Comparison of Universities

A Comparison of Three Universities
Every year thousands of international students try to make the most important decision in their life, choosing the right university. However, the higher education market is overcrowded by variations of universities. This comparison is supposed to be the guide, which helps to weigh up three universities (The University of Lancaster, The University of Loughborough and King’s College London) in the business and management area. These universities were taken as substitutes for each other due to familiar places in the ranks and similar entry tariffs. The Universities are compared by three factors: overall and subject ranking, career prospects and student satisfaction.
Firstly, these universities will be compared by ranking, because rank shows the overall score of the university, including all the comparable areas of the Guardian University Guide (Guardian, 2012) or the Complete University Guide (CUG, 2012). Based on overall ranking of (Guardian, 2012) Lancaster is seventh and has remained stable since 2011, while Loughborough fell from ninth in 2011 to eleventh in 2013. Likewise King’s College London shows decrease in ranking from 25 to 31 during the same years. Loughborough is the leader in business studies and located in seventh place, while Lancaster is two times lower – the 13th university in the business area in 2013. Whereas, King’s College London has 15th place and this university shows the lowest rank in both comparisons. In this comparison Lancaster shows sustainability, while Loughborough’s rank in business area is much higher. King’s College is the unstable university and has the low place in ranking. Secondly, the career prospects ranking is supposed to be the most considerable issue for students, because it indicates the opportunity of being employed. (Guardian,2012) shows that the highest possibility of being employed in Loughborough with 89 points. However, Lancaster has 83 point, but it is enough to be in the top of employability. Whereas, the ranking of these two universities in (CUG, 2012) is parallel, the leader is Lancaster with 84 points and Loughborough has only 80 points, but both of these universities are of the top in this ranking. In contrast, Kings has only 73 points in (Guardian,2012) and 74 in (CUG,2012) in this area and this result is very average. Loughborough and Lancaster present highly impressive and high results in this comparison. King’s Сollege stays below the other universities and shows low result as in overall ranking.
Thirdly, the comparison in student satisfaction is thought to be very important, because if the person wants to achieve high results, he or she must enjoy course programme and this comparison includes amount of students who is satisfied with the course. Kings College and Lancaster have the same score in student satisfaction 4.1 based on (CUG,2012) , and this result is supposed to be extremely high comparing with other universities, but Loughborough is the leader in this comparison and also in (CUG,2012) with 4.3 points. The highest rank of student satisfaction is observed in Loughborough, other universities also show high results, but these results are less than in Loughborough.
In conclusion, all of these universities have the high positions in every comparison area and beyond them. Lancaster and Loughborough are very close substitutes and rivals, both of these universities are leaders and often these universities lead the rankings in (Guardian,2012) or (CUG,2012). However, King’s College London which is supposed to be the top world university, shows extremely low results in this comparison. In my point of view only Lancaster and Loughborough can be recommended as additional universities due to the highest results not only in overall ranking, but based on their rivalry in every area with small differences in the ranking or even with the equal results.
Reference list
Complete University Guide (CUG), 2012. The Complete University Guide 2012. [Internet], available from: http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/ [Accessed 1 November 2012].
Guardian, 2012. The Guardian University Guide 2012. [Internet], available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityguide [Accessed 1 November 2012].