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'Red Brick' Universities
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
1) Can anybody name some 'Red Brick' universities.
2) What defines a Red Brick uni?
2) What defines a Red Brick uni?
Post edited by JustV on
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2) They're built out of red bricks? or atleast part of them is, the original bit? Thats what i always assumed but im sure there is a proper reason behind the name!
Begs the question why?
Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester, Brimingham, Sheffield, Leeds etc etc
Red Brick unis are basically the original, traditional ones with nice old buildings and stuff, and they generally have a better reputation as being the academic universities.
They're generally universities that started/were converted from institutions like technical colleges or polytechnics in the 1960s or later half of the twentieth century.
And, as faerielights has pointed out, they're often made from red bricks.
That's not right. The redbricks are precisely the opposite of this definition.
Rebrick universities are those which have been long established. They usually are founded before 1930 or so, and have traditionally been associated with higher academic achievement.
They are known as redbrick, partly to differentiate them from the recent ex-polys which Brantree describes.
Aston, therefore, is not a redbrick.
Birmingham, Sheffield, some London ones, Oxbridge, Durham, Leeds, Manchester, for example.
Ok, I'll go hide now.
Don't you go to Brum Uni or do you fit the description
are they not just the so called 'ancient' unis? we only have five in Scotland i think
Glasgow (the best of course, since i go there!!), Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews
i think that's right. please feel free to correct me if i am wrong
True Aston is not a red brick. Red bricks are the original universities rather than the polys which are college turned to universities also know as new unis.
This includes Sheffield UNI (ME), birmingham, liverpool, durham, oxbridge, bristol, leeds etc. the ones which say The university of or
uni. So hallam (sheffield and Nottingham trent) are polys. Unis generally expect higher grades (ummmm this is possibly because they're stuck up rather than being better)-just go to the best you can for your course!!!
What about The University of Kent. Redbrick?
nah i'm sure the only ones in scotland are glasgow, edinburgh and st andrews. i'm not convinced aberdeen is, but i know that dundee definitely isn't one.
I agree. I spoke to someone and they said they were at birmingham uni, what they actually meant to say was central birmingham. sad really!
pretty sure dundee and aberdeen still classed as ancient unis, if not red brick unis.
Problem with that definition is it doesn't just apply to Red Bricks. I'm at Aberystwyth at the moment and it's not poncy but it seems to be full of public school kids who play rugby (the rugby bit could be down to the Welsh element though.) I don't think Aber is a Red Brick uni though. Basically, Red Bricks are the ones that the "gentlemen" went to throughout the last few hundred years. Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are the main ones. I could be wrong though.
saucepot
belfast
biringham
bristol
courtauld
durham
exeter
hull
leeds
leicester
liverpool
london- merger of kings and ucl
manchester
newcastle
nottingham
reading
sheffield
southampton
wales-merger of aberystwyth, bangor and cardiff
are all 'red brick' universites
cambridge
oxford
glasgow
aberdeen
edinburgh
st. andrews
all ancient universities
I would classify all the University Of London unis (so include Royal Holloway, Queen Mary, Heythrop, Royal Veterinary College...) as Red Brick (but not other London unis like Westminster, Brunel etc).
I think the PC term for such institutions is 'new universities'.
To ask another question: is there a name to distinguish universities like Keele and Warwick from the ex-polys like Oxford Brookes and University of Central England? There should be - although Warwick (and, in my opinion, Brookes) suggests that the old classifications are less useful now - Warwick is surely one of the finest universities in the UK and better than, e.g. Birmingham in some regards.
No but employers know which Universities are red-brick and greatly favour them in many instances - they're usually more oversubscribed and have a better academic reputation overall.
If you're looking to do something vocational however, such as nursing, graphic design etc. you're gonna probably end up at an ex-poly since redbricks tend to favour the traditional academic subjects and either don't offer these sort of courses or suck at them. One exception is Computer Science or Sports Science.
east anglia
essex
kent
lancaster
sussex
stirling
warwick
york
others, often tech universities were established colleges (usually in cities) which were granted status in sixites
aston
bath
bradford
brunel
city
cranfield
dundee
heriot-watt
loughborough
salford
strathclyde
surrey
new universities- estabhlished poly techs and college of he.given uni status in the 90s. most recent in 2001.orginally set up to provide more vocational courses.most still tend to offer more practical courses.
likes of brighton
luton
middlesex
and all the rest
I think the benefit of going to a redbrick depends on the course you're doing, if it's very academic, it's probably worth it. However, as MOSSY pointed out above, the newer 1960's universities which always had uni status (they were just not as old) are just as good and in some cases better than other redbricks - of the list above, east anglia, essex, lancaster, sussex, warwick and york are all top 30 unis, with warwick at least (the only one i know for definite) being in the top 10 according to the league tables.
Ex-polys tend to be better at vocational subjects, such as nursing etc, and are rated much higher than most redbricks for a lot of subjects like that. Having said that, there are some which have embraced the change to university status and are storming their way up the league tables - Oxford Brooks for example!
And yes about Oxford Brookes. Their History department is apparently top 5 in the country.
Durham's politics department is not as good as Northumbria's, but I know which degree is looked at more favourably.
Warwick and Lancaster are probably the only two modern universities to break into respected academic circles.
Sorry, but that's the way it is. If you want to do arts or vocational subjects then the new universities are far more respected, but if you want academic prestige then you have to go to a new university.
Though university prestiage only takes you so far- many large corporate employers don't actually care where you studied, so long as you have a good degree and high UCAS points.