Strange that no one has commented in the Welsh media on the latest Good University guide issued by the Times earlier this month.
The league standing of our universities are as follows:
28 Cardiff
39 Aberystwyth
46 Swansea
47 Bangor
57 Lampeter
65 Glamorgan
75 UWIC
78 Newport
Interestingly, more detailed analysis shows that with more spend on services and facilities and better graduate prospects, both Aberystwyth and Swansea could leapfrog up the table. The entry standards of Bangor, Swansea and Aberystwyth are also far lower than many of their equivalents in Scotland and certainly well below Cardiff's.
One also has to ask where are Swansea Institute and NEWI in this table?
Of course, these types of table are highly subjective but it does show where Wales stands in terms of its university education against the best in the rest of the UK (with Scotland having eight of its institutions in the top 50).
The league standing of our universities are as follows:
28 Cardiff
39 Aberystwyth
46 Swansea
47 Bangor
57 Lampeter
65 Glamorgan
75 UWIC
78 Newport
Interestingly, more detailed analysis shows that with more spend on services and facilities and better graduate prospects, both Aberystwyth and Swansea could leapfrog up the table. The entry standards of Bangor, Swansea and Aberystwyth are also far lower than many of their equivalents in Scotland and certainly well below Cardiff's.
One also has to ask where are Swansea Institute and NEWI in this table?
Of course, these types of table are highly subjective but it does show where Wales stands in terms of its university education against the best in the rest of the UK (with Scotland having eight of its institutions in the top 50).
Comments
College presidents plan 'U.S. News' rankings boycott
Deriding the ratings system as a 'beauty contest,' dozens of schools have refused to fill out surveys from the newsweekly.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the April 12, 2007 edition
A revolt is brewing among college presidents against the influential college rankings put out each year by U.S. News & World Report.
Dozens of schools have recently refused to fill out surveys used to calculate ranks, and efforts are now afoot for a collective boycott.
Colleges have complained in the past about the rankings. But recent events have rallied opposition, including the tying of presidential pay to ranking at Arizona State University and accusations by the president of Sarah Lawrence College that the magazine threatened to use hocus-pocus data to stand in for average SAT scores at the school.
At the heart of the matter: A college degree is increasingly expensive, and students and parents want to make informed decisions. But educators worry that the rankings have made college a commodity, creating a false impression that schools can be easily compared and stressing out students who want only the "best" schools.
Read it here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p01s02-legn.html
It is when you go down the table things get a bit more subjective.
However, it doesn't stop Welsh Universities using the rankings, from whatever source, for their own marketing puposes and, more importantly, students taking notice of such rankings.
Many 'top' employers (e.g. London banks, law firms etc) tend to recruit exclusively from the higher rated, older, more academic universities. These graduates are often brilliant.
And yet I can't help but feel that many of our 'middle tier' universities (between the Oxfords, Durhams and Manchesters; and the former polys with EE A-level entry requirements) actually prepare students better for employment. Or, as importantly, to start their own businesses.