Has your child got a place in a UK university this year?

[thepenofmyaunt]

Just curious really. On many of the forums the subject of returning to the UK for university has cropped up but I'm wondering how many actually managed to get a place.  Some people have said in the past that it is easier for British students in France to get places as they get their Bac results earlier than the A Level results come out.

[woolybanana]

If they havent, send them to Belgium, allowing a year for the French language though a lot of classes are now in English, at least in the decent Faculties. Fees are lower and the quality much higher than UK, after the first or so years.

[thepenofmyaunt]

Not according to any of the global university rankings. The top university in Belgium barely makes it into the top 100 compared to the UK which has around 18. Might be cheaper but you get what you pay for. Belgian Universities rate even worse than French ones and they are pretty awful.

[woolybanana]

Frankly that is the biggest load of pig's excreta I have ever heard. Try numbers 47 and 55 in the 2010 European tables and there are 5 in the top 100 in the Times list.

However, you might try Maastricht University where the classes are mainly if not all in English and they do have places.

[Gardian]

Sorry, but my comments constitute 'thread drift', but there we are.

I read in the S/Times today that overseas students are being offered places at good UK universities with lower qualifications than UK youngsters. Doubt that this is new - I'll bet that it has been going on for years.

It's absurd though, isn't it?

If I ruled the world (UK), university education would be free of charge to all UK nationals, regardless of income. Entry would be solely on the basis of merit, but with a small % (say 5%) of foreign nationals (again, purely on merit & equivalent to that of UK entrants) able to be accommodated at an appropriate fee.

Oh and you slim down the ridiculous number of 4th level 'universities' offering flakey courses.

Light the blue touch paper and retire immediately.

[Gardengirl]

I'm with you there, Gardian. Free university education for all who merit it! Many of us on here had free tertiary education, as did government ministers, yet they brought in and continued charging fees. Wrong! Absolutely do away with degrees in tat, and ambitions to have 50% of young people at universities too. I've never been able to understand how they arrived at that figure.

On the radio a couple of days ago they were talking about studying abroad, and at Maastricht University in particular. It seemed to come very highly recommended, and a young woman from UK who is studying there was very complimentary about it. 

[woolybanana]

Maastricht was just across the border from Liege University. They were very strong in such areas as Business I seem to remember. Highly regarded with a strong international team, classes in English too.

[Tony F Dordogne]

[quote user="Gardian"]  I read in the S/Times today that overseas students are being offered places at good UK universities with lower qualifications than UK youngsters. Doubt that this is new - I'll bet that it has been going on for years. [/quote]

J, my OH spent 25 years working in one of the most prestigeous universities in the world, leaving as one of the senior managers of a department that's actually the size of many small colleges, part of the University of London which used to cater for a mainly UK student base.  Now it's an acknowledged centre of excellence for the business and economics world and has now been completely 'corporatised', it's all high fee, overseas students which HMG has been encouraging for many years and which has transformed the college completely.  I remained active at the School long after I graduated (did all my post-grad there too) but now I wont even accept their magazine, all they're doing is asking for more money and encouraging more students to give them more money, the whole moral ethos of the School has gone, it's all high flyers/high earners/KPMG corporate types.

When I was an undergrad there as a mature student back in the early 80s it still prided itself on its social background, the fact it took a high proportion of mature students who missed out first time round, when University was really a big step and not another middle-class 'thing' that all children are entitled to, like an extention of 6th form college.

Can't get into a UK university - tough, it's a tough world out there now and perhaps some of the middle-class kids - and parents - who think it's a right to go to Uni should actually appreciate that Unis should only take the brightest and the best, not just anybody who wants to go there.

[modanasteev]

As per Global university Ranking, UK University is at top level, it is very prestigious university what i herd, with out hard workiing know one will get placed in this university.

 

[thepenofmyaunt]

Woolybanana, the important word here is 'global' league tables not European ones so perhaps you need to wipe that pigs excreta off your glasses and read things properly.

UK universities take, on average, 16% of their student body from overseas leaving plenty of space for British students. It's an income generator for them and a much needed one in the current climate. In an ideal world university education would be free but it's far from being an ideal one.  We have been very lucky to enjoy free university education for so long and were one of the few countries in the world that had them. I think people should just stop moaning about fees and just get on with it. They are here to stay. If the media weren't like a dog with a bone about the whole thing it would probably have passed into insignificance by now.  My friends in the US, Canada and Australia don't bat an eyelid about student loans as it's all they've known and couldn't believe that I didn't have to take out loans to go to university.  I wonder if it's any coincidence that the majority of top universities are not free.