Here in Korea, and to an extent also in other developed Asian countries, universities typically have a fixed number of open slots, and if there are more applicants than slots universities pick the best students first until they are filled up.
If there are less applicants than open slots, universities may be forced to accept everyone. This leads to some universities being ‘good’ and others being ‘bad’. Thing is, although the number of slots are controlled in accordance to the number of students, there are always ‘bad’ universities because there just aren’t enough students as there used to be (lower birth rates) and some majors aren’t as popular as others.
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In Czechia universities get funded by the amount of students.
Which leads to situations where most of them accept everyone. And then most of them drop out. I think about 60% of students don’t finish the college.
It’s huge problem nobody is willing to solve. It’s wasting everyone’s money, and it also leads to situations where students are picking specializations above their league and then give up.
Not in the Netherlands, in the sense that all universities are similar in quality and are in the top 500 or so of the world.
However, because we accept practically everyone (except a couple of majors) with sufficient grades there are no exceptionally good universities like in the US. But we generally take pride in that.
I mean, we have only five of them in the entire country, so it’s not really the same. People want to go to Copenhagen and Aarhus university and those are the hardest to get into simply because people gravitate towards the biggest cities. I think for some subjects there are some specific universities that are seen as better, as with everything in the Danish university world it’s *very* subject dependent – however in general I doubt most employers care.
The one exception, at least some time ago, is Roskilde university. They have/had a bit of an alternative teaching approach somehow and were/are very leftist (which uni in Denmark is in general but they were viewed as even more extreme).
Well we got plenty of Universities, which are used only for title, aka finishing Master’s and having Ing. or Mgr. in front of your name.
Most people don’t work in their fields of study, heck many will end up as factory workers in car factories(elementary school required).
We don’t have “good” or “bad” universities. We have universities that might be considered more prestigious than the rest.
For example our state university is the only university on the island that is free. It also is rather high up in the European university rankings.
Because of this, it requires a prospective student to sit an exam before attendance on account of the high number of applicants. So it’s selective in choosing what students it wants based on what their examination score is. The higher you get, the better chance you have in getting in.
Here’s where it gets complicated — that same university also has a set amount of places that are exclusively reserved for minorities (Turkish Cypriot and Maronites).
On the other hand, some of our private universities are prestigious in other ways. One university is renowned for being international and for having an exclusive medical program. But we don’t really have any admission criteria save for presenting a high school diploma that needs to be passed with a certain score. They just take until the classes are full.
So it depends on what your definition is and what you want to study.
Edit: I want to add that while we don’t have that sort of judgement for our local universities, it was once upon a time considered more prestigious to study abroad. Things have changed now however. We do have low-key judgement on which private school you’ve attended.
The French system has recently changed for most public universities (such as medium and low level universities). The French education system works mostly in terms of reputation.
Here are some basics:
There are bad universities known for being bad in terms of level, or because the students are known for being disrespectful (they start a revolution twice a month…). One of the things that is analyzed by the students is the success rate. The problem is that some universities literally “give” degrees to all students, which makes their success rate skyrocket. These are usually expensive, private marketing, communication, or business schools. I like the comparison with video games: these are “pay to win” universities, and the best you can do to avoid this is to look at the reviews in accredited newspapers in this field (like Le Figaro or L’Etudiant).
Most of the time, when you want a university, you apply via the government platform. The selection is made both by the platform and by the university. Therefore, everything is centralized, and you can see live your place in the “queue” of all the universities you have applied to. Once you have received a “yes”, you can definitely accept, accept or decline. Simply accepting gives you 2 weeks to give your final answer, so you are guaranteed a place at a university, but can always wait for a better wish to be accepted.
High level universities require either a “prepa”: two intense years of study to reach the required level (note that you are admitted to a “prepa” via the gvt platform detailed above), or an exam + oral assessment.
I think that’s it, but basically, public universities like “the university of + name of the city” aren’t that great because they are almost forced to accept everyone. In France, there is a right to further study which obliges universities to take a student (but not necessarily where he/she wanted)
Often people who are not accepted in their first wishes go to public universities to prepare for the exam of a better university (so they have a year to prepare + some courses that can be interesting).
Yes kinda, but almost every programme at most universities has more applicants than actual slots available. It’s more that smaller and so called “högskolor” are viewed as worse than actual “Universitet”, but aren’t necessarily worse. But they usually do have a worse standard, you typically have to meet a certain standard to become a proper University in Sweden and “högskolor” is just a step below. Högskolor generally accept lower grades.
Employers don’t care that much tho, and going to a prestigious university isnt a big thing here. You’ll still receive a great education at a högskola, it’s just viewed as generally worse because they arent actual universities as it’s a protected title. Jönköping University as an example has found a loophole in the law where they will call themselves a proper University but in English. Which even a Satirical news programme took up in 2020. It has even tricked the locals into think it’s a proper University, when it’s still only a högskola. Heck even the employees at Jönköping University are so far gone that they called themselves a proper University in Swedish on their website which they legally arent allowed to do.
In Spain all public universities have good or good enough quality level. They’re not the best in the world in terms of research outcome but there are fields where they highlight more than others. I don’t think there are bad universities at all in regards the quality of the studies.
However, the Spanish private universities are a completely different story. Some of them have a reputation of being too easy and to reportedly gift degrees to some of the richer class. It’s so bad, that even rich class kids tend to go to public universities to complete their studies. Of course there are exceptions but even then there have been scandals about people getting degrees and even thesis for free on said universities.
So yeah, in general public universities are good enough and some of them are very good on certain fields. Private universities aren’t at the same level.
In austria not really
You only need to graduate high school to get into any state funded university, doesn’t matter with what grades.
Most of the more desired universities have an entrance exam to weed people out early and most of those who don’t have a very difficult 1st year for the same purpose.
There’s also FHs which are like universities in that you get a bachelors or masters degree if you finish them, but instead of you managing your own time and choosing which lectures to attend it’s more like high school with mandatory attendence and a fixed time sheet for lectures.
One example of a university without an entrance exam but still very few students compared to other universities in austria would be the Montanuniversität Leoben, which is internationally recognised as one of the best in austria, but since it has more niche studies like mining engineering and metallurgical engineering and a very difficult curriculum not many people are drawn to it.
Not really, there’s only a slight divide between public and private universities, where public universities are usually considered better quality and more prestigious, because it’s slightly more difficult to enter a public university (requirements are usually higher) and you always get in based on merit.
Private universities are generally thought of as a second option for people who don’t have the grades to get into a public university and thus have to pay exorbitant amounts to get a higher education, and as such they’re also associated (mostly negatively) with rich people. Some of them, like the Catholic University, have a better reputation than others, but public universities are always the best regarded.
In U.K. Tony Blair decided that 50% of the population should be “university educated”. This has led to even greater stratification of the universities than was the case when only 20% of the country got degrees.
I couldn’t say whether the lower-ranked unis are actually “bad” though. They often seem to perform pretty different jobs – vocational degrees rather than high-academia. And there is plenty of discontent with some of the directions being taken in high academia (“decolonize” this, “deconstruct” that, etc.). So, there’s no overall consensus on the matter.
At the end of the day, it’s probably safer to judge graduates on personal merit than alma mater.
Very much so in the UK. UK universities can broadly be split into: universities that students compete to get into and universities that compete to get students into them.
We have an organisation comprised of 24 universities called the Russell group which is roughly analagous to America’s ivy league. Of this group Oxford and Cambridge (often abbreviated to Oxbridge) are by far the best. They rank first and second in the overall league tables and first and second in almost every subject league table. Below these two you have the high profile Russell group universities. This group varies depending on the subject being discussed, but it’s generally LSE, UCL, Imperial, Durham and Bristol (I’d also place ST Andrew’s here, as despite not being in the Russell group it generally ranks alongside these universities). Below these are the lower profile Russell group universities e.g Cardiff, Exeter, Sheffield. Below the Russell group there are many generally decent universities like the university of Swansea and the university of Lancaster that offer a good education, but lack the top academics and prestige that Russell group universities have. I’d say most universities in the UK fall into this camp. Below these you get what are basically seen as rubbish universities e.g West of Scotland, Bedfordshire. Employers will look down on degrees from these places and they tend sell their student experience rather than their academics. A rather funny example of this is a comparison of the why Bedfordshire and why Durham website pages. Bedfordshire focuses entirely on the student experience whereas Durham mostly focuses on the educational side of things.
https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/international/studying-in-the-uk/why-durham/
https://www.beds.ac.uk/bedfordshire/
UK and very much yes.
I’m about 20 year out of date but a University like Oxford or Cambridge can easily demand 5 As at A level. The exams that we do when we’re 18. But there are other universities that will accept you with 2 Es on some courses and you’ll get an E, innyour exam if you just turn up for the exam and have the most minimal knowledge of the subject. Those universities tend to be pretty awful. With poor facilities and lecturers that dont care. With the university being spread out all over North London. So that there’s no campus feeling to it. With your course being taught in a building that hasn’t had any major upkeep to it in years. As its going to be closed next year and has been set to close next year for the last ten years.
In Spain I would say it is not a thing. Of course there are some with more prestige than others, but the education is more or less similar in all of the public ones. The private universities have a fame of being super easy and bad education, but I have the feeling that that is changing (but I don’t really know it though).
In norway we use a similar system for admitting students, and as a result we get universities that are harder to get into than others. However, we don’t think of these as «bad vs good», more like, «popular vs less popular»
In the UK yes, our universities are selective and top ranking ones like Oxford and Cambridge have far more weight. And in many towns you’ll find the higher and lower ranked university, like Oxford and Oxford Brookes, Bath and Bath Spa, Bristol and UWE.
We have “bad” universities here in Italy, those are the less famous ones with less applicants. But less applicants doesn’t mean they are bad, the education there is completely valid, they are just less famous
I’m just talking about my education as a social worker. There was thing thing that “my” school was the best and I just took that with a good grain of salt (still do). But I did notice when job searching and after ten years in the field, my school has an excellent reputation. Applicants or interns coming from there have an edge.
I’m still not sure what it’s based on.
Not really. Universities tend to specialize somewhat, so there might be a couple of ideal ones for engineering or chemistry or history but there generally is no such thing as good or bad universities. Their buildings are usually all underfunded to the same degree as well.
If anything, it would be differentiated via the majors here. Good luck trying to get into medicine, you basically need to have perfect grades in the latter two years of highschool and the final exams and then also do well in the acceptance test. Sacrificing a goat could also help, the data on that still is inconclusive though…
Yes kinda, but it’s just a matter of quality of infrastructures and services that the university can supply.
Good universities will have a lot of libraries, a well organised year schedule, “famous” professors and will organise a lot of free projects for its pupils. Bad universities will give you the same starting curriculum(The basics have a national standard) but the place itself will be run-down and there won’t be any extracurricular projects
But because of the nationwide basic standards, once you actually graduate none cares how you did it or where you did it or even what grades you had, it’s a difference for the pupils only
not really.
there are some unis which are seen to be more “prestigious” than others, but I wouldn’t say any are actually bad
here the problem you are describing doesn’t exist because almost every degree has more applicants than there are slots and the universities basically get to pick the best. this spring I think 150 000 people applied for tertiary education and of those 60 000 got in. The more “prestigious” universities had a 10-15% acceptance rate and some “less prestigious” had a higher rate but still not 100%
I even put “prestigious” and “less prestigious” in quotation marks because there is some reputation like that for unis but it’s certainly not as big of a deal as it is in some other countries
Public universities are established with an egalitarian idea, with just one “top” institution (the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, with insane enrolling tests – available online, check them out). The teaching quality is on average very homogeneous – of course, quality of the research is not as homogeneous as it depends on funding, estabilished lines of research being decades or centuries old (say, Padua and physics, or Naples and law, or Milan/Turin and engineering), with some institutions being better renowned.
When applying to any university here you have to go through the CAO (central application office). You make a list of 10 courses you would like to do, starting with your most wanted one. You get points based off your Leaving Cert (end of secondary school) exams. The CAO then processes all results. Courses are filled based on the applicants points until its full. If you don’t get enough points, they will try give you your second choice, then onto third….. until you get a course.
This basically means that some universities seem really good because you need a lot of points to get into them meaning that smart people go there, but this isn’t always a reflection of how good the course actually is. Some universities have a good reputation for certain subjects like engineering or medicine or business, but there’s generally not a huge difference between the material you’ll be studying.
Basically most universities are fairly good, some have a better reputation because smart people tend to go there which makes their results look good, but most universities are fairly highly regarded.
There are two types of “bad” universities here.
One are most private universities which offer bussiness or economy degrees. With rare exceptions, those are considered pay to win for rich kids who cant get into college any other way. The idea is that since they are paying directly, they will pass so curriculum is really low and grading lower. But networking and building connections is very well developed. So saying you go to a private uni is telling people you are rich and cant go anywhere else.
The other ones are “useless” degrees that people enroll when every other option fsils. They vary among vities, but it’s usually some kind of economy, tourism management, shipping logistics, general or weird philosophy studies. Since our unis have fixed quotas there is always room at certain faculties for pretty much all who wish to enroll. So they are not bad per se, but lots of students go there to get any kind of degree so motivation is lacking and they often wash out.
There are some universities that are seen as better, like the Engineering Universities are popular but I wouldn’t say there are universities with a bad name, though the students at Engineering Universities usually look down upon the rest.
In Italy universities in the North tend to be better not because they accept better students but because education is better in the North. There are no entrance exams (besides a few exceptions) but on the other hand it’s hard to graduate – many students drop out.
In Germany there are well-known universities that may see some recognition in job Interviews (like for example TU Munich, RWTH Aachen or Humboldt University Berlin) but they are seen as equal to any other and nothing that would qualify someone more than someone else with equal skills. The universities are state funded (except some private or church-funded ones) and don’t see much if any difference within states and minimal differences across state lines.
A course at a university will have a certain grade boundary set which you have to have on your “Allgemeine Hochschulreife” (General readyness for university) from your secondary school in order to get in. If you don’t you can instead get in by accumulating “waiting semesters” while not studying anywhere. They then either increase your grade artificially for the boundary or you have to have a certain number of them to get in. You still have to have the “Allgemeine Hochschulreife” though, not passing disqualifies you for universities. You can go to evening school to acquire it later in life.
For medicine this grade boundary has been at 1.0 at almost every uni for a few years now and most get in those courses with waiting semesters, I’ve heard of 10 from one of my friends (aka waiting five years to get a spot).
There are also “Fachhochschulen” (universities of applied science), which you don’t need an “Allgemeine Hochschulreife” for. You can instead also qualify with work experience or topic-specific qualification for university (fachgebundene Hochschulreife or Fachhochschulreife). These unis used to be considered inferior but with the introduction of masters and bachelor degrees they are supposed to be equal (although some employers don’t see it that way). Some employers even prefer those that studied at an applied university since they are more trained in applying the science, not doing it. They are usually more ready for the reality of work environments. For research jobs on the other hand people from Universities are preferred.
I would say state universities are generally viewed ok, some better, some worse, but it’s often a matter of preference. I have like 5 friends who attended medicine, and they all swear the university they chose was the best med school in the country.
But private universities all have a bad reputation, mainly for being diploma factories. Students go there just to get a diploma, withought being interested in learning much.
In Switzerland, if you get a *Matura* (i.e. the highest level of school diploma) every Swiss university has to accept you. So everyone who finished school in Switzerland that qualifies for a university is automatically qualified for all of them.
There are some differences in how thw education you get once you’re in works, and usually the first year is some sort of assessment year where you have to pass a lot of basic courses to stay around. ETH Zurich is famous for having very tough math assessments, for instance.
But I don’t think there are *bad* unis, the only universal distinction I can think of is that people tend to think higher of ETHZ and EPFL (the two federal technical universities) when it comes to STEM subjects. Maybe also St. Gallen for law and econ, but its reputation is 50/50 between “elite school” and “rich kid school”.