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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

DDs preferred choice not a Russell Group Uni

150 replies

RedRoses1111 · 25/04/2014 15:54

Hello

Dd is my one and only so this is all new to me. She is 17 and about to sit AS levels next month.

She wants to study English and Film and went to a University Fair today. She has returned laden with prospectuses but her favourite so far is the University of East Anglia which is not a Russell Group Uni. Other choices which do an English and Film course are Southampton, Kings, Exeter and Royal Holloway.

I read so much about the choice of Uni is just as important as the course and that employers won't even look at job applications unless they are from someone who went to a Russell Group Uni.

So, those of you who are more experienced or knowledgable about this, should she be discouraged from looking at non RG unis at this stage?

Many thanks for any insight/knowledge/advice you can offer.

OP posts:

Kewcumber · 26/04/2014 10:58

My nephew has a degree in Politics at a non-RUssell group Uni who is currently training at one of the top 3 accountancy firms (incidentally one I also trained at about 2 million years ago)

I was in training dept in said firm - even in the old days we tended to avoid the English grads simply because statistically unless they had a very high class degree or an A at maths O level (in ye olden days) they tended to fail too often.

HercShipwright · 26/04/2014 10:58

Breath - I know what I'm talking about. For reasons. But since I'm not about to out myself by laying my credentials on the table we'll have to leave it there. :)

Original poster

RedRoses1111 · 26/04/2014 10:59

SpringyReframed- thanks for that, as I said she's my one and only so this is all new to me so anything offered by anyone who has been through it all is welcome!

I think she is researching this weekend and making a list of 5-6 unis and then she's going to let me know when the open days are and we will draw up a timetable of visits. I'm looking forward to it but dreading it at the same time. I'm just going to let her pick up a feel for the place/course and see which one she is most passionate about.

I will get her to look at the Bournemouth website this weekend.

In the meantime she's studying hard for her exams next month. She has lots of theatre trips and a couple of concerts lined up to go to and she continues to read and write in her spare time.

I was always a bit sad that I only had one child but I'm now thinking it has it's advantages!

OP posts:

Kewcumber · 26/04/2014 10:59

worst exam performers were those with a relevant (ie business) degree of 2:2 or below (I researched it)

Not that it is at all relevant to this thread...

HercShipwright · 26/04/2014 11:07

Kew - in the past that was partly because some of those people wouldn't be academic high fliers anyway. It's a bit different these days. Many kids take a utilitarian approach to degree subject selection. Which is very sad. People considering the profession need to look not just at who gets accepted as a trainee but who actually goes on to do well in the profession - those can be difficult things to find out, of course, from the outside.

BigBoobiedBertha · 26/04/2014 11:07

I personally think it is worth looking at graduate outcomes. The university I went to isn't RG (not that they existed back then - you just went for the best course in your subject) but the employment rate is higher than for many of the RG universities. Surely, that is what you do a degree for in the long term - to get a job?

And surely the RG thing is only relevant if you are doing high research degrees not taught undergraduate? It is after all, a group made up of those who have excellent research standards not teaching.

TheBogQueen · 26/04/2014 11:45

I remember being told that it didn't matter what you studied for your degree as long as you got one - they would train you for whatever you needed to to do afterwards!

Ha Ha ha

UptheChimney · 26/04/2014 11:49

The Student Room is full of relevant gossip about quality of student experience

TSR is full of inaccuracies! Really.

And truth is, a lot of undergraduates & aspiring undergraduates value odd things, and things which aren't necessarily rational (there's a whole field of political economy/sociology explaining why we don't always make rational "market" decisions). Also, frankly, student often wouldn't recognise good teaching if it hit them in the face. They increasingly want to be entertained and made to feel interested, without realising that needs to come from them.

UptheChimney · 26/04/2014 11:53

the tension between research & teaching is something that most research lecturers groan about at best

There is a tension in the arts & humanities, but only because we're driven to be top at both.

Really, at research-led universities, there is also really excellent research-led teaching in the arts & humanities. It is quite different to the sciences or vocational courses (such as medicine law etc).

iseenodust · 26/04/2014 12:04

Agree with all rating course highly but note UEA takes a lot of students from London/south who go home for the weekends. So I would be also checking your DD would also be able to get home easily if wanted to.

SinglePringle · 26/04/2014 12:19

I won't underplay quite how hard it is nowadays but she can arm herself. She should think about the sort of TV she wants to work in - live? entertainment? docs? factual entertainment? music? etc etc. Then look at the end credits of those kinds of shows and see the name of the production company. Look at their website, get the name of the Head of Production and email them asking for work experience / paid runners work during holidays. Then make friends, make tea (!), ask what she can do to help, become an expert in fixing the photocopier, smile at everyone and chat - but also learn when to shut up! Offer to do stuff if a senior team member is looking for someone to go and get something, offer to go and get lunch.

A good runner is difficult to find because a good runner doesn't stay a runner very long!

TheBogQueen · 26/04/2014 12:22

By he way if you want a really, really good laugh read Dominic Lawson in today's Daily Mail who did some testing investigative journalism by dragging his arse out of Soho House and bothering three people trying to have a quiet drink in a pub in Glasgow:

Here's a flavour

"For a moment I thought I had gone too far — it probably isn’t wise for a Londoner in a Glasgow bar to suggest even in jest that the Scots on their own would be no better off than Red Indians."

I mean fucking hell.

TheBogQueen · 26/04/2014 12:22

Shit wrong thread - ignore me

BeckAndCall · 26/04/2014 15:16

holiday - REF results not out yet. We've still only got RAE 2008 to work with.....

dementedma · 26/04/2014 17:21

red roses she is doing a further one year course in stage management in Edinburgh at the moment.

PurpleAlert · 26/04/2014 17:40

My DD isn't going to a RG uni (even though she has the capabilities) simply because none are any good for her chosen course.

We visited one RG uni on our rounds last year and the facilities were just pitiful. The employment statistics from the RG uni were also far below those of the two most respected courses (Loughborough and Brunel.)

HolidayCriminal · 26/04/2014 17:55

Another thing about redbrick/RG vs. 1960s vs. polys...

each new generation of Uni has offered subjects that didn't really exist before. So Environmental sciences is strong at UEA & sports sciences are very strong at Lboro; these disciplines didn't exist in same way for red bricks to get there, first. Similarly, the ex-polys tend to focus on very business oriented subjects, applied emphasis or evolving interdisciplinary study: Physiotherapy for horses or whatever.

So you really need to look at the course, what the course itself offers. Just as newer schools might offer something the others don't (for instance the relatively young Med School at UEA is big on students having contact with patients, very big focus on consultation skills). Whereas MED school at Oxford is very theory based for yrs before turning students loose on real patients. Which to choose might depend what kind of doctor you wanted to be. Each carving out own niche.

One of our local bright sparks turned down Oxbridge for Vet Science, went to a Scottish Uni instead, because she liked better the actual Scottish course structure (how and what she would learn).

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 21:12

The RG aren't all redbricks, though.

I think it's probably true good research tends to mean good teaching too, but there is loads of good research and good teaching outside big names.

UEA is a big name, though!

HercShipwright · 26/04/2014 21:18

Teaching is a skill. Researching is a skill. Sometimes a person has both - more often, they don't. The best departments have the right mix. But many don't.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 21:20

I don't think I know enought teachers, researchers or departments to know if that's true or not, really. But in my experience, it isn't.

I think both are skills you learn. Increasingly, universities are keen to teach people how to teach, as well as how to research.

Persephoneinthegarden · 26/04/2014 21:51

Most universities (I hope) are keen on 'research-led teaching' now, and teaching quality is going up everywhere, in my experience. OP, I have to say that although I am generally a bit concerned about joint honours degrees (students can lose focus or strongly prefer one of their courses), for your daughter it does sound like a good option, especially in terms of access to work experience etc. I lecture in English at a non-RG university (though did my degrees at RG universities) and I don't think the quality of teaching is any worse than where I studied. UEA would be ideal, for it's creative side etc, also Kings (which is where I went). The opens days should be great at giving a feel for a place and there should be plenty of opportunities to ask questions of the lecturers so go prepared with your questions. Good luck to your daughter (and you!)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 21:56

This might be a really stupid suggestion, and it's just a thought really ... but I just wondered, does she use twitter and can she find academics at her choices on there? Only reason I mention it is because you can sometimes get a sense of a person from that, and lots of academics do use it. It might even show if they look to be in touch with other interesting/useful people in the film/TV context.

Definitely not saying it's an issue if they're simply not there or appear to have 6 tweets to their name about esoteric issue no. 45, but if they happened to be there and seemed like interesting people, it might help her get a bit of a sense of how they'd be?

scottishmummy · 26/04/2014 22:15

She needs to chose where she be happy,afterall shes doing the course
Are employers really doing a milk round to recruit film studies grads?
Id more be making sure she realistic that film &english is funky to study but no clear career path

scottishmummy · 26/04/2014 22:17

Glasgow uni does english,film and tv

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 22:19

Glasgow's very good.

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