BATH VS MANCHESTER (Aerospace Engineering Help)

[mr.rushikumar]

Hey Guys!

I currently have an Aerospace Engineering offer from both the University of Bath (MEng) and the University of Manchester (BEng).

From the rankings I have seen, I have noticed that within the UK, Bath is top ten for Aerospace while Manchester is 15 plus, while internationally, Manchester is top 30 while Bath is 100 plus. As I am an international student, and really unaware of both these universities, could anyone out there give me some advice on which university would be a better choice?

Somehow I am very worried about the quality of teaching in the University Of Manchester. My physics teacher is currently studying his Masters there and he told me the teachers don't really teach that well. If there is anyone out there who could enlighten me on their opinions or personal experiences it would be great! I would really appreciate it greatly!

Hope to hear from someone soon!

Thanksss! :)

 

[Shaun_W]

Newspaper league tables are completely irrelevant.

Manchester recently is synonymous with poor teaching, so you might want to go to Bath for that.

 

[AlephZero]

Unless you plan to spend 100% of your time studying (which is probably not a good idea!) you may want to consider that the two towns are very different.

Bath is relatively small town (population about 85,000). It is a major tourist attraction (and a UNESCO World Heritage site), and tourism is its biggest "industry". On the other hand Manchester is a large industrial city (population about 450,000) and the surrounding area has a populaton of about 2.5 million, with a much greater ethnic and cultural diversity than Bath.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester

Both the universites have good reputations in Aerospace, but (as with the cities) the total student population at Manchester Univserity is a much larger (and almost certainly more diverse) than at Bath.

 

[217 MeV]

Hey Guys!
Somehow I am very worried about the quality of teaching in the University Of Manchester. My physics teacher is currently studying his Masters there and he told me the teachers don't really teach that well.

Manchester recently is synonymous with poor teaching, so you might want to go to Bath for that.

I'm not sure I completely agree with this, I have heard great things about the teaching (of physics at least) at Manchester, with it receiving faultless assesment scores. I am currently holding an offer from there to study theoretical physics next year, so I would be interested in your justification.

When I attended there for an interview, I got to meet quite a few of the professors, and although it would be hard to make a sweeping judgement of their teaching standards, from the talks they were giving they all seemed excellent. I also know the textbooks written at Manchester are some of the best in the world for physics instruction, with both Oxford and UC Berkeley using them.

Newspaper league tables are completely irrelevant.

I agree wholeheartedly with this, so much misinformation, or at least misleading information is passed around on these tables. Just look at the variation between each newspaper. Manchester is really taking off as an insitution now since the merger of the two old Manchester unis, and their world ranking is shooting up each year, with an aim to be top 25 by 2015, which with the largest number of Nobel Prize winners on staff in the UK (and possibly the world?) I think this aim is rather modest. However, both Manchester and Bath have excellent reputations in the UK generally.

Of course I would be leaning towards Manchester due to my intention to study there, but Bath is also excellent. It does really boil down to what AlephZero was saying. Visit each university if you can, and then plump for your favourite.

Yours sincerely, long-time lerker, first-time poster. :)

 

[Shaun_W]

I'm not sure I completely agree with this, I have heard great things about the teaching (of physics at least) at Manchester, with it receiving faultless assesment scores. I am currently holding an offer from there to study theoretical physics next year, so I would be interested in your justification.

When I attended there for an interview, I got to meet quite a few of the professors, and although it would be hard to make a sweeping judgement of their teaching standards, from the talks they were giving they all seemed excellent. I also know the textbooks written at Manchester are some of the best in the world for physics instruction, with both Oxford and UC Berkeley using them.

My justification for saying this is based on two things. The first one is anecdotal evidence from students (primarily of the engineering department) who say it is, well, quite terrible. The second one is that Manchester usually receives low student satisfaction and teaching scores.

Now I'm not saying it's a bad university, and in fact its teaching problems are not uncommon for the large universities nowadays due to a lack of funding and the pressure put on them to produce research rather than quality teaching for undergraduates.

 

[Ryker]

Manchester is really taking off as an insitution now since the merger of the two old Manchester unis, and their world ranking is shooting up each year, with an aim to be top 25 by 2015, which with the largest number of Nobel Prize winners on staff in the UK (and possibly the world?) I think this aim is rather modest.

I heard a lot about Manchester aiming to climb the rankings, and while I guess this is good on one hand as it shows they will try to improve (even if the aim is just the rankings, they will undoubtedly have to improve something else to get there, as well), on the other hand I don't think a university's primary aim should be to improve their rankings. Then again, I guess everyone's doing it, so maybe they're just being open about it.

As far as cities are concerned, not having been to any I'd venture Manchester offers more and would be a better experience (that is, if you're a city person).

 

[Shaun_W]

Every university is trying to improve their rankings because they know that many prospective students are heavily influenced by what the newspaper editors who compile the rankings think. Unfortunately, improving in the rankings does not at all mean that the university has to actually increase in quality. One such way to climb the rankings is to only let in the students with the highest grades: this will increase the average UCAS points tariff of the university and thus it will climb a few places. But this does not mean that as a university it is better. In fact I would argue that it is now worse because it is only educating a smaller group of people. Some people for whatever reason fudge up their A-levels or highers but can still do very well at university. And also, I believe that large universities have a duty to educate the local populace and a university that is chasing the highest possible entry scores might raise itself out of reach of non-privately educated pupils.

 

[nucleargirl]

I would choose bath cos the city is quieter and I think safer and I like the cultural side of it. why don't you visit both places and then decide which you like?

Manchester is more Northern, big city, maybe a bigger Asian community, more variety and Asian shops. more exciting perhaps and more things to do if you're going to spend 3 years there. It comes with all the things in big cities - more crime and dodgy areas.

Bath is small quieter tourist city, more South, maybe smaller Asian community, and maybe is good if you are not easily bored and would want to spend more time studying. probably there are dodgy areas in Bath too but my feeling is that it maybe safer being in the South, small, and cultural.

Just my own impressions, I've not lived in either.