Product Description

The 2004 edition of the "Good University Guide" has been extended, now offering: league table ranking to Britain's universities, which enables readers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each university; over 60 tables giving the best universities for particular subjects; advice on how to select a course and a university; guidance on how to apply and pay your way through university; a new chapter on accommodation while you are there; two pages of information on each university; detailed coverage of Oxford and Cambridge colleges; and information specifically designed for international students.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #257067 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-02
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you're a 17-year-old, or his or her parents, desperately trying to find objective information, try The Times Good University Guide based on The Times's league tables published annually since 1992. This is especially useful now that there are no official government league tables to enable you to compare higher education institutions.

The Guide ranks the top 100 universities from Oxford to Thames Valley in terms of teaching assessment, graduate destinations, efficiency and other criteria in a user-friendly table. Then you can look up the subject you want to study and read a double page spread about each university--including statistics, contact details and miscellaneous information. There's useful guidance about application procedures and accommodation too. Armed with the knowledge that Glasgow Caledonian "has spent £350 million transforming previously mediocre facilities into a single campus that does justice to a modern university of 14,000 students", or that Nottingham, second only to Cambridge in the number of subjects rated for teaching at the highest level, has 14,315 undergraduate students and 8.9 applicants per place, you really are in a good position to decide where to apply.

It is difficult to see how anyone could make a realistic university application without studying John O'Leary's handy annual guide, although it's a pity it wasn't proof-read more thoroughly. --Susan Elkin

About the Author
* Editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement, having previously been Education Editor of The Times. * Dr Bernard Kingston and Dr Andrew Hindmarsh are independent university consultants with an international reputation and extensive expertise in areas covered by the Guide.

Customer Reviews

And the winner is...The Times Good Uni Guide 2004!
The Times Good University Guide in principle is fantastic. Instead of telling you simply that one university is better than the other, it gives various areas of universities - teaching standard, lirary/research facilities, staff:student ratios, degree completion, employability etc, and gives them a score and rates them accordingly.

However this is not all it does. It reviews almost every subject you could think of individually. And gives league tables for them, e.g. It shows you that Cambridge is top for law, however Oxford is the top University overall, therefore if you are wanting to study law, you can actually see all the universities in ranking order and make an informed decision. Although Cambridge is at the top in nearly all subjects it is not the place to go if you want the best media studies facilities for example, The Times Good University Guide shows you this. This feature is invaluable as it provides a better picture for certain Universities.

The other thing I liked is that it gives an individual page review of each of the colleges in both Oxford and Cambridge, which goes into more depth than Oxford and Cambridge's websites and prospectuses; and the best thing is that it is objective, giving you a real independant view. Also if you don't have the grades to get into the 'top' universities you can see a university which offers lower grades but ranks high for each subject. Overall, I would say that anyone who is serious about getting into a University should read this, anyone who is unsure of where to apply should read this, and anyone contemplating Oxbridge, should definitely read this invaluable source - Thumbs up!

Some story...?
A good book but remmember it only tells half the story. The Times rankings are held very high among the university community but it is important not to base your whole UCAS choice on this. The biggest critisism of this book is that it does not include much information on individual institutions.

Very useful, but...
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!