studying music composition in the UK?

TLDR: University of Liverpool or University of Manchester for music?

I'm currently a 2nd year undergraduate student majoring in music composition specifically for film/tv/media/games, and am looking to exchange overseas to the UK. I have a few options between conservatoires - RCM, RAM, and RNCM, and universities - University of Edinburgh, University of Liverpool, and University of Manchester. The conservatoires are quite tailored to either a classical or contemporary/pop/jazz stream, which my major doesn't exactly fit into, so I've kind of lost hope for those as they really need to be an exact fit for my major. The universities seem to have subjects that better align with my current major and also offer more interesting musicology subjects.

So far Liverpool and Manchester look like they have the best equivalent subjects for me, and I've put them as my 1st and 2nd preference respectively, but I'm wondering how good they are. I've heard that Manchester's music is pretty good, but haven't heard anything from Liverpool, and I've seen that overall Liverpool ranks way lower than Manchester and Edinburgh on QS world rankings and on a few other music rankings I've seen. Should this matter to me when picking which to exchange to?

Reply 1

welcometotherock

Manchester has an excellent reputation for music but is generally more geared to classical. Liverpool is good and is more eclectic but for pop possibly suffers from being so close to LIPA. Liverpool isn't as highly ranked as Manchester but it is a great coty to be a student in and the music scene is really good.

In terms of film music composition courses are places like Huddersfield an option. Seen as a lower ranked university but world class for contemporary music (though Huddersfield itself as a town may not appeal).