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. .

I have worked for big 4 and tier 1 accounting firms and the university attended (along with the course taken) is irrelevant, only the grade received is a factor (needed at least a 2:1 in any field at any university for big 4 graduate entry at that time). There’s a tiny chance it may count against you as diversity is a big thing so if all of the intake happened to be RG they might think again, but it’s v unlikely, it’s just recruit at the right level until they have sufficient numbers.

For info I went to a former poly, in an unrelated subject, now earn 6 figures. While at partner level middle class white men are still over represented at age 50+, this is not the case in the more junior age groups so will not have a positive impact on chances of success in future…

@familyissues12345 What non RG or RG plus university is top for academic degrees? Most tables in CUG, (most reliable) put them firmly at the top. Obviously not for arts colleges and Musical theatre but for academic subjects, which unis are punching above their weight and are top? Top 10 yes - you will see Surrey and others for some subjects. Mostly though it’s RG snd RG plus.

@TizerorFizz My 4dc have all gone to private/public school on full bursaries at secondary level. They have been entitled to fsm - I work a zero hours contract in a warehouse (I've had no work this week and ds is graduating tomorrow so can't work then). We are on uc. Two eldest went to Cambridge and ds had an interview but it was 2021 entry and numbers were an issue and he didn't get an offer. He went to a RG university and is graduating with a 1st class MEng. He got a prize and most importantly for him £250 for coming top in the end of first year exams. Hopefully he will get a job soon, he's only just started looking as he's very busy. Had an interview yesterday.
I was wondering though if its university blind they can still see your A level results so presumably if they see someone like ds with 4 A*s they would presume he didn't go to the local ex poly.

We just hired an analyst new gradaute. I would have loved for someone with Russell Group to apply but we barely got any applicants from that pool. We advertised on linkedin. I am not sure where the people from Russell Groups look for jobs unless they have all found by now? This was for a September 2025 start date.

Ds is also looking at analyst positions. I don't think he's looked at jobs on LinkedIn. He has a first class MEng in aeronautical and astronomical engineer- structures and materials from a RG university. I'll have to tell him to look there. He's been very busy helping with the outreach programme, at camp with the OUTC and competing in his favourite sport.

I just did a little check on our team (32 people, all university degrees, central London office of big multinational, all on 6 figure salaries).
We have 2 Russell group graduates (Southampton and King’s college),
(for a team building recently we all put out cvs in pictures, and everyone included where they went to uni)
Our interns are also not Russel Group

We went through exactly this dilemma.

On the basis that there’s a debate and it MIGHT make a difference, ours all went to RG. But they did mainstream subjects where courses similar everywhere. They’re all doing very well. One appeared to get a shoe-in for a v good job on the basis of his uni but we can’t be certain.

Ours were all v happy with their choices though. I think if my dc desperately wanted a non RG uni I wouldn’t have stood in their way.

Considering 80+ % of business in the UK are SMEs I’m not sure they would have any preference.

In saying that I’m about to do an MBA and its important to me to choose a top ranking one. So I assumed the RG was more about the quality of teaching and not just the name on a CV.

I would expect those looking for graduate positions to start the application process at the start of their final year.

Not in the slightest. Honestly I've only ever come across this concept on MN, that said I've also never worked in the private sector

Education not required, just turn up is enough. Competence is a questionable requirement judging by one or two colleagues Minimum wage job.

I miswrote my post, I didn’t mean non RG uni’s are at the top, but some RG fall below non in many league tables, so I don’t think it’s as clear cut as RG always being more superior

I work in the creative industry and we deffo don’t care where you got your degree, we want the right person.

It’s such a narrow view anyway. As pps say, some non RG unis are more respected (and harder to get into, so candidates may be higher quality) for plenty of subjects than RG unis like Liverpool, Newcastle or Cardiff, for example. I’m thinking of Bath, St Andrews, Loughborough.

If a workplace recruits only from (say) Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and Imperial then that would make a bit more sense. Still narrow tho.

He was originally going to do a fully funded PhD as the university were very keen but he has decided he'd rather get a job. Apparently he can still change his mind.

Some people on this thread seem to be forgetting that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Yes, even when recruiting blind a higher percentage of employees are from RG universities for jobs running graduate schemes like the civil service. This is to be expected, RG universities generally ask for higher grades, so their graduates on average have higher academic attainment before they even start university. What it doesn't necessarily mean is that someone who attained the same grades, but went to a non RG university wouldn't also be equally successful in their job application.

OP I would recommend that instead of getting hung up on RG or not that your son looks at the individual subject rankings for the areas he is interested in studying and then considers which courses he's most interested in and which universities he likes best.

It obviously wasn't the only reason but dc did a social sciences degree and it was a general grad managemenr training programme at head office. They identified dc as very bright and they knew what uni she'd been to. Of the others, all had been RG too, so no coincidence.
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Big 4 accounting - we don’t ask for A levels or the school or Uni they went to. We use to ask for predicted degree grade but have dropped that now. We use our assessment centre scores to predict their success as an employee. Talent and potential are determined by more than academic grades. Seems to be working.

@Parker231 that's interesting. Ds did some cs tests for a post recently and did the online tests. He got more than 91% of test takers in verbal and 75% in numerical. He's definitely more a number person!

We don’t give candidates their scores - they either pass to the next round or are eliminated. We try and notify candidates quickly as we appreciate that they are waiting to see if they proceed or not

Interesting, never heard of that being a selection criteria before but good news for my 18 year old who is about to go and undertake a summer break language course in Europe. Are you associated with a work area where this is relevant or vaguely relevant or is does it just indicate, "mental agility"?

The area I work in, data/info security does not have the RG university status as a selection criteria but I don't work for a global company. My DH is a Director at Architect's practice they are not recruiting on that basis. Saying that, my DS is off to a RG uni (touch wood) as it was driven by state sixth form college.

Degree subject, quality of specific degree and good work ethic/good attitude are much more important that being from a RG uni.

In theory most companies say it doesn't matter, but it often does in reality. DD is at a RG university and has just finished her placement year with one of the Big Four. When she graduates next year they have invited her to join their Graduate Program.

On paper, the company doesn't restrict applications, but in reality everyone DD has come across in her placement year are from very respected universities, RG ones but also Bath, Loughborough etc. One of her direct managers studied at The Sorbonne and she's met several who were at Ivy League universities in the US.

A poster uptrend mentioned that employers are more interested in applicants having 'a sprinkle of fairy dust'. But that's a bit disingenuous because there's plenty of RG graduates who will certainly have more than their fair share of 'fairy dust'.

That's interesting. If you see my post up thread, DD is with one of the Big Four and so far has only really met colleagues from RG universities? One of the departments will only accept graduates with Math degrees, I think?

But I do know that the testing process she went through at the training centre was extremely rigorous, to say the least. And I think any under graduates can apply to do that?

I think you might have left it too late? DD is at a RG university and started the application process to do her placement year with one of the Big Four 12 months before the placement actually started! Her friends on the same course all did similar. They all started their graduate applications at the start of their final year and most had secured graduate positions long before Easter this year.

It's just so incredibly competitive, and the brightest and most ambitious are straight out of the starting blocks, and seem to get snapped up quickly.

@SweetpeasaremadeforbeesWhat employers care if Lancaster is highly rated for linguistics though? Probably none. In the CUG only 25 universities offer it. Nothing wrong with Lancaster but who will care if employers don’t look at where she studied?

@paygride No school will turn its nose up at Lancaster or Bath, Loughborough or St Andrews. Did you actually hear the staff say this to your DS?