Sure, everyone here has heard of Oxford, Cambridge, and LSE–just like everyone in the UK has heard of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford. But Middlebury? Not always. And yet you know it’s an excellent undergraduate college with noted academic strengths and beautiful location, albeit a bit cold in the winter. Point being: there are many excellent universities in the UK, so how do you find out which ones are best for your academic interests? Here are some websites to get you started:
- Check out the Marshall website section on choosing a university: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/studyuk/chooseuniversity . It contains helpful links to lists of research quality at different institutions (look for programs with 3/4 stars in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). There’s a new assessment matrix being completed in 2014.)
- Russell Group: association of 24 major research-intensive universities. http://russellgroup.ac.uk
- Course guides that list specific graduate courses and subjects: Hobson’s website http://postgrad.com ; Prospects website http://www.prospects.ac.uk
- Guardian University Guide: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide
- The Complete University Guide: assesses undergraduate level, but may also be helpful http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/