What's the best way to assess if a university is a good one?

Question

What's the best way to assess if a university provides good quality education and prepares students well for their future careers?
And can you / should you rely on university league tables to make your decision??

Answer 1

Check with their career services and see what the hiring rate and beginning salaries are, then compare this to the national average.

Answer 2

Your reference to "league tables" tells me that you are in the UK, not the US, but I would suggest several things which might work in both countries.

Your league tables seem to be similar to our rankings, and in both cases, there are probably artifacts of the methodology that make them somewhat questionable, but they can be used as a starting point. I wouldn't, for example, worry if a school was listed as #3 or #4, but if one school were listed as #4, and the other as #250, I would pay attention.

Secondly, the websites of universities often present clues. When I look at an unfamiliar school, I often look first at the credentials of the faculty. I probably have an advantage because I am an academic myself, and I know which degrees are respected, but I want to know that the faculty have doctorates from recognizable and respected universities in the fields in which they are teaching (it isn't helpful if the biology professor has a degree in education from an online university, for example).

I look for accreditations. I don't know what the standards are in the UK, but I know that in the U.S., universities are accredited overall by regional accreditors, and then many of the individual disciplines are also accredited, at least at decent schools. Many of those accreditations are now global in their scope, so I would assume you would see them in the UK as well.

I also tend to look for affiliations with other good universites and organizations. The best universities may have many links to other good universities, both domestically and abroad, for projects ranging from joint degrees to study abroad to shared grants. This says that others consider them worth working with. I've never seen a diploma mill affiliated with a recognizable university in any way. Good universities also have linkages with othe organizations, from corporations to government agencies. This not only colors the work that they do, but it provides post-graduation opportunities for their students.

I look at the focus of the website, and especially on the news stories I find there. Are they talking about nothing but the latest sport victories (obviously more common in the US than in the UK) or about a schedule of information sessions? Or are they talking about a graduating student who won a national award for scholarship, a faculty member who was honored for his/her work, etc? Is there information about alumni and what they are doing now? One caution - while a strong job placement function might sound good, it should not be so strong that it overpowers the academic side of the university. Students should be getting jobs because of what they have learned, not because the university's whole focus is on placement, which is a trade school mentality.

Answer 3

This is hard to answer but I wouldnt rely on university league tables to make your decision.

I think word of mouth and reputation is always the best decider. People that have gone there will tell you the truth.

Answer 4

Talk to current and former students. Visit the department you'd be in and inquire about hiring rates for their grads.