University of the year… ranked 17th in the League Table?

If Carling did consistency, they’d serve it at the Soak…

For the second year in the row we’ve managed to stay at 17th, whilst the Loughborough jocks managed to bag 4 places higher than us.

Whilst coming 17th out of 123 may not be too bad in the scheme of things, it’s beginning to feel like Birmingham has peaked in its performance.

Granted we may have finished in the top 20 since 2011, which isn’t at all bad… that is until you see who is above us.

Obviously we were never going to be up there with the chart toppers, due to the simple fact that many of us actually have a social life outside of the Library.

But when non-Russell Group universities like Loughborough are outranking us, this league table starts to look a bit ridiculous.

When a University goes from the stereotype of “not a real uni”, to being the 13th best in the country just for teaching students how to kick footballs and blow whistles, questions have to start being asked!

Uber Facts: At Loughborough a dissertation can be completed in 90 minutes

In other news, I don’t know what’s more shocking, the fact that Surrey actually has a university or the fact that it’s better than ours.

But then again it’s difficult to get bored in the UK’s second city where so much is always going on, but if you’re doomed to spend your university career in Guildford, then you probably don’t have much to do besides studying to keep you entertained.

On that same basis it’s no surprise that our rivals Warwick are still riding above us. If you arrived in first-year only to discover that your best night out is a one-room club in Leamington Spa, I think the only condolence would be to stick your head in a book and hope the next three years fly by.

“If we didn’t have this library.. I just don’t know what would happen”

But whilst we may moan at the P.E. teachers of Loughborough and those bores at Warwick, we should probably take the time to appreciate how far Brum has come over the last 5 years.

Even though David Eastwood’s infamous eyebrows are all-round comedy gold, looking back at his track record since 2009, he hasn’t done a bad job.

In 2010 we were ranked 27 and looking rather mediocre, whereas now we’re ten places higher and in the top 100 universities worldwide for employability.

Not bad really.

We’re rather Highbrow these days thanks to David

But now that things seem to be stagnating somewhat, maybe we need to start addressing the issues at hand.

One of the university’s greatest weaknesses seems to be student satisfaction, where Birmingham ranks a shocking 53rd.

Even worse than that is our “Green” rating where Birmingham comes in at a less than respectable 95th.

But it’s so green?!

The league tables also suggest that Birmingham is great when it comes to science based subjects, but considerably weaker with arts and humanities.

For example, UoB currently ranks 8th for Psychology and Dentistry, and 7th for Medicine and Computer Science.

But for arts subjects on the other hand, UoB is ranked 19th for English, 17th for Philosophy, 16th for History and 13th for Modern Languages.

Although still reasonably high, these rankings add fuel to the fire for the disgruntled arts students who already feel fairly neglected by the University.

Or from perspective of Bsc students, perhaps arts students are frankly just too lazy.

Barely 9 hours a week and it’s still a miracle if they make it this far

So should Birmingham be higher?  Of course it should be.

We’re The Times’ University of the Year and that has to count for something.

Plus according to the Complete University Guide, the university spends over £1 million EACH WEEK improving our campus and facilities.

Surely that deserves more recognition.

There’s no place like Brum, and no matter what the league tables say, there’s no place I’d rather study.

League tables change every year, but our reputation is here to stay.