In 1992, the Further and Higher Education Act allowed loads of colleges and technical colleges to take on the name of university leading to loads of confusion as new universities popped up, things changed their names, and former polytechnics got a bit of a reputation.
But, are they any good? And one of the things students are confused about so often is whether they should go to university or not because it used to be polytechnic. So, there was loads of confusion relating to the name of universities, and this is due to their massive change that happened in the early 90s. So, Oxford has The University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities, and because The University of Oxford is very famous, there's not going to be lots of confusion there. Birmingham has University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University, and from the names, it's not very obvious which one is the old red brick university and which one is the former polytechnic. And these tables are just going to say Birmingham, while the University of Portsmouth and the University of Brighton give absolutely no indication of the origins at all. But, Portsmouth, Brighton, Birmingham City, and Oxford Brookes all used to be colleges, technical colleges or polytechnics. So, are they any good and should you go to them? This answer or this question is tough for me to answer because it's so individual to you. It depends on the course that you're looking for; it depends whether the university is a good fit for you. The age of a university, the reputation of a university, the former name of a university, has no bearing on whether you're going to be happy there, whether it's going to provide a good education for you, whether you're going to be successful there. Not wanting to go to a former polytechnic just because it's a former polytechnic is just snobbery 's not going to get you very far. There is so much more to consider when picking a location and the main thing is done you think you'll be happy there.