The Student Room Group

Northeastern University London Law

I've applied to Northeastern for Law. I like the look of the course as it's very flexible, you can explore other humanities topics outside of law and I like the idea of spending a year abroad on their Boston campus. Could anyone tell me more about the quality of the uni? It's not on any of the ranking tables as far as I can tell and could anyone tell me more about what student life is like? What sort of societies and other social events are there?
Northeastern is a mid ranking American University. Its London branch used to be the philosopher Anthony Grayling's project to establish what was supposed to be in effect an Oxford college in London. It was called the New College Of The Humanities. The college ran out of money and was rescued by Northeastern. I think that it now has US style semesters and so on. It used to offer students two or three Oxford style one to one or one to two tutorials each term, but I don't know if it still does that.

The university has two buildings, neither very big, and when I last checked the university lacked its own library (students can use the Senate House library of the University of London, in Bloomsbury) and it also lacked its own catering. There was no cafe, no bar, and so on. I don't know if there are any sports facilities (if there are they must be somewhere in outer London). The main building is part of an office block next to Tower Bridge, so at least the river views are good, and the teaching spaces are quite pleasant. There's a large Dickensian-style pub close to the building, and various restaurants around the docks where people park yachts and cruisers. The building is close to Tower Hill tube station and Tower Gateway DLR, and a short walk from Borough Market, Flatiron Square, and Brick Lane. The second building is part of an office building near Trinity House, a few minutes walk from the main building.
Original post by Stiffy Byng
Northeastern is a mid ranking American University. Its London branch used to be the philosopher Anthony Grayling's project to establish what was supposed to be in effect an Oxford college in London. It was called the New College Of The Humanities. The college ran out of money and was rescued by Northeastern. I think that it now has US style semesters and so on. It used to offer students two or three Oxford style one to one or one to two tutorials each term, but I don't know if it still does that.
The university has two buildings, neither very big, and when I last checked the university lacked its own library (students can use the Senate House library of the University of London, in Bloomsbury) and it also lacked its own catering. There was no cafe, no bar, and so on. I don't know if there are any sports facilities (if there are they must be somewhere in outer London). The main building is part of an office block next to Tower Bridge, so at least the river views are good, and the teaching spaces are quite pleasant. There's a large Dickensian-style pub close to the building, and various restaurants around the docks where people park yachts and cruisers. The building is close to Tower Hill tube station and Tower Gateway DLR, and a short walk from Borough Market, Flatiron Square, and Brick Lane. The second building is part of an office building near Trinity House, a few minutes walk from the main building.

Thanks for such a detailed response!
You're welcome. I am sorry that I can't say much about the current academic standards at the university. When I taught there (it was still called NCH, but had recently been taken over by Northeastern), I thought that the academic standards were ambitious, but that not many of the students were working to the standards which the academics were aiming for. The law student group was a mixture of middle ability to occasionally quite clever Brits, often quite posh, with a fair number of people from Central European countries, who tended to be more focused. There were, IIRC, no East Asian students and not many South Asian students. There was a small and able group of mature students, who were the cohort leaders.

Most of the students seemed to me a bit lazy and unmotivated. Perhaps this reflects on my teaching abilities, but I've generally been OK at teaching at other places and when training pupils in my chambers (I currently do some part time teaching on LLM courses at UCL).

Despite being offered one to one or two to one tutorials in the Oxford manner, many of the students wouldn't turn up, or would turn up not having written an essay, which rendered the tutorial less impactful than it should be. I think that the full time law staff, not unfairly, kept the brightest students for themselves (including all the mature students), so maybe the students to whom I was supposed to deliver tutorials were the tail enders of the cohort.

The quality of the academic staff was quite good. They included people who had other jobs at well known universities in the London area, and their own degrees were from swanky universities.

I think that much has changed since I was there, but I do not know the direction of the changes. I suspect that the direction is positive. Money helps! I think that Northeastern has been trying to bring its culture, and maybe to Americanise the teaching systems to some extent.

I add that the office building has a cafe in it for the office workers on the upper floors, and I think that students get a discount there, but it's not a university cafe.

Boston, Mass, is a very enjoyable city, and New England is a lovely region of the United States, so the chance of a year in Boston is not to be sniffed at.
(edited 4 weeks ago)
Original post by Stiffy Byng
You're welcome. I am sorry that I can't say much about the current academic standards at the university. When I taught there (it was still called NCH, but had recently been taken over by Northeastern), I thought that the academic standards were ambitious, but that not many of the students were working to the standards which the academics were aiming for. The law student group was a mixture of middle ability to occasionally quite clever Brits, often quite posh, with a fair number of people from Central European countries, who tended to be more focused. There were, IIRC, no East Asian students and not many South Asian students. There was a small and able group of mature students, who were the cohort leaders.
Most of the students seemed to me a bit lazy and unmotivated. Perhaps this reflects on my teaching abilities, but I've generally been OK at teaching at other places and when training pupils in my chambers (I currently do some part time teaching on LLM courses at UCL).
Despite being offered one to one or two to one tutorials in the Oxford manner, many of the students wouldn't turn up, or would turn up not having written an essay, which rendered the tutorial less impactful than it should be. I think that the full time law staff, not unfairly, kept the brightest students for themselves (including all the mature students), so maybe the students to whom I was supposed to deliver tutorials were the tail enders of the cohort.
The quality of the academic staff was quite good. They included people who had other jobs at well known universities in the London area, and their own degrees were from swanky universities.
I think that much has changed since I was there, but I do not know the direction of the changes. I suspect that the direction is positive. Money helps! I think that Northeastern has been trying to bring its culture, and maybe to Americanise the teaching systems to some extent.
I add that the office building has a cafe in it for the office workers on the upper floors, and I think that students get a discount there, but it's not a university cafe.
Boston, Mass, is a very enjoyable city, and New England is a lovely region of the United States, so the chance of a year in Boston is not to be sniffed at.

Thank you for your answer!

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