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> the UK has some of the best universities in the world Let's not confuse leading research groups with general education quality. UK undergrad and PhD courses

> the UK has some of the best universities in the world Let's not confuse leading research groups with general education quality. UK undergrad and PhD courses are short and their funding model makes difficult for universities to fail students (this is similar to what happens with master degrees all over the world).

lewis1028282 8y ago
I'm a master's student in the UK so I'm not really sure what you mean by 'short courses'? The UK follows the Bologna process and bachelor degrees are 3 years, masters 1, PhDs are 3 years. I'm not, Oxford and Cambridge are always in the top 5 universities in the world don't see how you can argue they are not.
- arethuza 8y ago
  Nitpick: Scottish undergraduate degrees are typically 4 years - the education system being completely different up here.
  - padthai 8y ago
    And in Germany, Spain, etc. Plenty of places.
- padthai 8y ago
  > The UK follows the Bologna process and bachelor degrees are 3 years, masters 1, PhDs are 3 years. That is not true for every European country. In lots of them bachelors last 4 years, and some degrees just morphed their old plans in undergrad+masters as a way to keep them longer (5-6 years). As far as I know, placements years are unusual too. You also does not need a master to get a PhD in the UK. I have met plenty of 23-24 year olds with PhDs there. And again, the biggest problem is than most teachers cannot fail more than a small percentage of their students, even if they are absolutely terrible. > I'm not, Oxford and Cambridge are always in the top 5 universities in the world don't see how you can argue they are not. Even if Oxford/Cambridge/Imperial have excellent undergrad courses (as I am sure they have good PhD courses), that does not change the reality of the other 200. At some point, by the way, I was doing a PhD in a top 4 UK university. And I can tell you that the quality of undergrad courses I saw was questonable at best.

lewis1028282 8y ago

I'm a master's student in the UK so I'm not really sure what you mean by 'short courses'? The UK follows the Bologna process and bachelor degrees are 3 years, masters 1, PhDs are 3 years. I'm not, Oxford and Cambridge are always in the top 5 universities in the world don't see how you can argue they are not.

arethuza 8y ago
Nitpick: Scottish undergraduate degrees are typically 4 years - the education system being completely different up here.
- padthai 8y ago
  And in Germany, Spain, etc. Plenty of places.
padthai 8y ago
> The UK follows the Bologna process and bachelor degrees are 3 years, masters 1, PhDs are 3 years. That is not true for every European country. In lots of them bachelors last 4 years, and some degrees just morphed their old plans in undergrad+masters as a way to keep them longer (5-6 years). As far as I know, placements years are unusual too. You also does not need a master to get a PhD in the UK. I have met plenty of 23-24 year olds with PhDs there. And again, the biggest problem is than most teachers cannot fail more than a small percentage of their students, even if they are absolutely terrible. > I'm not, Oxford and Cambridge are always in the top 5 universities in the world don't see how you can argue they are not. Even if Oxford/Cambridge/Imperial have excellent undergrad courses (as I am sure they have good PhD courses), that does not change the reality of the other 200. At some point, by the way, I was doing a PhD in a top 4 UK university. And I can tell you that the quality of undergrad courses I saw was questonable at best.