Unistats
Although there are many factors to be considered, and quite possibly debated, while you make a decision about higher education, you can’t argue with hard fast facts. Taking a look at university and course specific figures could help you make a more informed choice about your future.
One of your first ports of call could be the Unistats website, an official source of information about universities and courses across the UK. The site enables you to find out about the UCAS points achieved by students, their course results, and facts about the university and course, such as the percentage of overseas students, and the type of qualifications studied. It might also be helpful to find out about the final year students who found a graduate job on completion of their course, and the best places to study your chosen subject. You can search by course subject, or by university, and you’ll find in the search results, universities and colleges across the whole of the UK.
The other function of this website is to extract, and display the results of the National Student Survey. Held each year, this survey is given to a large number of final year students studying at university. Anonymous questionnaires ask students to give feedback on the university, their course, and suggestions for improvement. Each student is questioned about teaching on the course, assessment and feedback given, academic support, learning resources, and their feelings on the course, and how satisfied (or not) they were. This information is displayed on the Unistats site, and is also helpful to the colleges and universities themselves. Although the opinions of others may not bear much weight on your overall decision, it can be very useful to gain some idea of other peoples experiences.
Don’t let your research be limited to just one website though. If you want to look beyond the facts and figures, for further information, advice, or opinions, then why not visit the university websites, or keep an eye on the education sections of the regional, national, and online press.
Links:
Unistats: http://unistats.direct.gov.uk
The National Student Survey: http://www.thestudentsurvey.com
National Union Of Students: http://www.nus.org.uk
The Student Room: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk