How good is the Good University Guide?
Was it good for you? The Times have published the holy grail of university rankings. Not for them the hilarious inaccuracy of the Guardian’s league tables – such as ranking Bangor fifth for Maths, despite it not having a maths department – the Good University Guide is generally regarded as the most trustworthy and accurate of all university league tables. This year, however, there has been a slight switch in the Good University Guide and they have changed their methodology.
Now the two main factors involved in deciding how ‘good’ a university is are student satisfaction levels and the RAE assessment. In other words two imperfect systems of analysis coming together to form one really imperfect system of analysis. At first glance, there are no massive changes in the league table, and the top ten and twenty are all relatively predictable.
You’ve got your old universities, followed by the good University of London ones (and Warwick) before you get to the public school ghettos, and then your big old Redbricks. If you asked someone to come up with the top twenty universities in Britain, they would probably mention all these, with a few variables (such as Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds etc.).
The fun only starts when you get into the subject tables and the nitty gritty. Take politics. The top three are Oxford, St Andrews and Sheffield. Some might be surprised to see Sheffield above Cambridge, but the real shock is in 5th place where the mighty Essex resides, due mainly to its stupidly strong research rating. So, does that mean that Essex is better than UCL or LSE as the league table claims?
In short, no.
Essex, like practically every other university in the UK bar Oxbridge, teaches through lectures and seminars. In this format, whether or not the lecturer or seminar leader is a world class researcher is irrelevant. I’ve had lectures from Professors, who may have been extremely well regarded in their field but could not speak fluent English. Just because someone can write well, or has done some ground breaking research, it does not automatically follow that they will be a brilliant lecturer.
In seminars, the seminar leader is far less important than the actual participants. To do well in seminars you need clever, vocal people with whom you can debate. Essex has lower entry standards than most of the universities around it, and so it would not be surprising if the seminar quality was diluted when compared to what you might get at UCL or LSE.
Essex’s politics department also highlights another problem specific to subject tables. Essex overall is ranked 43rd. Its politics department is by far and away its strongest department. As a result, graduate prospects for Essex politics graduates are ranked 23rd. Compare this to Bristol and the opposite applies. Bristol’s high overall ranking (10th) helps give its politics graudates the 6th best graduate prospects, despite only being ranked 28th in the subject. Likewise, Bristol’s higher entry standards probably mean a higher standard of academic discourse in seminars. So which university should the potential politico go for, based on the rankings?
Neither.
Choosing a university is far too important to be left to some ridiculous ranking system, one that throws up more questions and problems than it answers. Yes, have a look at the Good University Guide (and take a peek at the Guardian’s too, but just double check the courses still exist) but ignore the league position. Read the graduate prospects and the entry standards. Check out the student satisfaction levels. But better than that, check out the university’s paper. Facebook some random people at the university. And you should only do this once you’ve found somewhere you actually want to live. It’s no use going to a university in Dullsville just because it’s ranked two places higher Funtown.
University rankings are inevitable, and it looks like we’re stuck with them. But just remember: They’re there to help, not to decide.
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