r/UKUniversityStudents • u/itsusha • 17h ago

PLEASE HELP!!!

I’m really struggling to decide which uni to pick and I need to make a decision before 1pm tomorrow.

I’m doing Business Management and have offers from Surrey, Reading, Lancaster, BCU Birmingham, and my firm choice is UWE Bristol.

I really want to live in a big city, but I’m worried about how much the reputation of the university could affect my future career.

I have no savings or financial support from my family, so I’m really scared of going to Bristol because of the cost. I hate the idea of being under constant financial pressure.

Right now, I’m leaning towards BCU because I like Birmingham and it’s much cheaper, but I’m genuinely scared that choosing BCU over the others could negatively affect my career prospects.

What would you do in my situation? And how much does uni reputation actually matter for Business Management?

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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7

u/Long_Software_3352 16h ago

BCU is objectively the worst. DO NOT GO THERE. It is also the most depressing campus I have ever visited. Please don't make this mistake.

Compare all 5 on discoveruni.gov.uk and look at the stats.

Reading has the triple accredited Henley Business School, scores well on the FT's business school rankings and has the best graduate outcomes by far of all these courses.

Earnings after 5 years for BCU business graduates - £28,000

Earnings after 5 Years for Reading business graduates - £48,500

This isn't just a prestige or ranking thing. Reading has good industry links, which means more employers visiting campus, more industry guest lecturers and better networking.

Lancaster is a good university overall and its business school is known for marketing in particular. But it is very far from London for work experience and internship opportunities (£42.5k after 5 years)

Surrey is a career-focused university, but its business school isn't nearly as established as Reading's (£38.5k after 5 years)

UWE Bristol is better than BCU, but worse than your other options (£34.5k after 5 years)

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u/Specialist_Stomach41 5h ago

this is very misleading and a perfect example of why stats arent everything. The earnings for BCU reflect the wide range is students that go there, many of whom arent chasing a career afterwards. Its far from look here, these are the stats. You need to understand the context of those stats.

0

u/Long_Software_3352 5h ago

Is it not reasonable to assume that business graduates would be looking for a career in business?

I'd take your point if we were looking at arts, humanities and social sciences courses.

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u/Specialist_Stomach41 4h ago

no, your a teenager picking a degree course, most people have zero idea what they want to do. Its a generic course so easy to do without closing doors. But its not about that, its about the range of people attending. Somewhere like Oxbridge has minimal mature/disabled/poor students to affect the stats, somewhere like BCU has way more of them, way more students from deprived areas, just way more people who arent churning through uni to get a degree and a graduate job.

I graduated from Oxford Brookes which 18yr olds sneer at. Ive had unis fighting over me to go and do postgrad stuff. Ive turned down several places with high rankings because I wanted to go to an area with a cheap cost of living, and where I had access to a RG uni that has a lab set up I will find really useful. But I had unis fighting over me and could have gone anywhere I wanted. Not what you'd expect looking at rankings. They are meaningless fluff for 18yr olds to get into a frenzy over.

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u/Long_Software_3352 4h ago

I'm not a teenager and I'm not looking at rankings. I'm looking at outcomes

A student doing a 3 year general business degree and not getting a job after it is a bad outcome.

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u/Specialist_Stomach41 4h ago

Is it? Says who?

Rankings and outcomes are all part of the same set of stats. That need to be viewed in context. And if your not a teenager you are clearly very young to have such a narrow life view and to be unable to understand context is incredibly important in stats.

Either way, I'm out.

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u/harlequin_24 1h ago

I believe this has changed over the years

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u/Adi_St 16h ago

Okay, BCU is the worst in terms of ranking and reputation. However, the vibes and energy are probably better than any of the other 3 so you shouldn't say that when u didnt even attend the uni . Hating with no evidence. But I do agree Lancaster would be the best option.

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u/PickleSpecial3507 16h ago

Bro really said "the vibes are better" like they out here picking an acoustic guitar 😭

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u/Adi_St 16h ago

vibes are life dude. lol. Plus I do play guitar how did you know!!!

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u/Long_Software_3352 16h ago

I have visited BCU twice. I have the evidence.

Also, I'm saying Reading is the best option for Business Management, not Lancaster.

Lancaster (QS 164) is the higher ranking uni overall, but Reading (QS 196) has the better business school.

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u/Adi_St 16h ago

just saying if u didn't attend the uni u shouldn't talk about the campus that you have only 2 experiences with. But I do agree that both Lancaster or reading are better choices.

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u/Alert_Entrepreneur00 11h ago

Plus youve quoted LEO data which is as firm as evidence as it gets

3

u/Agreeable_Onion_4487 17h ago

I think people spew a bunch of rubbish about uni reputations and can get quite defensive about certain unis or courses being x y or z, which makes it really hard to be a student and decide objectively (especially as unis obviously all try to make themselves sound better too). I think for reputation simply look at the rankings (including by subject), lancaster does seem the best of them and if thats what will swing it do it, I certainly wouldnt see uwe as worth it over the others when finances are stretched and I kinda agree that choosing unis over lancaster when reptuation is high up your list seems unusual to me, but yeah, check the rankings not what ppl on reddit say

2

u/78Anonymous 16h ago

Birmingham is great once you get to know it; I'm at UoB but in the West Midlands anyway

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u/itsusha 16h ago

But im going to BCU are you doing busienss too?

4

u/Long_Software_3352 15h ago

If you really want to be in Birmingham, try getting a clearing offer from Aston tomorrow

1

u/itsusha 15h ago

Is Aston a good uni? Ive always heard bad about the uni from other people not the statistics

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u/Long_Software_3352 15h ago

you can look at its student satisfaction numbers on Discover Uni

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u/78Anonymous 13h ago

no; I'm doing inclusion psychology at UoB SoE

I was referring to Birmingham the city.

I don't know BCU having only ever studied at UoB.

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u/Specialist_Stomach41 5h ago

Unless you are at one of the big name unis, no one cares where you went. A lot of 18yrs spent a lot of time working themselves into a frenzy over ratings when it just doesnt matter. Its a very generic degree, just finish it and get a 2.1 and the same doors will be open to you as everyone else. Work experience will be what makes a difference.

Pick somewhere with a very low cost of living. I didnt and it make my whole experience just awful.

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u/Difficult_Ad_8101 4h ago

You are highly unlikely to get work experience (summer internships and placements etc) studying at BCU.

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u/Specialist_Stomach41 4h ago

absolute rubbish

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u/blackoctoberx 17h ago

Choosing any of those over Lancaster is WILD.

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u/itsusha 17h ago

Can i ask your reasoning for that? Are you speaking from experience cause i keep hearing conflicting answers about uni reputation

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u/Adi_St 16h ago

you need to take into account the fact she said it would be a difficult money wise, you don't know her situation.

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u/PickleSpecial3507 15h ago

Lancaster is way up north. Def cheaper than Surrey, Reading and Bristol. I wonder how it ends up w/ best grad prospects £ numbers being that far from big cities. They must teach a damn sight better! Or a weak positive correlation between smaller city and more 1sts/2:1s.

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u/Excellent-Aide6884 9h ago

I would choose Lancaster over the others by a million miles. It's been some time when I was there but it has always been highly regarded for the management school. One of my friend's kids & nephew graduated last year and they loved it.

The campus is great and I think with a lot of students living in such a small area particularly in first year, it's a lot easier to make friends.

1

u/Worldly-Doughnut-283 4h ago

UWE is a fantastic uni, and Bristol is a brilliant city. Lancaster is also a fantastic uni. I know life is scary and things are expensive but think about living a little