Are low league table universities places worth it?

[Universitydilema]

Dd is 18 years old and wants to go to Uni this September. She wants to live at home for various reasons and so would commute. We live in Gloucestershire so nearest is university of Gloucestershire or University West of England. She has offers from both to study business but I know that neither is high up on the league table. Obviously we don’t know how well she has done so far but she is not a straight A student. I keep seeing people say it’s not worth going unless the university is well regarded. Would an employer disregard a degree if it’s a university from either of these? She really liked both universities when we visited them.

Local lower tier universities sometimes have good links with local industry. I would ask about those and see if your DD can exploit them eg with summer placements. Their local links might not be with ‘big ticket’ national firms but can be all the more useful for that. Regional employees can also look favourably on people who want to stay local.

The qualification with the biggest weight is the highest one you hold. My BA is from an ex poly. Good uni but not well regarded in general. But my MA is from a highly ranked uni. No one has ever even mentioned my undergrad degree. Just the higher one. So if she's going to study past 1st degree level, she should be fine as long as she gets a 1st or an upper 2nd.

It depends. Some employers recruit university blind now.
I’m in local government and people often have degree qualifications from the local post 92 uni as they have lived at home and then got a job locally.
I’d look at employment links and careers support offered.

Some employers use uni blind recruitment so it might not matter where she goes from that perspective. .She should go where she chooses and feels she can do a course that she is interested in and would be happy.

Lower league table unis often put more effort into teaching because the lecturers are less likely to be juggling teaching and research. RG unis are sometimes resting on their laurels teaching wise; they don’t have to try too hard because they can attract the academically ‘best’ students anyway. So it depends on what would suit the particular student. Some lower league unis are also highly regarded for particular subjects.

i would be more concerned about her limiting herself to unis near home . If she has a gap year she might become more confident and change her mind about that. All things considered it might well be best for her to be nearby but a possibly long daily commute and living at home will be a certain kind of experience and different from the traditional uni experience in this country. Pros and cons, social and financial, so maybe think about that a bit with her. Some young people I know who went to local uni lived with friends in their second year so had a more traditional experience then.

My DS just graduated from UWE and has a grad job from a major UK grad employer. No one ever asked where his degree was from!
A lot of his RG grad friends have no job. Or not grad jobs.
Its what you do during your degree that counts. Not where the degree is from.
My DS had lots of work experience and did an internship and lots of volunteering during his degree.

Just to say she can’t pick between two unis tomorrow. If she makes grades for her firm choice her insurance choice disappears. If she now thinks she may prefer insurance check clearing to see if available.

Some poor students at Cambridge ended up taught by the complete fraud that is Jason Arday….

In terms of teaching - historically polys were teaching organisations and pre-1992 unis were research ones. So older unis were perhaps more cutting edge, in terms of knowledge, but teaching was almost an afterthought. Things have changed a bit since then but even the whole RG thing is about research not teaching. (RG unis are a group of unis that decided to work together to increase access to research grants).

The Russell Group is a membership organisation and universities are invited to join (and pay). It isn't an independent marker of anything. They describe themselves as 'research intensive ' so that's where their focus will be...not necessarily on teaching undergraduate students.

UWE has excellent employer links and a placement year could really set your daughter up well for grad jobs.

Be careful with placement years though. Loads of unis offer them but they aren’t ‘placements’ in that you are not placed anywhere - you have to basically find a job for a year with thousands of other students also looking and applying for hundreds of jobs. Definitely ask what proportion of their students are successful at finding a placement and what those who are not do.

Make sure she works at weekend and holidays to boostt her CV as much as possible. I am in lreland but a friend who hires as part of her job prefers those from the local university who have lots of work experience of any kind as she feels they have't been totally backed by the bank of mum & Dad so are more ready for hard work.. My ds worked at a large company in a menial job every break while at a not very thought of university. He was'n't very academic but a good worker. They hired him for a good position straight after graduation and now he has a very good job there which he loves and no mention ever of his university. Encourage her to build from all sides.

Uni of Gloucestershire is best in the South West for graduate employment and also offers a Careers Promise. I have not seen anywhere else offering that.

Absolutely! I see so many parents on here saying how their DCs couldn't possibly work while at uni and then bemoaning the fact that a very good degree from a very good university is no longer all you need to get a job after graduating.

I recruit a lot and I want people who have rock solid examples of conflict management, teamwork and juggling priorities from a working environment. I will absolutely take the student with waitressing experience over the student who has only ever juggled uni work and uni sports.

My daughter did have to find her placement but her university (NTU) actively engage with employers to bring the opportunities in.

Yes, it’s absolutely fine. Most employers don’t care. The degree is just the minimum requirement for a grad job. Employers want to know what you’ve done while you were at university - so the opportunities they provide such as sports clubs, volunteering, work experience, etc. are important.

Stats are something like 37% commute now more in certain areas. And rising.
If parents can’t help with funding then lots only have choice to live at home.
It shouldn’t be held against them and may actually help with building skills as it’s easier to have a job as not living part at uni part at home.

Agree. My DS fell in love with a course at Birmingham Conservatoire and ended up only applying for that one course (bit risky, only has 10 places a year!!!). We live within a 45 minute commute so he's lived out for two years and has now moved back home for Y3 and Y4 because that means he can run a car which is helping him get work as a musician. Local can be good too!

That's a rather misleading stat though.
Uni of Glos has a high proportion of mature students (about 30%) who were presumably already employed before starting uni.

Out of the two I'd definitely recommend UWE.

That's the Graduate Outcomes data so hardly misleading. Does UWE offer a Career's Promise?

@clarrylove It is if the grads had jobs prior and during their degree. Uwe is better for 18 year olds. No uni can promise dc a career! They can offer guidance but not get grads into jobs. I remember the law course at Gloucester was advertised by a young person in a gown and a wig making use of their “court”. The number of barristers educated there would be vanishingly small. It was utterly misleading.

UWE was a poly by the way.

I think you need to do some research and it will depend on the course. I would start with the presumption that they are not worth doing, with some being an exception and worthwhile.

I wish there were more opportunities for those leaving school with A levels.

For a business degree I'd look at what links the university has with local employers. I live near a lower ranked university and it has a successful careers department who have forged great links with local employers. It works for the employers because they can't get graduates to move here from other places for jobs. They employers have I put as they know what skills they are looking for and they offer work experience and internships and are very present for careers events.

Polytechnics were great for links with local industry. In terms of employability they were often better than older universities. In any case, that was over thirty years ago.

@Todolisttoolong Gloucester was not a poly. Uwe was. Many unis now have industry links but that only goes so far. Dc will be competing for jobs and Bristol, for example, has two universities with thousands looking for jobs. My surprise is that any uni can make “promises” about a job because we know around 800,000 young grads currently don’t have a job.

Do careful research about the specific course. Promises of placements are meaningless. Often all that means is you find a job for a year and it depends on the University how much help you'll get with this.No University can guarantee an employer will take you on for a year in a role that will give useful experience. A friend's son went to UWE for Surveying and loved it. He has done well since graduating but it was the sort of course that had to meet certain criteria set by an external body ,RICS.

It’s interesting that the Complete university guide says employment at Gloucester is 74%. They say 95%. They cannot both be right. I suspect Gloucester count a wide spectrum of jobs. They also quote 4000 internships, job placements and other placements but I would suggest a lot of these are mandatory. The number which are optional might be quite low. Lots of health courses have mandatory placements for example.