Is Leicester a prestigious university?

bigmantimz

just wondering cos i'm considering going there

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Reply 1

NDGAARONDI

The answer of this question in predetermined. Many users will say no.

Reply 2

faber niger

It's a very good university, yes. Prestigious makes me think of fusty men in funny hats.

Reply 3

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

Reply 4

plopSDCSDC

i think so, it is pretty good for maths but im not sure about other subjects.

Reply 5

King4eva

Nope!

Reply 6

ILIGAN

It's physics, biophysics, astrophysics and astronomy are pretty strong. It's med school is also respected. Fingerprinting was discovered there and the discoverer is still teaching at the university, I believe.

Reply 7

waleedwal

if not prestigious its definitely a good university.....what course do you want to apply for?

Reply 8

adilmorrison

Considered prestigious by who?

Reply 9

accelerator

I'm also strongly considering going to Leicester (for Electrical Engineering). C ya guys there!

Reply 10

.ACS.

It isn't prestigious per se, though it definitely has some strong departments.

Reply 11

River85

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

What nonsene.

I'll expand on that later

Reply 12

VanillaCat

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

Crap for everything else? Leicester has had the UK's best French department for years, that's why I'm going there. It also has some of the most beautiful accomodation I've seen.

I think it is "prestigious". But to be honest who cares? If you can get the grades, it has a course you think you'll really get a lot out of, and you felt a nice atmosphere when you visited, go for it :smile:

Reply 13

Van der Zak

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

Reply 14

kat2pult

Good uni? Yes. Prestigious? No.

Generally, the older universities are prestigious. LEIcester is still respected though.

PS, Leicester has rubbish accomodation.

Reply 15

Lessthanzero

both the universities in Leicester are pretty good

Reply 16

trm90

Not necessarily prestigious, but over the past few years it has definitely started to make a name for itself. I would have to say its medical biology department and degree programmes - especially genetics - are one of its most impressive academic features, but virtually every other department in the university is expanding and improving very rapidly.

Reply 17

Tomber

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

Nonsense.

It isn't really prestigious, you won't get people saying 'wow' that you go there often (though it's happened a couple of times and took me by surprise) but it's a very good university that expects a lot from its students. It depends on your area of study. It's only in the last 10 or 15 years that a lot of money has been invested in staff and facilities, and it's now becoming a much more recognised place. Prestige is usually about 20 years behind the current academic state of play.

Subject wise, my impression of the departments here is that the outstanding departments who are well up with the best in the country are:

Genetics (Yeah, the Genetic Fingerprinting guy still teaches here)
Biosciences
Geoscience
History
Archaeology
American Studies
Mass Communication
Museum Studies (post grad)
English
Law
Medicine
Forensic Psychology (post grad)

There are other departments which used to be world class and outstanding, which aren't what they used to be such as Physics (the retirement of many of their famous staff, combined with a recruitment freeze has been pretty devastating, according to a friend of mine who's a PhD student in the department) and the Sociology department, which arguably has the finest pedigree of any department in the country (the list of who's studied/taught there is almost a who's who of British Sociology) It's now unfortunately just a shadow of its 1960's predecessor.

All the departments are decent quality, but smaller or weaker ones compared to the best seem to be Languages, History of Art, Ancient History (which takes a definite back seat to Archaeology in my department). The other departments, such as economics are in the middle - solid, high quality departments, but not as ground breaking as some of the others. I could be wrong, but that's my impression after 3 1/2 years of studying here.

Overall though, having visited many universities considered more 'prestigious' Leicester is possibly the most underrated university in the country, and is only just starting to get the recognition it deserves.

Reply 18

im so academic

niyaaaah

it's good for Law and Medicine but pretty crap for everything else :h:

Oh really! Do you even go to Leicester? Are you studying either Law or Medicine? So how are you in the position to say "oh it's only good for Law and Med..." And also, if you based what you said on league tables - you are very wrong, as a uni and jump say 30 places the next year and go down 20 places the next. :rolleyes:

And what's your definition of "crap"? And have you actually got a source for that?

OP: Leicester is not as prestigious as universities such as Oxford etc, but it is a solid, established university.

Reply 19

Tomber

VanillaCat

Leicester has had the UK's best French department for years, that's why I'm going there.

Oh really? Maybe I'm totally wrong about languages then. I don't think I've ever met a student of French here.

kat2pult

PS, Leicester has rubbish accomodation.

Whaa! The accommodation (despite the best efforts of the current director) is still really fantastic, it's just not as good as it could be if it wasn't managed by buffoons :frown: