AIBU to think going to an RG university means absolutely nothing

[Butchyrestingface]

Never one to shy away from a challenge (even if it's a challenge to someone else).

So I went to a RG uni. I didn't even KNOW I'd been to a RG uni until about 15 years after the fact when I joined MN.

Thereafter I referred to it as having gone to a 'Russell Grant' university (bit confused).

AIBU in thinking RG unis are not the be all and end all?

I didn't go to a RG uni. It didn't affect my degree, career or anything else I can think it may have.

Wonder how many Oxbridge grads will be drawn to this thread ;-)

I don’t know how important it is. I think the world has moved on loads since I was a student.

So many grad jobs are uni-blind now and depend on rounds of online tests. I don’t think my daughter had to even name her uni.

I think quality of teaching is not necessarily related to RG or position in league tables, from what I have seen from my kids and their friends.

The shine is coming off the Ivy League unis in the US as well.

Man, I didn’t go to any university but I’d most definitely would have applied to a Russell Grant university! 😂
Imagine the things you’d have learned - astrology, psychic readings and horoscopes! I’d have bloody LOVED that 😆

Plenty of non RG unis are better than loads of the RG ones. Bath, St A etc.

I think it’s pretty meaningless.

Yes, I didn’t realise I’d attended one until a few years ago either.

Was all uni vs poly when I went (mainly lighthearted, as the “poly” in the city was actually really good). None of the RG malarkey.

It depends what you want to do.

A lot of companies have a list of unis they recruit from, if you want to go into law or finance etc it’s important.

I didn’t go to an RG, I have a good career but I still don’t think they are meaningless.

For your average “grad” job 9 times out of 10 the person that went to UCL or Manchester will get picked over the person that went to London Met.

For things like medical fields or idk, theatre production or animation then yes RG doesn’t matter.

I went to a RG uni and did very well, but I agree that it's absolutely meaningless (in my case, at least).

I don't think it matters outside of the super highly regarded ones, such as Oxbridge and Imperial.

I suspect if you want to do something like investment banking, it also matters.

I studied Genetics at York. Still couldn't get a graduate job. Then I retrained as a Mental Health nurse through Derby. For vocational degrees, it doesn't matter at all imo.

Clearly there are excellent universities that aren't RG. But that doesn't mean that it makes no difference which university you go to either - there are definitely differences between universities in quality and standards.

Ds didn’t go to a RG university, but chose the university that had the best business school near us. Hasn’t hindered his career, got a graduate job straight after uni and they are paying for his on the job qualifications to become chartered in his chosen career.

I have a theory - not backed up by anything - that if you have the capability to get into a good university then it doesn’t actually matter whether you go to one or not. It’s that capability that employers are picking up on.

Of course, most people who can get into a good university do, but I still think there’s some kind of confounding effect going on with university reputation and individual ability.

Russell Group is a relatively meaningless term, because the universities in the "in" crowd get to define the critera.

They loosely define themselves according to how much of their income comes from research grants rather than teaching. However this isn't a great measure because universities have different balances of which subjects they are world-leading in, and some subjects attract bigger grants than others so the fact of whether or not the university has a strong medical school can affect whether a world-class humanities department is considered "Russell Group" which is silly.

Much better to look at the rankings for a particular subject. If your university is ranked in the top 10 for your subject, then it doesn't matter whether or not it is RG.

I went to TWO Russell group universities, and I think a similar number of people have been impressed by that.

YANBU, it's meaningless. There are no criteria the universities have to fulfill in order to belong to the Russell Group. They are just a bunch of institutions who got together and decided to form a group.

I did go to a RG uni, it was pretty important for my degree/career, most of the big companies recruit specifically from those uni’s which is exactly what I did.

For lots of courses it doesn’t matter though, I have 2 friends, both teachers at the same school, one went to RG one didn’t. DH has 2 friends both engineers, both currently working in the same job at the same place, one RG & one not.

After the 1980s third term Tory reforms devalued the word university (and indeed alongside it, vocational training), the RG seems to have replaced it for universities in high regard. No surprise that something came along to place some institutions above all others.

I put the 1980s reforms as the start of the decline in education in this country.

Russell Grant' university 😂

There's an old joke in US higher ed circles that you could take the students at Harvard Business School and lock them in a warehouse for two years instead of having them take classes and they'd still have great careers simply because the program is so selective.

Depends on what you’re studying. You can study medicine at a poly and it makes no difference. Same with the allied health professions.
I imagine if you want to be some corporate high flyer in London in finance or law it matters though.

It’s a marketing ploy that has lost its edge as non RG universities and former polytechnics have proven their credentials. Nowadays kids look at the degree courses in a lot more granular detail. They are spending a lot of money and there are many more important considerations.

But nobody care or knows and unis move up and down ratings lists. My husband recruits in his field and says it literally isn’t a factor in any way.

Never heard of it, and turns out I've attended two! Don't think it makes any difference at all.

Most institutions that I've worked at recruit "institution blind" now in order to eliminate class bias.

I think Russel Group means very little now, unless you are talking about an elitist/classist field, where Russell Group alone won't be enough.

That said, they're full of high achievers, and, all being well, high achievers should continue to achieve highly. Nothing to do with the institution, all to do with capability

I think it depends on what graduate profession you are going into. A lot give graduates tests and if you are extremely bright, you stand a better chance. I bet the traditional companies still favour the Russell Groups.