For lots of students, finding out whether their desired university is in the Russell Group is crucial to making their decision. If you’re thinking of going to Nottingham, we take a look at whether Nottingham Trent is Russell Group and whether students believe the university is good or not.
A university experience is pretty individual and will be what you make it. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want to know what other people think beforehand though. We see what academics and students think of Nottingham Trent and whether it made it into the Russell Group.
Is Nottingham Trent A Russell Group University?
Although Nottingham’s other university is Russell Group, Nottingham Trent is not. Here is the full list of Russell Group universities:
- University of Birmingham
- University of Bristol
- University of Cambridge
- Cardiff University
- Durham University
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Exeter
- University of Glasgow
- Imperial College London
- King’s College London
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- London School of Economics and Political Science
- University of Manchester
- Newcastle University
- University of Nottingham
- University of Oxford
- Queen Mary University of London
- Queen’s University Belfast
- University of Sheffield
- University of Southampton
- University College London
- University of Warwick
- University of York
However, that doesn’t mean that the university doesn’t have its own accolades. NTU boasts that it was voted the Most Modern University by The Times and The Sunday Times Modern for 2023. Additionally, in 2020 it was in the top 5 of most sustainable universities in the world.
Is Nottingham Trent Good?
Just because it isn’t Russell Group doesn’t mean that Nottingham Trent isn’t a good university. One of the best ways to know the truth about a university is to ask the people that went. Past and present students will have invaluable insight into whether a university is good or not.
Looking at the Student Crowd, it seems that students rate the university really highly, In fact, students think it’s better than top-ranking Oxford. It scores 4.31 out of 5 and scores 5 out of 5 in all of its subcategories. One first-year student said she couldn’t way to try out more in their second year:
“My first year at NTU has been fab. So many places to explore both in the city and on campus, however, I do wish I did more of this, and intend to do in 2nd year. The facilities are incredible for all courses, both online and in person, there’s always something or someone that can help support you.”
However, looking at the Student Room, it seems many students that Nottingham Trent is about average, maybe even worse:
“It’s a middling to low-quality university, certainly one of the best of the ex-polys. Compare Trent to Nottingham and it seems more like a big sixth-form college.”
However, it is worth noting that the Student Crowd review was from this year, whereas the Student Room comment is from over a decade ago. So, it seems that students believe that the university has come a long way in a short space of time.
What Is The Ranking Of Nottingham Trent University?
In The Times Higher Education world rankings, the university scores between 501 – 600 in the world. Unfortunately, universities that rank outside of the top 500 don’t have a publicly visible specific ranking. However, that is still a decent ranking when you consider that 1800 universities were judged.
When looking at the QS Top Universities Score, the university scores even lower. On their rankings, NTU is placed in the 801-1000 bracket after a steady decline in ranking since 2020. That being said, its employability gets a much better ranking of between 251-300.
In the UK University Rankings 2023, Nottingham Trent is joining 42 with Falmouth University. It beats universities such as Swansea, Kent and Northumbria, but isn’t quite as highly placed as Leicester, Liverpool and Dundee.
Topping this list is Oxford in first place, followed by St Andrews and then Cambridge.
Taking everything into consideration, it seems like you can still have a really good experience at NTU despite it not ranking the best according to academics. However, you won’t know unless you go and try for yourself!
