Russell Group Universities?

Jagraf

Can someone explain the benefits of attending one of these?

Gloomendoom

It keeps me in a job.

InsideInsurance

Jagraf wrote: »

Can scene explain the benefits of attending one of these?

Bit of an odd question

All degrees, no matter the subject nor place of study have the same names for their grades but unlike A-Levels or GCSEs its not the same syllabus nor exams sat across different universities.

Therefore if you got a 2.1 in mathematics from Abertay University it will not be considered equal to someone who got a 2.1 in mathematics from Oxford University despite the fact you have both now got an undergraduate degree in mathematics with a 2.1 grade.

Obviously there is no formal comparison chart available and so there is no way of saying that if you got a 1st from Abertay then this is equivalent to a 2.1, 2.2 or 3rd at Oxford.

There is clearly a significant amount of snobbery involved in this and not everyone is going to think like this. There is probably slightly more consistent snobbery about what subject you studied though, get a 2.1 in Maths and you'll probably find less questions being asked than if you got a 1st in Puppetry


The second benefit can be that top tier universities for their subjects tend to attract top tier professors who are the ones that also have top connections within industry and can help open doors once you've graduated. Old boys networks and the like

There are exceptions to all of the above though. Abertay, given I've picked on it so much, is very highly respected in its computer based courses and its Computer Gaming (creating not playing) and Ethical Hacking are both highly respected within their respective industries. Just dont go there for an English degree


As someone who never graduated I can say that all of this can be overcome, unless you want to be a Dr etc, but it does make life easier if you can put a high grade in a traditional subject from a russell group uni on your CV when you are first starting out

gettingtheresometime

Basically its they are the top universities in the country and therefore by having a degree from one may have a little more kudos than having a degree from a different university.

Basically our version of the ivy league unis in the US

But surely the most important point of choosing a university is that a) it offers the course you want/need to do and b) you're happy where that university is situated

NewShadow

Does this help? http://!!!!!!!/1wD47Pz

Obviously, on top of that, the more prestigious or well known the institution, the better it looks on a cv, and the assumption is, the better the quality of education/graduate.

Not always the case, but some universities definitely seem more academically rigorous than others.

Now, if you were looking for personal anecdotes and experiences, you might want to reconsider your question and context provided.

Frith

I went to one and very few people know what a Russell Group university is, let alone which ones are on the list.


For the MA I needed to do my job, no RG university offered the course so no employer would be looking for one.

wiogs

Frith wrote: »

I went to one and very few people know what a Russell Group university is, let alone which ones are on the list.


For the MA I needed to do my job, no RG university offered the course so no employer would be looking for one.

When researching Uni's I found the opposite.

Gloomendoom

NewShadow wrote: »

Does this help? http://!!!!!!!/1wD47Pz

No, not at all!

jackyann

Depends what you want to do.
Academics love the "Russell Group" which spend a lot of money on research, conferences and whatnot.
For vocational subjects, other universities may do much better - however which ones for what subject may be a bit opaque. Try asking a nurse, psychologist, engineer etc. which universities they like to have colleagues from.

Just googled "Russell Group" and found one of our kids had gone to one! He, I would say, had the second best university experience in our family. The best was Loughborough - a joyous law unto itself!
2 of our family did vocational courses at "new" universities. Their general experience wasn't brilliant - poor admin & organisation, no campus etc. - but both had brilliant tutors, and got wonderful jobs.

Buzzybee90

jackyann wrote: »

Depends what you want to do.
Academics love the "Russell Group" which spend a lot of money on research, conferences and whatnot.
For vocational subjects, other universities may do much better - however which ones for what subject may be a bit opaque. Try asking a nurse, psychologist, engineer etc. which universities they like to have colleagues from.

Just googled "Russell Group" and found one of our kids had gone to one! He, I would say, had the second best university experience in our family. The best was Loughborough - a joyous law unto itself!
2 of our family did vocational courses at "new" universities. Their general experience wasn't brilliant - poor admin & organisation, no campus etc. - but both had brilliant tutors, and got wonderful jobs.

No campus? Surely if you didn't wish to attend a non-campus university... then you wouldn't?

Mrs_Soup

Depends what subject you want to do. eg Reading which is not Russell Group has always been well known for its Agriculture courses.
I would say one possible disadvantage of Russell Group is that being very research focused you may well not actually get the "top professors" doing much, if any, teaching because they are too busy doing research. You wouldn't particularly want somewhere that does no research but worth looking at the balance if you want to get quality teaching and not just the having been to a Russell group university.