NYU2013

I'm curious as to what the perceived reputations of schools in the UK are, namely schools such as University College London, London School of Economics, King's College London, University of Nottingham and Durham University. Although I'm not expecting too many people to be familiar with Nottingham or Durham. My question is this though, in terms of academic reputation what would you compare them with in terms of US equivalencies? For example, Oxford and Cambridge are comparable for HYPSM. What are UCL, KCL, LSE Nottingham and Durham comparable in terms of academic and reputation alone?

Dionysus58

I can think of a few people on this forum who'd dismiss UK universities entirely and say none were comparable to America's elite. Personally I feel they're pretty much incomparable, the culture and approaches towards education in the US and UK are just too different.

Speaking very generally I would say the UK has three tiers of elite; Oxbridge at the top, then the London colleges, then places like Edinburgh, St Andrews and Durham. That said however, a lot depends on your specific area of study; for example one might choose to study Russian at UCL over Oxford or geology at Edinburgh over Imperial.

NYU2013

Oxbridge is often compared to HYPSM. However, where would the other tiers fall? I.e. the london colleges and Durham, St. Andrews etc.? Is King's part of the "london colleges" or are is "london colleges" only inclusive of UCL, Imperial and LSE?

cricket123

I'm wondering this too as I am applying to some london universities, maybe Durham, and St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Most of these universities are quite highly ranked according to various world university rankings but I'm not sure what that means to employers here in America. In the UK of course, these schools are all fairly well known and respected.

I guess it would be like if someone went to an American university and went on to find work in the UK; they may not know about that particular university...

nikiw10

I think it depends a lot on what subjects you're applying for. In Hong Kong, London universities are very highly regarded. Personally my knowledge of UK universities is limited to Law, for which Nottingham is pretty highly ranked (I think within the top 10) but still behind the London unis. King's is, I'm pretty sure, part of the "london colleges" which are just behind Oxbridge (there is a reason why places like Bristol and King's are said to be filled with Oxbridge rejects), but again it would depend on the subject. It's very hard to tell you where tiers would fall because everyone has their own perceptions of how good a university is, based on all sorts of reasons that may or may not be valid. All I can say is that you probably won't go wrong with UCL, KCL, LSE and Imperial because those are all very highly ranked in most subjects.

cricket123

I guess it also depends on where you end up working/want to work..

Sunsloth

Fun cultural fact, the city of Nottingham has or had the highest gun crime, and was appropriately titled "Shottingham".

I don't know about US equivalents, but they're all excellent universities, although I would place Durham slightly above Nottingham.

(By the way, they are pronounced Durrum and Nottingum)

NYU2013

Yeah, I got the pronunciation down. Durham was easy as Duke University is in Durham, North Carolina.

oscarUK

Not sure why Nottingham is in this list, it's not really in the same league as the others you mention, especially vs UCL LSE Oxbridge etc. Also a lot of people are mentioning Edinburgh and St Andrews, two other overrated uni's in my view (St Andrews gets notoriety because the Prince went there, and Edinburgh likes to think they are better than they actually are). As for Nottingham and gun crime as mentioned above, it is not generally considered a rough area at all compared to many in the UK so wouldn't worry about that at all. As others have said it is hard to compare vs the US, however for certain courses UK unis are up there with the best (LSE - Economics, Imperial - Sciences/Engineering). And clearly Oxbridge are among the top two unis in the world for most courses are pure quality of education (the only UK unis where everyone is given private tutoring).

oscarUK

"Is King's part of the "london colleges" or are is "london colleges" only inclusive of UCL, Imperial and LSE?"

Yes. The "University of London" is the biggest in the UK and encompasses almost every London University (LSE, UCL, Kings, Imperial, East London, Queen Mary and others).

Dionysus58

Yes, when I say London colleges I mean the LSE, UCL, Imperial, SOAS and King's.

No, the University of East London is not part of the University of London and Imperial chose to leave the UoL a few years ago.

For future reference the University of London is a federal university made up of 31 affiliate universities and colleges; Birkbeck, the Central School of Speech and Drama, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths College, Heythrop College, the Institute of Education, UCL, KCL, LSE, QMUL, RHUL, SOAS, ULIP, the Royal Academy of Music, St Georges Med school and a few others.

oscarUK

Thankyou Wikipedia.org

Dionysus58

I didn't need to use Wikipedia, what I said is common knowledge to anyone who knows anything about the University of London. Maybe you should spend a little time checking your facts in future.

oscarUK

Or to anyone who googles things to point out tiny (any more or less irrelevant) errors is people's posts. But thanks anyway.

Dionysus58

If I believed your post contained errors there would be no reason for me to google anything, or are you suggesting I research what everyone ever says on this forum hoping they've made a mistake? I corrected you precisely because it was not a tiny or irrelevant mistake, you were giving someone false information which might have impacted on where they choose to study. I'm not going to get dragged any farther into this petty argument, accept that you needed correcting with good grace and move on.