Choosing An Institution

What should I consider when choosing an institution?

There are a number of different factors to consider when choosing an institution. Obviously, the first one really is subject offering; to make sure that the university that you are interested in actually offers the subject that you are interested in. So, for example, history can be offered in many different forms, modern, ancient, European, North American. It's really important to check that the university is actually offering the type of history that you want to study. Secondly, you need to consider location. Do you want to study in a large city? So, for example, London or Birmingham or Manchester. Do you want to be in the heart of a city, or would you prefer a campus environment? So location is quite important. Also, find out about the facilities available on campus. Find out about the reputation and the quality of the courses as well as the institution as a whole because course reputation, course quality can vary quite substantially even within an institution that you think has a good reputation. You can look at institutional rankings, you can look at league tables or you can look at things like the teaching quality assessment scores and the research assessment scores. They are national scoring systems for all universities.

What should I consider about the facilities offered by an institution?

There are obvious facilities, I think, that students should look for. Things like the computer facilities -- do the computer facilities extend to the halls of residence, for example. Or the opening hours of the library, and the books and articles and online facilities of the library. All of those are kind of quite obvious. But also, students should consider what they want to be doing in their spare time, as well. If they're very interested in sports or music or theater, does the university have good sports facilities? Does it have a theater on campus? The student should consider not just the academic-related facilities, but all of the social-related facilities as well.

What should I find out about the staff?

When looking at the staff at a particular university, it's always useful to look at their particular subject specialisms. So if you're thinking of studying law, which covers many different topics, you might want to look at a staff list and see whether there are staff at that university covering the particular areas of law that you're interested in. Also, you might want to find out about the teaching quality, and what the teaching quality score is for a particular department that you like.

Where is the best place to look for information about an institution?

There are many different places to look for institutional information. The most obvious ones are the institutional prospectuses, handbooks, websites; but there are also central spaces where students can look for information, so the UCAS website is a very good place to start if you're interested in a particular subject, but you don't know which universities offer that subject - and the UCAS website and the UCAS handbook will tell you precisely which subject is offered at which university. And then, of course, you can speak to teachers at your school, or you can usually go around the campus in your own time, and also speak to alumni - students who have already been to the university and left; perhaps also students from your own school who are currently studying at that university.