To be upset about ‘university blind’ recruitment

@solange this might not help the narrative you seem to want to promote but it does present the srtte - private split going back over a number of academic years.

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/widening-participation/table-t1

The caveat of course is that not all state schools are equal - we have academic selectivity and house price selectivity.

My brother has a degree from Cambridge (he was at Queen's College and loved it!) and it has served him VERY well in his career. He has been on 100K+ practically straight out of uni. I don't think many companies are that blind 😂 Well done to your son!

And during his time there it will be up to him to make the most of the amazing experience, to develop personal skills, contacts, interests, all of which will stand him in better stead for his whole life, in every job he undertakes. Do you honestly think that merely being accepted into a prestigious institution is going to make him a better person, a better communicator, a better work colleague and is going entitle him to greater consideration than other people for the rest of his working life?

Just put rowing in the list of interests and hobbies on the CV and drop a bit of Latin in and you'll be given a funny handshake and welcomed into the senior management suits within 6 months.

Don’t worry, if your son does go to Cambridge he’ll tell them in the first 2 minutes at the interview.

what the hell is the point of going to a top Uni if no one will know about it!

😂😂

All degrees are not equal but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Oxbridge are the best universities to go to. That instead is dependent on the degree you want to do. The best university for construction related degrees was a few years ago (2017) Sheffield Hallam followed by Edinburgh Napier.

Because too many people think the name of the university is the most important thing when actually it's the course. No-one cares that dc will go to Cambridge or Oxford. The only people who care are the parents because of the flex.

Success in life is about the people you meet and the opportunities you take. Good exam results from a "good" university might put you on the right path but they are not the be all and end all.

The ads I see utilising this are usually for jobs requiring 5-10 years of experience.

Aka, what you did in the last 5-10 years is more important than the university choice you could manage/made at 18.

That's great - removes bias from what is by then a very outdated and irrelevant piece of information.

(I know excellent Oxbridge grads, and I know rather mediocre ones who dwell upon where they went at 18 without bothering to develop themselves since.)

There are plenty of companies that actively avoid people who have been to Oxbridge and people who got firsts as they find them too academic.

@Solange

you need to read that article really carefully. It is not saying what you think it is saying. It is being very clever in insinuating something that it’s own research does not back up.

We recruit name, institution and employer blind. When it first came in one of the applications I sifted included a competence which began, When I organised the May Ball…..

I worked soooo much harder than peers at other universities.

Maybe that's because you needed to, to get similar grades?

So much snobbery! I am so much more intelligent than yewwwwww because I got into an elitist uni. Are you though? Are you really? Does it make you a better candidate for a job, for no other reason than the place you got your degree? Really?

Between 2017 and 2022, the state school intake increased from 62.7 to 72.5 per cent at Cambridge and from 58.2 to more than 68 per cent at Oxford.

https://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/Oxbridge%20leaders%20urge%2095%25%20intake%20from%20state%20schools%20_%20News%20_%20The%20Sunday%20Times.pdf

https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate-students/current/school-type

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/cambridge-university-welcomes-record-number-24946219

@Solonge is talking nonsense. Even on her figures (which are wrong) a majority of students at these universities are from state schools. The BBC article is five years old and things have changed somewhat in that time as you see in the stats I've linked to.

Please provide evidence for your assertion.

Actually only a few of the grad schemes recruit ‘blind’. Most still ask for the uni. My DS graduated recently from Cambridge and certainly found Cambridge a help in the recruitment process.

I don't think the OP has careers in mind which require only a C in maths and English..

What's wrong with Man Met?
I bloody hate educational snobbery.

This is a U.K. thing though if he applies for jobs abroad they will see his uni.

I work in Pharma, HR don't hide which Universities applicants went to but in my experience the University makes little to no difference and we certainly don't recruit based on University. We tend to recruit from local (northern) universities and someone from a working class background who is the first in their family to go to uni who went to the local ex poly is just as likely to be a good employee as someone from a middle class background who went to a Russell Group university. University mainly reflects class.

Of course there are plenty of careers that are more classist than science (Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse has talked about how science felt more accessible than the humanities as a working class child because cultural capital didn't matter so much) where going to the right school or university will matter more so I suppose it depends what your son's degree will be in.

what the hell is the point of going to a top Uni if no one will know about it!

The point, is the depth of education they'll receive from brilliant teachers (a lot of personal tutoring) and the facilities provided by the huge wealth of the university.

I also recruit people. I never look at their university - it means nothing to me or my industry.

OP,

The moral here is that your DS hasn’t arrived at his destination. He is beginning his journey.

If he makes good use of what Cambridge can offer him, he will do well. Students who think that having arrived at Oxbridge means they can rest on their laurels don’t particularly deserve to.

Congratulations and best wishes to him

My ex London poly University lecturer also lectured at Cambridge and I got a 1st. Where does that leave me OP?