Choosing the right uni

Hi, I received offers from Kent, Essex, Stirling and Aberdeen to pursue a bachelor of Economics program. Which uni should I go for and why?

Reply 1

written-spectre

Aberdeen uni because of it's ranking and study is better than others.

Reply 2

University of Kent

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi, I received offers from Kent, Essex, Stirling and Aberdeen to pursue a bachelor of Economics program. Which uni should I go for and why?

Hi there,

I hope you're keeping well.

Firstly, congratulations on all your offers! That's a very impressive host of selections you have, so I hope you're proud of yourself for your achievement.
Whilst I can't really speak for the other universities, I can at least vouch that Kent has been a great uni for me so far, and I would be willing to bet that you would also find it to be a lovely place to study at.
Simply put, it has fantastic lecturers who are not only willing, but also forced to interact with students, good high quality resources for students to access, great support structures to help students not fall back, a variety of really interesting modules to choose from, notable alumni who return regularly to give talks and advice for current students, and to just end the list, a beautiful campus close to a gorgeous city.

Lecturers:
Our lecturers are not fantastic just because they happen to be smart, they're fantastic since they're passionate about the modules that they teach and about trying to help students improve as much as possible. This actually doesn't just include the lecturers, it also applies to our PhD seminar leaders and also the staff in general here. Everyone is genuinely just pleasant to be with and talk to - which I guess is a good start. But, you're not here to be coddled. You're here to be taught. And so, relating to teaching, the university here implements a system where alongside your regular lectures and seminars, you'll also have drop-in sessions, which are just hour long classes where you only ask questions to teachers so as to catch up on parts you didn't understand in any class, as well as ask any questions to further your understanding of the material and economics in general. Alongside that though, every lecturer and seminar leader will also have their own consultation hours which are hours in their office where they put down everything they do to answer any of your questions, again for an hour, two times a week, every week. These are essentially then 1-1 sessions where you continue to further your own understanding, plus if you can, try and catch out the lecturer as well. On top of that though, you'll also be given your own academic advisor when you enter the Uni, who is a dedicated lecturer in economics, who is there to provide guidance with your academic skills and make sure that you're not struggling too much. I hope you'll begin to see a pattern of support that the University tries to provide to ensure you don't just learn, but thrive at Kent.

Resources:
As for resources, the School of Economics boasts a beautiful, award winning modern building as its home, which it shares with the Business school to help its students meet and network together. Sibson, the actual building itself, also hosts a variety of useful facilities for students to access, which apart from the many well-equipped lecture theatres and seminar rooms, has breakout rooms for students to organise and study together, meeting rooms for group projects and presentation preparation, silent study pods for students who wish to just focus on revising, research areas such as a Bloomberg suite, computer labs, and ASPIRE lab space, and just to top it off, a lovely little café for whenever you need a coffee break. The trees outside only make the space more relaxing. You'll also find the lecturer office rooms here, meaning there's no need to travel far to make a visit and ask questions directly. Accompanying this, most resources for modules required for study here (such as books, articles, more group meeting rooms, laptops, extra reading, etc.) at the uni will be easily found in the library at the centre of campus only 5 minutes away from Sibson, all for free. It recently also went under a new renovation, making it look a lot nicer. which again, is definitely a plus. It also has its own café to get you coffee. Honestly, maybe both buildings were just excuses to build more cafés!

Support Structures:
Alongside the drop-in sessions, consultation hours, and academic advisors, the university also offers many departments to help you throughout all your studies, including the academic support learning advisory service - a department dedicated to helping students falling back for all general problems, whether it be essay writing, maths skills, resource finding, plagiarism checking, etc. As well, there's a dedicated mental health department, there to help you if ever you feel a bit overwhelmed by anything, no matter how big or small, another work-opportunity department to help with finding internship positions, navigating the corporate world, checking CVs & Cover Letters to help you improve them, mock interviews, etc. There's even an entreupreneurial department, dedicated to helping you start up a business idea if you happen to have one, and helpig teach and guide you towards the skills necessary if that interests you! Basically, point is, any departments here at the university, all with the select goal of helping you succeed.

Modules:
Now I'll stop yapping and get to the meat of the studies, the modules themselves. First year will be quite elementary, and will consist of bringing everyone up to speed, giving them the necessary skills to understand the principles of economics, as well as preparing you for more intricate modules lateron. The reason why it's an elementary year is just due to the cohort all being from different backgrounds, i.e. some people took Alevel maths but not economics, others economics but not maths, etc. You nevertheless will still get options for interesting topics to learn on your own though, which will be great. My personal favourite module was the Economic Development of Europe throughout History, as I msyself adore History, but you could choose to take different topics. Second Year will be the true economic modelling and tool-building year where you'll go into depth learning about how to think about economic phenomena, understanding key relations from data-driven stylised facts, and how to go about analysing and managing data itself mathematically. I've loved second year - though its been tough, the lecturers are alwasys more than happy to clarify misunderstandings, questions, and even relate the work to advanced or more applicable topics, which brings life into what can sometimes be quite a mathematical or theoretically weird machine. Finally, third year is where the fun begins. Your own selection of modules, ranging from Industrial to Development to Machine Learning to Trade to Finance to Behavioural, etc. Meanwhile, you choose whether to follow through with an extended essay, or a dissertation throughout this, researching projects which excite and drive your passion to understand more about the world. Again, though it does initially seem daunting, you have a security net to fall back on in terms of the support that the uni provides throughout all this. Ultimately, it is what you make of it, and we want to help you be curious and ambitious.
The relevant information here is "Course Structures - Explore Modules".

Alumni & Networking:
As for actual job-searching after uni, the School of Economics, as well as societies such as the Economics Society and Kent Invest, try to help students by organising events with keynote speakers, especially with alumni who graduated, to give not just interesting talks on relevant topics, but to help students meet and ask questions to those who were in their shoes, and get advice on where to focus their attention, or to help answer a query they had. It's a great way to meet friendly faces, and get started on your own journey, as well as maybe even propel your way towards postgraduate study at famous, brand-value universities by knowing what you'll face if you choose that path.

Campus & City:
Finally, the university itself is just a general, peacful mix of rural and urban. Rural enough to enjoy the trees, the hills, the birds, rabbits, and other critters as well as the views of the historic city, but urban enough to have all you need within a 10 minute bus ride, or be in London within the hour (and to not face a crop failure during harsh winters!) Canterbury itself is not just close to London as mentioned, but it's also near Dover, Margate, Whistable, and other historic, coastal regions - not to mention France as well! Many students will just visit Calais or Paris for the weekend and return back to classes on Monday. Its a very fortunate place to be located in terms of the different geographic opportunities available just to enjoy and bask in.

Anyways, I could definitely write more, but I'll stop yapping here. Sorry for writing a lot, but I truly do think that Kent is a fantastic choice to at the very least consider. It has been for me afterall!

Ultimately, I'd say the absolute best thing you can do to figure out which Uni is best for you, is to visit them. More than any rambling, or league table, or anecdote, or whatever, I promise you thats probably the best way to figure out if you'll enjoy studying there.
That being said, I'd love to invite you to our Open Day which will happen on April 20th, or if you can't make that, then there will also be on July 6th (though that's a while away).

Anyways, I hope this helped, even if just a little.

Warm regards,

David :smile:

University of Kent Student Rep

Reply 3

UoA Enquiry Team

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi, I received offers from Kent, Essex, Stirling and Aberdeen to pursue a bachelor of Economics program. Which uni should I go for and why?

Hi, this is the University of Aberdeen rep account. Congratulations on all of your offers! I'd want to provide you with some guidance that I hope will help on making a decision.

I would recommend having a look around this site for students of each of the unis you have offers from to see what the general consensus is.
It's also worth thinking about the cities and what appeals to you. Do you want to be close to or far away from home, do you want to be in a big or small city, are there things/places in that city that you're interested in or will be good for any hobbies you have; those sorts of factors should definitely be on your mind as well as the actual courses of each of the universities. I think with these universities being in very different parts of the country it's worth thinking about what's best for you in these regards.
Then it would be worth having a look on each of our websites to see what appeals to you about the courses eg. course content, projects you will get to do through your degree, prospects upon graduation, that sort of thing.

I hope this information has been useful and all the best with coming to a decision! I was a student at Aberdeen previously and can vouch that I had a great time here; the teaching staff were passionate, the student support is there for you, and the student societies/community feel very present in the city. But equally you can have a great time and learn a lot at most any university you go to and so I think factors that are personal to you are well worth putting front and centre.

- Matthew, Enquiry Team

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Hi David,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and insights about Kent with me. Your enthusiasm regarding the university shines through in every word, and I truly appreciate your thoroughness in describing the academic environment, resources, support structures, and overall atmosphere at Kent.
I'm genuinely impressed by the level of dedication and support provided to students, from the passionate lecturers to the abundance of resources and the strong sense of community. After reading your message, I feel even more inclined to consider Kent as a choice for my education. While I'm still weighing my options, I can confidently say that Kent will be my insurance choice if it doesn't end up being my firm one.
I'll definitely keep the upcoming Open Day dates in mind and try my best to attend it (At least the virtual one).
Once again, thank you for your valuable insights and warm invitation. I'm grateful for your guidance as I navigate this important decision.

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Original post by UoA Enquiry Team

Hi, this is the University of Aberdeen rep account. Congratulations on all of your offers! I'd want to provide you with some guidance that I hope will help on making a decision.
I would recommend having a look around this site for students of each of the unis you have offers from to see what the general consensus is.
It's also worth thinking about the cities and what appeals to you. Do you want to be close to or far away from home, do you want to be in a big or small city, are there things/places in that city that you're interested in or will be good for any hobbies you have; those sorts of factors should definitely be on your mind as well as the actual courses of each of the universities. I think with these universities being in very different parts of the country it's worth thinking about what's best for you in these regards.
Then it would be worth having a look on each of our websites to see what appeals to you about the courses eg. course content, projects you will get to do through your degree, prospects upon graduation, that sort of thing.
I hope this information has been useful and all the best with coming to a decision! I was a student at Aberdeen previously and can vouch that I had a great time here; the teaching staff were passionate, the student support is there for you, and the student societies/community feel very present in the city. But equally you can have a great time and learn a lot at most any university you go to and so I think factors that are personal to you are well worth putting front and centre.
- Matthew, Enquiry Team

Hi Matthew,
Thank you for reaching out and providing such insightful guidance as I navigate through my university offers. Your advice on considering factors like city appeal, course content, and overall student experience is greatly appreciated.
I've taken your advice to heart and have been exploring student forums and websites to get a sense of the general consensus about each university. Additionally, I've been reflecting on what matters most to me personally, including the proximity to outdoor activities and the availability of sports clubs and societies.
Aberdeen definitely stands out to me in this regard. I've heard wonderful things about the city's access to outdoor adventures and the vibrant sports clubs and societies scene. It seems like a perfect fit for someone like me who values both the academic and extracurricular aspects of university life.
However, I must admit I have some concerns about the Economics program at Aberdeen. While I've heard fantastic things about the overall student experience, I haven't had the chance to speak with any current Economics students to gain insights into their specific experiences with the program.
Would you happen to have any resources or contacts that could provide more information about the Economics program at Aberdeen? Hearing from students currently enrolled would greatly help me in making an informed decision.
Once again, thank you for your thoughtful guidance. I'm grateful for your assistance as I weigh my options and strive to make the best decision for my future.

Reply 6

UoA Enquiry Team

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Thank you for your reply and I'm really glad to hear the advice was helpful! That's very complimentary of us and do let me know if you have any more questions about the uni or student life. We are quite well situated for outdoor activities, and you might me interested in looking through some of the student societies: https://www.ausa.org.uk/getinvolved/activities/
There's Lairig who plan hiking trips and Surfing among others, as well as a lot of sports societies so there really are a lot of interests covered.

We have a service for speaking to current students here: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/student-life/student-chat
Unfortunately it doesn't look like we have anyone from the economics programme specifically but these students would still be happy to talk about their experience studying with us, and there should be some studying within the Business School which you can talk to. If you have questions about the programme and course information you can contact [email protected] for the department to get you some more details.

Hope this is helpful but just say if you're wanting to find more information!

- Matthew, Enquiry Team

Reply 7

EssexOfficialRep

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hi, I received offers from Kent, Essex, Stirling and Aberdeen to pursue a bachelor of Economics program. Which uni should I go for and why?

Hiya!
It's great that you are considering the University of Essex for your economics degree.

Essex is 4th in the UK for research power (REF 2021), so you will be learning alongside academics who are breaking new ground in all fields of economics, and pioneering new solutions to global issues.
We are 1st in the UK for Value-Added for Economics in the Guardian University Guide 2024 and 7th in the UK for Economics in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2023).

As a former Economics student, the university is an excellent institution for economics.

Our researchers are at the forefront of their field and have even received MBEs, with students coming from across the globe to study, research or work with us.
Our Department of Economics is a richly diverse home to staff and students from all over the world who have a strong sense of belonging and want to think, learn and change the world together.
Many of our researchers also provide consultancy services to businesses in London and other major financial centres, helping us to develop research for today's society as well as informing our teaching for the future

You are given the opportunity to choose different modules from bought the department of economics and others at the university, this will enable you to taller your degree to your personal preference.

During the duration of your degree you will have the opportunity to attend academic talks from guest speakers to help you prepare for all the opportunities that are available.

You can also study abroad or take a placement year before your final year of university.
The university also has an economics society where you are given the opportunity to go on filled trips, attend academic sessions and have dinners with the academics.

Department of Economics | University of Essex

I hope this information helps and we are having an open day on Saturday 15th June, you are welcome to attend an not only speak with our academics but as well tour our facilities and have a fists hand experience of what is like to be an Essex student.
Open Days | University of Essex

Cat-Official Essex Rep