Hello fellow (prospective) students,

There have been many a time questions from international students on this board about which uni to choose in terms of reputation. The answer to this question is often not quite obvious, however, and we also should descern between national reputation and international reputation which are often not the same. You may find the following reputation index from the Guardian to be helpful:

UK universities index based on national reputation:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2009/08/20/ReputationRankings2009UK.pdf

UK universities index based on international reputation:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2009/08/20/ReputationRankings2009in.pdf

lawstudent2010

Hi lawstudent 2010,
Thnx for the post, its v helpful..
Univ of Sheffield appears to hv a nice reputation (in UK as well as internationally)... I hv been offered a place to study at Sheffield, however I am still waiting for Edinburgh, QM n Notts to get back to me...
Hows Univ of Sheffield?? Any idea?? I will b going for it if rejected at Edin, QM n Notts... :)
Cheers..

Hi, thanks for the post.
well, guardian is highly provocative, may I say. I mean, how is that possible that LSE, which enjoys a fantastic international reputation and is highly recognised all over the world, is placed 19th, for instance.
and so on :)

Yeah, I have to say, these rankings are pretty off. At least it seems that way to me.

The reason LSE is not ranked highly is pretty self-evident. LSE is a social science institution, while virtually all other highly ranked universities are much larger institutions with science/medical/humanities/arts faculties - thus attracting wider reputations, more students and more funding. A good example is Manchester, which since merging with UMIST, to form a 'super uni' has shot up the ranks and is attempting to become a leading international university (though the rep of the law school is sliding).

These rankings are hardly indicative of the actual quality or reputation of law schools.