If you like… you might also like…, University snapshots, and Tuition fee rises.
😊 Welcome
This week we look at how you can use history to find a university that’s pretty similar to your first choice. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me on this!
We also start a new series called University Spotlights. Each week I’ll give you a super-short guide to a university that you may not be overly familiar with.
Each snapshot gives you some key information about the university (age, size, location, subjects taught etc.) plus a short opinion piece about the university.
I’ll attempt to give you a flavour of the university, identifying what makes it distinctive, so you can work out whether it might be somewhere you might consider studying.
And to be clear, the universities themselves have no input into these snapshots, nor can they pay to be included or highlighted.
I’ll also be publishing them all on my website:
We’ll finish with a look at the recently announced rise in university tuition fees in England; why they are doing this, and what it means for you and for the universities.
✍️ If you like… you might also like…
So, you’ve found a couple of universities you really like. Perhaps it’s the location, the campus, their approach to teaching? Or maybe it just felt right when you visited.
Now you want to find a couple more that are similar so that you can have a range of different options on your UCAS form (see Just how ambitious should you be with your initial five UCAS choices? for guidance on choosing aspirational, realistic and safety options).
You could look at the local universities in the same city, but chances are they won’t be similar at all.
You could look at those around the same place in the league tables, but again, they won’t necessarily have anything in common, and they might just be too similar in terms of entry grades.
So what about looking at universities with a similar history?
I know it might sound crazy, but history can tell you a lot about a university; its type of location, its architecture, its approach to teaching, its community feel, even its purpose; its very reason for existing!
And so, in this article I use my slightly geeky interest in university history, 30 years of university campus visits, plus a whole lot of knowledge absorbed from colleagues over the years, to come up with a super-useful guide:
If you like… you might also like…
📸 University snapshot: University of Stirling
Became a university in: 1967
Student population: 13,390 (2022/23)
Location: 330 acre rural campus, 2.5 miles north of Stirling city-centre in the central belt of Scotland.
Subject areas include: Biological & Environmental Sciences, Maths & Computing, Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, Management, Media, Sport, Law, Nursing & Midwifery, and hundreds of combined options.
Admissions: Undergraduate entry grades are middling, varying from Scottish Highers BBC or A-levels CCC for their BSc Nursing degree, up to Scottish Highers AAAB or A-levels ABB for their LLB (Hons) Law. Most courses do not require interviews or admissions tests (the exception being nursing).
Stirling was where, as a 23 year old fresh-faced graduate, I started my university career. I have fantastic memories of my time there, and so it seemed like the natural choice for my first university snapshot!
Created as a brand new university in the late sixties, the University of Stirling set out to be innovative in its teaching right from the start. They adopted a US style semester system (two 15 week semesters separated by the Christmas break), and enabled students to study modules from any faculty during their first three semesters.
Together, these result in the most flexible academic structure available at any UK university; ideal if you’re unsure exactly what you want to study.
And then there is the campus. Whilst not everyone will be a fan of the 1960 brutalist architecture, there is no denying that the Airthrey Castle estate, overlooked by the Ochil Hills and the Wallace monument, provides one of the most stunning backdrops to any university in the country.
Low slung academic buildings sit comfortably alongside study and social facilities, with a significant amount of student accommodation located just across the loch. The sports facilities, also on-site, are some of the finest in the UK.
In summary
Stirling could be for you if…
You are looking for a fairly small university, retaining a community feel with loads of student activities.
You like fresh air, the outdoors and don’t mind being a distance from a major city.
You love sport.
You want a super-flexible course where you can try a few options before committing to your final degree.
And if you like Stirling, you might also like…
University of East Anglia
University of Essex
University of Kent
Lancaster University
University of Sussex
University of Warwick
University of York
💡 Did You Know?
Yesterday the government announced that they will be raising university tuition fees (in England) by £285 from £9,250 to £9,535.
Most of you reading this won’t be too pleased. There are enough students questioning the value of choosing to go to university, and with tuition fees already crazy high it looks like a terrible decision to raise fees.
But, there are a couple of things to consider:
The fees are provided as a loan, and the rise in fees will not mean a rise in monthly repayments. Instead it will mean an increase in the length of time taken to repay the loan. Because the loans come with a 30 year repayment limit, many students won’t pay any more at all.
This is the first rise in fees since 2017, and only the second since the higher fees were introduced in 2012. Given the crippling rate of inflation in recent years, the fee received by universities to teach students is at an all-time low. Many universities are struggling to make ends meet and are looking at cuts and redundancies.
Hopefully the fee rise will help, but I suspect that it won’t really make much of a dent in universities financial difficulties. I can only hope that the government is simply buying time so they can do a more thorough review of university funding.
The current system, where the students take on the majority of the cost, while the government’s contribution is so well hidden, and the contribution from employers and businesses is zero, is clearly unsustainable.
Thanks for reading!
Jonathan
