Which is the hardest university to get into? Well, that depends.....

TIMES

John O'Leary, author of the Good University Guide, writes:

A report published today by a higher education think tank addresses the old chestnut of whether all degrees can possibly be of the same standard. A select committee of MPs was adamant that they should be, but the Higher Education Policy Institute says that the universities with the brightest students and the most money to spend on staff and learning resources are bound to reach higher levels of study than the rest.
 
So how should the applicant identify the universities with the most competitive intake (if only to avoid them)? Many people make the mistake of using the number of applications as their guide, but these are influenced by all sorts of factors – notably sheer size and the range of subjects on offer, but also location and the city’s reputation for extra-curricular activities.
 
Manchester scores on all of these and regularly has by far the most applicants of any university. If you doubt that size, location and city are really important factors, you might note that Manchester Metropolitan is third in this list. (see table) Four of the top ten universities are former polytechnics.
 
The number of applications per place is obviously a better measure of competitiveness, but even this has its limitations. Oxford and Cambridge, for example, both have fewer than five applications to the place because many potential candidates believe that they stand no chance of getting in. That is not only half the number chasing each place at the most competitive universities, but only just above average for all universities.
 
Why the same self-denying ordinance does not apply to some extent at the London School of Economics or Bristol is one of the mysteries of higher education applications, but they are consistently the leading universities on this measure – nearly 14 to the place at the LSE in 2009. (see table)
 
However, much depends on the degrees available. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in Cardiff, had almost 28 applications for each of its 50 places last year, while the Central School of Speech and Drama, in London, had 26 per place. The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry had nine applications for every place – far more than its parent universities of Exeter and Plymouth.