How important would a Russell Group uni be to your employer?

[paygride]

I work for a well known global company, employs about 2000 in UK. I was speaking to someone from our People team about how important it is for a candidate to have attended a Russell Group unti and she said it wasn't something that was especially relevant when they were looking at CVs and a few young people have joined our team recently and only one of them attended a RG uni (she did go to Cambridge). I spoke to DH about this and he works for another global company (totally different sector) and he said it's not something he looks for when he's been recruiting either. What they both said is they were bothing looking for 'something extra' (well my People officer actually described it as a 'sprinkling of fairy dust'.)

By contrast I worked for a Consultancy firm in the city and they pretty much only recruited people from Oxbridge, much smaller firm and pretty much all their business was UK based, huhe salaries and huge bonuses (which defintely isn't across the board where I work but lots very senior of people on high salaries).

DS is going to be applying to Unis and is fixed on the idea of a RG uni even though some non RG unis (Lancaster & Leicester) seem to be offering much more interesting courses in his chosen field but he will only apply to the RG unis.

Interested to know what others think. .

@paygride The interesting part of this fairly recent “don’t care” policy is that, surprise surprise, Oxbridge and a few others still get all the top paying gigs. Just turns out their grads are better at tests and interviews than the people from the Uni of Nowhere. So Nowhere people earn less.

It’s also fairly obvious, in many of the higher paid roles, Oxbridge is over represented. Look at law in London. Barristers are 40% Oxbridge educated and RG 85%. So people say they don’t care but in reality, they do.

@paygride It totally depends on your job! RG at the lower levels (look at the league tables) doesn’t beat Bath or St Andrews but certainly beats many old colleges of HE that are now universities. Where DD works, they are going back to looking at universities! They want the full picture, not part of it. If it’s a job where academics matter, it’s very different from a vocational course like nursing.

Consider what degree and aim high for university based on subject area. The CuG gives all the details. Not all degrees are the same and some do give dc an edge because they are more in depth and challenging. However dc need all the other skills as well to succeed. A good personality goes a long way.

Leicester is solid but not top 20 for anything I think. So if you could get to LSE, (consultants love LSE) or UCL or Durham, why take Leicester? Makes no sense.

When you say work experience - do you mean any sort of work experience or something relavant to the job?

I'm in HR. It depends a bit on job specialism, so a degree from a university highly regarded for that field of expertise might have the edge. Especially for STEM subjects and new areas like robotics.

Also important is being 'well rounded'. Some work experience or voluntary work, especially if in some way related to the course of study or future job, is really valuable. For example there are thousands of bog standard marketing grads with identical cv's but one who's volunteered for a charity and helped them improve their website or helped them drive up fundraising would stand out.

I'm also a big fan of apprenticeships for jobs that used to only be for graduates e.g. accounting. Earn and study at the same time, no student debt and after a while they are years ahead of the new grad intake at the same age. I do think university experience is valuable in its own right but sometimes going straight into the workforce is better for some young people.

Previous large corporate employer with a specific grad scheme - screened on subject and degree classification but not on RG status
Current SME - takes from a small pool of colleges/unis that offer a specific course for certain roles but no weight given to RG. Uni position for that subject/course in league tables is somewhat taken into account.

I work for the civil service and am involved in recruiting fast streamers. Applications are institution blind - in fact, you can't mention your degree awarding institution on the application form.

My son works for one of the UK's biggest insurers and says that they have a fair amount of graduates from Lancaster and Bath, neither of which are RG Unis training to be actuaries who have Maths degrees. Lancaster rates higher for Maths than most RG Unis!

I work for a large global advertising agency and recruit a lot of graduates. We don’t care which university they went to. A lot of our candidates have more vocational degrees anyway but can still get to director roles within a few years earning £60k+

I always look for graduates with work experience, generally not fussed if it’s in industry or just in a local supermarket.

Yes this is what I suspect. Unless you went to Oxbridge or one of the main University of London ones (Maybe Durham) the rest- who even knows what is RG and what isn't? I doubt employers care.

Not one jot.

I work for a huge law firm.

We want the best person for the job, where they studied makes zero difference.

Thank you - this is all really interesting.

DS's school have really drilled into the sutdents that RG unis should be applied to above all others.

I’m an academic (RG professor). When recruiting academics I don’t look for RG universities. I do look for academic track record and I do look at what they publish (which I read) and where. If there is teaching or leadership involved in the role I also look at that. Yes, going to an RG can help because it’s often a proxy for quality and in professions like consulting it’s often part of the branding but it isn’t a magic bullet.

In 95% of jobs it won’t matter a jot. I’d advise a student to look at the course rather than the uni - sports from Loughborough, engineering from Strathclyde, marine and maritime from Portsmouth - are all world leading but ultimately they need to be doing something they’ll enjoy. Half the time the course doesn’t even matter unless it’s specialist.

Companies are looking for people who can grow, who have initiative, can lead and work as part of a team. When recruiting I’d be looking for sports or other achievements, resourcefulness, memberships of societies, part time jobs, and perhaps a bit of travelling or volunteering.

The other thing to consider is social background. Many very talented kids from more deprived backgrounds stay at home and go to the local uni regardless of its ranking. They also are less likely to have the social connections to help them into high paying careers.

Ultimately, diversity in any organisation is a good thing. It paves the way for new ideas and connections, new markets, opportunities for both the organisation and the employee, and makes for a more vibrant culture.

It doesn't matter to us at all - the degree/qualification is more relevant. We want someone who understands clearly what is expected of them in the role, a personality that fits with the rest of the team and has work experience (taking on someone who has never had a job before is just too high risk).

I'm a teacher in FE. My employer is at the stage where "a pulse" will be the only thing they're interested in!

They couldn't care less about what uni you attended

I'm leaving next month.

I think a lot of people wouldn’t know which unis were in the Russell group. And I think that often (not always) even if they’re not looking for Russell group, they will be influenced by the perceived quality of the university. For example, Bath and St Andrews are not RG, but would probably be considered to be better unis than Nottingham, which is.
So I imagine some places say “oh yes, we don’t care about whether you went to a RG” because it makes them sound more inclusive, but that doesn’t mean the uni won’t be judged and into account.

I would prefer a candidate who had consistently held down a part time job at university to one that had a weeks relevant work experience at an internship but no other prior employment, personally.

Of course they will. It looks better on their stats.

im proudly state school educated. Did a degree at Leeds Met (as it was then). Now spent 20 years working on marketing.

The private school educated people who came (and went) made a big deal of going to a RG university and their private education. They admitted that their schools heavily pushed them towards it and anyone who wanted to do something different (apprenticeship/trade/whatever) where hugely discouraged to do so. I suspect because it impacts heavily on the school stats/reputation rather than encouraging kids to do what THEy want to do.

Interviewing is blind in the large financial services company where I work. Hiring Managers have no sight of the university the candidate went to. Other identifying characteristics such as sex and ethnicity are also removed. Basically the hiring manager reviews the candidate on their skills for the job and nothing else. This makes sure the best person for the job is hired.

I've worked in financial services for 20 years and have been in senior/roles where I am responsible for growing a team for over a decade and its never been a consideration if they went to a RG uni or not. In some roles that I have recruited into we have requested proof of the university degree and level achieved but where the candidate went to isn't a consideration. Like pp said its been a clever marketing campaign.

Let’s remember that being an RG Uni isn’t an achievement or accolade - it’s a club they started themselves to promote their own interests!

@NanFlandersAnd what % of civil service fast stream are Oxbridge? Way out of line I expect.

I've worked at Russell group and non Russell group unis. I'd say the difference is that the Russell group have more cash to throw at career and placement support. The university can draw on stronger networks to create partnerships and arrangements with top firms. They also have alumni networks going out to bat for them. This means that students are offered better internships and more support to get very good placements.

So while the actual degree might not get them the grad job, all the opportunities they've had during their degree to work on these top places and get lots of relevant experiences, facilitated by the Russell group status, will do. Because on a blind cv, an internship at 'big four top consulting firm' is going to look better than an internship at the local sofa shop despite probably developing a similar skill set.

I’d refuse to even consider working for an organisation like this. How very medieval of them. Perhaps they missed the memo about the 21st century and diversity and inclusion. Shameful.

But then many years ago when I was choosing my uni, I turned down offers from Oxbridge and LSE and went somewhere that wasn’t even RG. 😳Because the course appealed to me most and was the best for the subjects I was interested in. I don’t regret it.

These days I work for a big name global bank and (in addition to my ‘day job’) I recruit for our global team (so APAC, EMEA, US) and we don’t give a monkeys about RG universities. We want bright talented individuals from a variety of backgrounds and we actively target those who may be considered ‘disadvantaged’ by more old-fashioned firms.

Not even a consideration. More companies are moving to blind recruitment now so it will become even less important.

@TizerorFizz I suspect it is. But that is to do with their performance at interview - you don't get to go to Oxbridge unless you are very bright! But that doesn't mean that there aren't lots of bright people who don't go to Oxbridge or Russell group unis.