Durham vs Edinburgh

hi, i've received offers for politics and history from 5 uni's but i've narrowed it down to durham and edinburgh (combined honours in social sciences for Durham as they don't have a history and politics course). However, i can't decide between the two. Does anyone have any suggestions/advice??

Reply 1

Picnicl

17

Edinburgh is the better university overall for research. Durham has slightly better research quality for History (84% v 82%) but Edinburgh has clearly better research quality for Politics (88% v 78%). Edinburgh also has more than 3 times the staff of Durham and 76% at Edinburgh conduct high quality research, compared to 70% at Durham. Source: Thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 2

567tyu

9

Original post by Anonymous

hi, i've received offers for politics and history from 5 uni's but i've narrowed it down to durham and edinburgh (combined honours in social sciences for Durham as they don't have a history and politics course). However, i can't decide between the two. Does anyone have any suggestions/advice??

One thing to consider is the social life, and what kind of environment you would like to be in. Both unis have great clubs and societies if you get involved. Outside of that, Durham has a collegiate structure and is located in a smaller town (which depending on your personality could be a plus or a minus), Edinburgh is a big uni in a big city with a wider range of things going on, (also a potential plus or minus). Have you visited either of them?

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by 567tyu

One thing to consider is the social life, and what kind of environment you would like to be in. Both unis have great clubs and societies if you get involved. Outside of that, Durham has a collegiate structure and is located in a smaller town (which depending on your personality could be a plus or a minus), Edinburgh is a big uni in a big city with a wider range of things going on, (also a potential plus or minus). Have you visited either of them?

I live in Glasgow so am quite acquainted with Edinburgh and have visited Durham a couple of times for open and offer holder days. I liked both of them. My only concern with edi is the socialising. I’m not sure how close a community it is compared to Durham and would worry about difficulties there?

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

OP

Just to ask another specific question, does anyone know how the two unis rank in terms of employers

Reply 5

567tyu

9

Original post by Anonymous

I live in Glasgow so am quite acquainted with Edinburgh and have visited Durham a couple of times for open and offer holder days. I liked both of them. My only concern with edi is the socialising. I’m not sure how close a community it is compared to Durham and would worry about difficulties there?

If you are keen to become an active member of a sports club or a society (that meets regularly for an activity that isn’t just a pub social), then you will most likely have a good social experience at Edinburgh (also good to be open to trying a few different clubs/societies before one clicks). Halls can definitely be a bit of a hit or a miss, but there were a good number of people I knew who made friends through their course too, so there are lots of options. I think the difference is that you do need to stick your neck out more to find friends at Edinburgh. I really enjoyed my social life there, but I know that wasn’t everyone’s experience.

Reply 6

Picnicl

17

Original post by Anonymous

Just to ask another specific question, does anyone know how the two unis rank in terms of employers

Durham has slightly better prospects which partly might be because Durham has a higher percentage of privately educated students (approx 39% v approx 36%), who are already attuned to having better prospects in general. On an international prestige level, Edinburgh is definitely above Durham. QS Rankings place Edinburgh 29th in the world for Politics and Durham 51-100. For History they place Edinburgh 22nd and Durham 42nd.

At both universities, about 30% get first class degrees. Durham gets a higher percentage of 2:1s, about 60% compared to 56 to 57% at Edinburgh. Edinburgh has a higher percentage of international students.

(edited 10 months ago)

Durham vs Edinburgh

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