recently about the toxic culture at the Bartlett haha)

imo, if you're more technically minded or interested in sustainability then go Westminster, if you're interested in keeping options open for creative careers in the future then one of the other two.
Reply 2
Original post by Pedr0


Had a quick read of all three, Westminster's BSc Architecture and Environmental Design looks good, particularly if you already have an interest in sustainable design - it's also an area of knowledge that is desirable atm for practices. Westminster has a lot of individual modules covering aspects of sustainable design that would be lumped into one 'Technology' module in other courses. Plus theres a built in placement year, and having some experience is really useful for getting a job. (speaking as someone who didn't get any experience during archi undergrad and struggled a lot to find a job afterwards 😅) Portsmouth placement year option looks good for that reason too. However Westminster's course doesn't have things like working with live clients / 'fine art' aspects to it like the other two

Worth noting too that Portsmouth and Plymouth are both BA degrees whereas Westminster is a BSc. Having a BSc could make you a slightly better candidate for STEM-related grad schemes/careers in case you decide to switch fields after your degree (e.g., the schemes you can find on Gradcracker). The BA on the other hand could be better for going into creative industries such as graphic design etc.
(bear in mind STEM graduates tend to earn slightly higher than non-STEM, but up to you obviously)

Also afaik I don't think any of the three unis are particularly different in terms of reputation, they're kind of 'middle of the road' I guess, decent unis but not going to have the instant impact on your CV that say Cambridge or Bartlett will. (Probably a better day to day for you too considering the pretty shocking allegations recently about the toxic culture at the Bartlett haha)

imo, if you're more technically minded or interested in sustainability then go Westminster, if you're interested in keeping options open for creative careers in the future then one of the other two.


thank you so much for taking time out of ure day to write that 🙏🙏🙏 it was super helpful
Original post by ChessKitten8
I am currently holding offers from these three unis for architecture and I wanted to know which university has the best reputation. I also wanted to know if doing Westminster’s Architecture and Environmental Design will give me an advantage when it comes to employment. Any opinions on these three unis would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there! I'm a current Plymouth student and, although I don't study this course, I would definitely recommend the university and city from my experiences so far. We have an architecture student available to chat to on our Unibuddy page if you'd like some more specific advice and guidance?

Best of luck and if you have any general questions too feel free to reach out! 🙂

-Alfie, University of Plymouth Undergraduate Student Rep

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending