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Posted Aug. 20, 2012

Postgraduate University Rankings: Do They Matter?

Many undergraduates will never forget the long hours they spent pouring over the countless league tables of each and every university. These league tables are a major influence on prospective students choosing to which universities they will apply. The question is do these league tables contribute as much in the decision making process of those wishing to study for a postgraduate degree?

League tables for postgraduate study do exist, which seems to deliver the message that league tables do matter for postgraduates. If they didn't then surely effort would not be wasted gathering and collating data for the league tables to be published each year. With one quick Google search large amounts of information can be viewed on postgraduate study by each university In the UK. This information includes things such as entry requirements, fees, the student:staff ratio and much more. It makes looking for a place to study much easier and quicker and surely if you did the same when you were an undergraduate the same would apply when looking for a place for postgraduate study.

Yet postgraduate courses are mostly specialist fields in a certain study area and due to this reason the use of league tables can be perceived as highly unnecessary. The reason for this is that the course itself depends on the department, of which the reputation may differ from the overall university itself. A university may be renowned for a certain topic area and this may be a more important aspect for prospective postgraduate students to look at rather than league tables. This is because a university may rank low on a league table overall, but may be one of the best places to study a postgraduate course in a particular area, which is regarded as more important. However league tables do exist that let you search for postgraduate courses by the subject area, which means that league tables are still important and can be regarded as highly useful.

But the problem with this is that these league tables by course can quickly become outdated resulting in them being of little use. The reason for this is that the reputation of the department is based on the staff members themselves. This is the case as when studying for a postgraduate degree as people wish to be taught by the leading specialists in a particular field. It would only take one staff member to leave, fall ill or go on sabbatical and the reputation of a particular department would change drastically. League tables are only published once a year and are not updated, so you would not be able to find out who is currently working in a department in a university by using a league table. This could mean that university league tables really do not matter, as the university website would be a better place to look at a department as it would provide details on staff members which would be regarded as being more useful.

There are still other reasons to why league tables do still matter to postgraduate students. One such reason is future employers may think that where you studied does matter. With so many postgraduate degrees being completed across many different universities each year, they may use the place you studied as one way of narrowing down applications. For this reason it would make sense to make sure that the university that you study at ranked high on the league tables. Yet this may not necessarily be the case, employers may use the class of your degree to sift through application and may not even take a look at where you gained it from. Another reason that league tables may not matter to employers is that they are constantly changing each year. Therefore if you studied for a course that lasted for two years or more the ranking of your university could alter greatly, for better or for worse. Because of this employers may just look at the field of study and what you had to do in order to obtain your postgraduate degree.

There is a lot of competition for postgraduate funding so not everyone can secure it. Because of this many people get funded for their course through a third party such as an employer. As a result of this there may be little or no choice to where you study for a postgraduate degree. This would render league tables as useless as there would be no point in seeing how a university ranked if you were going there anyway. However before accepting funding, people wishing to study for a postgraduate degree may check the ranking of the place they are to study ensuring that they are entirely happy with it.

All in all, I think that league tables do matter when looking for a university to study a postgraduate at. They can let you know a wide range of essential facts about your course, and by choosing a high ranking university you could enhance you future career prospects. Despite this league tables should not be the only source used when determining a university for postgraduate study. This is because other information is needed that is not shown in league tables such as details on specific staff members in a department.
 

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