kyoto49
Well-Known Forumite
Actually, we're 69th in the Guardian League Table - all of the work we've done over the last few years is paying off. (and yes, we've already done every joke imaginable about that being 'our favourite position'.)
I suspect what will happen is choice will lesson too - Courses with low student satisfaction ratings from the NSS will go and low recruiting courses will go, it's harder to stand out in a crowded marketplace like Accounting, Engineering or Social Care, easier in a specialised field like Games, Journalism or Cermaics - and making the case for any new ones will be really hard. Most of the students I get at open days don't look at League Tables but do look at uni stats that compare course by course info.
A lot of this is above my pay grade to worry about - I'm concerned about my area (Games and VFX) and our applications are up and our attendance at open days has skyrocketed since moving to the Stoke Campus. We've got new labs, we've got excellent track records of alumni getting jobs in roles they want to go into, we've got great industry links and we've been recognised in a number of ways to be one of the best set of courses of it's kind in the country - Providing I can keep my teaching up to date, inform it with research and keep my students happy I'm pretty sure we'll be ok, whatever is thrown at us.
Uni's do more then undergraduate teaching too (we do lots of MOD contracts, Distance Learning and the new Higher Apprenticeships) - so the picture is not one as black and white as you suggest.
Thanks, that's really interesting and I tend to agree about courses being cut and Uni's keeping courses in areas they excel in. although this may mean some UNi's not ahving enough courses to be sustainable. Mmmmmmm interesting nonetheless. Cheers!