Rankings vs. University Reputation
So, the gloves are off, the fists are up, and lets see what happens. The issue with university rankings is that they’re often at odds with a university’s reputation in a certain field. So, which one should a prospective undergraduate choose when navigating the minefield that is university competition? Short answer: both. Now for the long answer.
The thing is, universities tend to have a certain character about them that is only developed over time. Cambridge and Oxford are long established universities that have a lot going for them, but if you put a Cambridge student in a drinking competition with one from the Queen’s University Belfast, we know who we’d put our money on. Sadly, though, drinking capabilities aren’t recognised on the UK’s university grading scale. Our point is that some universities are really good at one thing, and awful at others. This means their general reputation could be low whilst their flagship department tends to go unnoticed. Unless (clever you) people start reading articles like this one.
Let us give you a more specific example. Picture Hull. Not nice, is it? Hull University is a little better, but not many people generally expect it to be that high up the university rankings. In fact, it’s pretty good; but their chemistry department in particular is nice and high up the rankings – much higher than their other departments. Turns out that Hull’s chemistry department invented liquid crystal technology (such as the screen you’re reading this on), made a lot of money off of it, and re-invested the money back into the department.
As such, the big chemical companies take an interest in Hull students more than they really – on paper – should. It’s an interesting little phenomenon, and it just shows how important it is to properly research your university before you go. This reputation stuff works both ways, too: Oxford and Cambridge graduates in fields like medicine don’t necessarily get the attention from employers they might expect, due to the stigma of Oxbridge working on the purely academic side of things – employers think (we’re honestly not sure if they’re right or not) that they don’t like getting their students’ hands dirty. That may well be fair enough.
As much as reputation among employers matters, the university rankings matter a whole lot, too. Most of the time a university will be well ranked because its departments are good, and vice-versa. The reputation stuff is more of an exception to the rule than the rule, and you should bare that in mind when you’re weighing up your options. Oxford and Cambridge students do well because they have good degrees. Hull isn’t ranked as the best university in the world because it isn’t, and basically everything more-or-less makes sense. Generally the ranking system works, but sometimes you need to dig a little deeper to see what’s underneath the surface. As such, we’d recommend taking a bit of time to speak to people who work in your future field to find out which universities are respected for the subject area.
So, we’re more or less back to the short answer: both matter. Aren’t you glad you read the whole thing, though?