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Brits and Aussies: University Question

04:21 / 12.04.03

In my more idealistic moments (which come all too often, these days) I keep entertaining long ideas/fantasies/daydreams about going to graduate school in the UK or Australia. This has gotten to the point where I have a long list of bookmarks - one that is somewhat out of hand, really, for a girl who's mostly just wishing she had a lot of money to spend on school.

So my question is this: which universities are well-regarded in the UK and Australia? Here (in the US) it's easy enough for me to find out rankings and things, but elsewhere...it's not really important to me to only look at Super Prestigious Schools or anything like that (now THAT would be wishful thinking) but it's hard having absolutely no concept of what's what, beyond knowing which ancient institutions I can just skip over as they'd never want rabble like me.

And if it matters, I'd be looking to study writing, media studies, or Australian studies. Depending.

Thanks.

09:03 / 12.04.03

The University of East Anglia has one of the best-regarded writing courses and a good record of alumni getting into print; I dunno about media studies but the University of Sussex in Brighton might be a good place to start (and Brighton's lovely). Try looking at the Guardian's Education section, they might have some tables or links. But basically, you need to go by the reputation of the department rather than the university - the government ranking do research departments by stars, five being 'international excellence' and anything less meaning the department is probably underfunded... I imagine though that it would probably be a matter of looking at individual departments and working out what their specialities are (I reckon media departments probably have varying capabilities, certainly).

I'm sorry I can't be more precise - I don't actually know very much about media studies but there's bound to be someone here who does...

10:06 / 12.04.03

Yup, East Anglia’s the prize winner for writing, without doubt.

Here’s Guardian Education supplement guide to UK Universities by subject, that gives some guidance on media studies, in particular.

Financial Times 2001 league table of UK Universities, rating them according to a variety of officially collected statistics, including
How many people apply to go there and how tough it is to get in, ratio of teaching staff to students, scores on the nationwide Research Assessment Exercise, ratio of First Class first degrees awarded, percentage of graduates entering higher degree, postgrad students as percentage of total, amount of income generated from industry /research, expenditdure on (non-administrative use) computers and on libraries.

This site lists all the Universities with respective websites for more detailed inquiry about subjects offered etc. Despite the “england.the country” bit of the url, I see my old alma mater, University of Edinburgh in there.

I think these might be more informative though. These are independent /students’ guides to UK Universities and will cover important details like access to a social life, what type of social life that might be, rates of drop out from courses, local cost of living, etc.

Push Online Guide

unofficial-guides.com, more of the above.

UniserveUK which links to forums where you can interact6 with current students around UK for more information.

Hope that’s of some use and that my links work. About Australia, I have no clue. Now got to go join the Stop The War March … Good luck!

Have moderated those links in the hope that they will work this time. Perhaps didn't survive transfer from a word document, who knows?

20:35 / 12.04.03

The first five are working, it would appear, but not the sixth. Here's the url, if you're interested: http://www.uniserveuk.com/channel_city.php

Cheers.

00:42 / 14.04.03

The University of Melbourne and RMIT in me hometown of Melbourne are both quite respected.

Melb Uni is more traditional. RMIT is more progressive. I'm sure they both have websites you can check out.

20:30 / 15.04.03

Thanks to all of you - wow, Xoc, that was thorough! I haven't had a chance to look at the links yet but wanted to stick my head in and say thanks before I forgot...

21:44 / 15.04.03

Pleasure, straylight. I do a lot of that stuff in my work, so 'twas no hassle. I know how investigating the practicalities can either firm up and energise a vague plan or brutally snuff it out, leaving you free to pursue other avenues. Good luck whichever way you go.