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How Important Is A University's Reputation?

MJlover

Margeret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Nehru and Jinnah, plus a load of other famous politicians, including Clement Attlee went to City. Don't diss the City!

No they didn't. They went to the Inns of Court School of Law which has, very recently, been subsumed into City.

Margaret Thatcher went to Somerville, Blair to Balliol, Nehru to Trinity Cambridge and Attlee to Univ. Jinnah only attended the Inns of Court School of Law

They are all average

nulli tertius

No they didn't. They went to the Inns of Court School of Law which has, very recently, been subsumed into City.

Margaret Thatcher went to Somerville, Blair to Balliol, Nehru to Trinity Cambridge and Attlee to Univ. Jinnah only attended the Inns of Court School of Law

I thought they went to do their BVC there? like Cheree Blair?

Reply 43

User414413

18

MJlover

Margeret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Nehru and Jinnah, plus a load of other famous politicians, including Clement Attlee went to City. Don't diss the City!

.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/famous_oxonians/prime_ministers.html - Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Margeret Thatcher

Nehru - Cambridge

Reply 44

nulli tertius

21

MJlover

I thought they went to do their BVC there? like Cheree Blair?

There was no BVC in those days.

If you wanted to be called to the bar you had to do the bar exam. It was a legendarily easy exam, far easier than the solicitors' exam known as Part IIs.

Strangely however, you could in theory get honours in the exam but honours were virtually never awarded. Quite commonly no first or second honours would be awarded and there would be a couple of third class honours out of hundred or more students including people with Oxbridge firsts.

The only place you could read for the bar exam was the Inns of Court School of law so virtually everyone called to the bar during the 20th century attended it.

Reply 45

MJlover

21

Annoying-Mouse

.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/famous_oxonians/prime_ministers.html - Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Margeret Thatcher

Nehru - Cambridge

I was talking about post-grad Law training.

Reply 46

xxxchrisxxx

11

If you want to work in an airport, then by all means, go do the airport management degree. I'd choose City though out of the three.

Reply 47

greenforce

15

ranbow99

Not really, getting jobs is very hard at the moment, I know 3 people who graduated this time last year who still haven't found a decent job, and 2 of them went to very good universities.

for instance which uni's??

Reply 48

River85

17

heyimbored

Stop trying to be clever, that's not the main point of the post, at the start of the thread people were making out that to be successful in law you need a degree in law from Oxbridge, which is just wrong

I wasn't trying to be clever. I just wanted to clarify something.

I was quite kind in that post as, while I appreciate the sentiment (and the general point that an Oxbridge degree is not essential - not that any actually said it was), what you're saying is also completely wrong.

University name is not completely irrelevant and it's certainly not the case that a Manchester Met first is equal (or better than) an Oxford first - something you said.

Graduate employment, in even the one sector (law), is complex. It's difficult to give an accurate overview of the area in one post. From a small high street firm, large regional firms, to city firms. There can be a different in how recruitment operates.

But if you're going to go to Clifford Chance for example, and think a first from Manchester Met will put you on an even footing with people with first from Oxbridge/Durham/UCL/Warwick or even most redbricks then you're mistaken. But this isn't to say it's impossible to get into a top firm with a first from Manchester Met.

So although it's not true to say "university reputation also means a lot"it's also not true, certainly not for Magic Circle firms, to say "university reputation doesn't matter at all".

nulli tertius

The SRA and the Bar Council still call it the CPE but I think all universities call it the GDL. Universities don't want peculiar one-off qualifications that they can't neatly pigeonhole.

I thought a few still used CPE, or at least, both. London Met do and drawing more attention to th

I shall go back to using GDL. I just got fed up of confusing one or two people as everyone else used CPE.

Reply 49

Johan C

13

Reputation is (almost) everything.

Reply 50

Johan C

13

im so academic

In terms of university reputation, per se, then yes. :yep:

All factors considered, no.

No LSE in your list ? You certainly live up to your reputation.

Reply 51

username246000

12

River85

But if you're going to go to Clifford Chance for example, and think a first from Manchester Met will put you on an even footing with people with first from Oxbridge/Durham/UCL/Warwick or even most redbricks then you're mistaken. But this isn't to say it's impossible to get into a top firm with a first from Manchester Met.

In terms of the employer looking at which degree from where is more academically vigorous; I think that's right. However, employers won't take that much into consideration when selecting candidates.
When selecting out candidates for the job I'd say they would put you on equal footing with a person who has a first from a top uni. The reason I say this is because a first in Law from Man Met will show the person has great academic competence and knows their subject well anyway, so I think employers would then select the right candidate by other means i.e aptitude tests, interviews, etc. It could end up with the Man Met grad getting the job or even still the candidate from a top of the table uni.

Reply 52

Jack.O

For postgraduate studies, the difference is negligible, and in terms of employability, I recall some research stating that only 7% of employers bother with university discrimination as part of their screening procedures. The stereotypical observations are that students at lower ranked universities are academically incapable, and that lecturers at higher ranked universities tend to be poorer at teaching than those at lower ranked institutions. Another stereotype tends to be that 'lower ranked' universities have poor graduate employment, when in fact the industry links that these universities usually promote quite high levels of employment (see this Journalism course at my middling university, sitting on a 100% graduate employment rate).

Obviously you will find examples of students, lecturers and faculties at varying levels of quality across all universities, regardless of their respective newspaper reviews. A 'high ranking' university may be holding up a weak department, whilst a 'low ranking' university's department in the same area may be vastly better. At the end of the day, the deciding factor will be a student's final degree classification along with their relevant experience - as it should always be.

im so academic - I'm not sure if you're simply out to try and get a response from the posters on here, but in the event that it is something of a front, feel free to PM me if you would like to discuss your views on 'lower ranked' universities in a more intellectual fashion.

Reply 53

roginho

10

Jack.O

For postgraduate studies, the difference is negligible

No. In certain areas (particularly in economics) it does matter where you did your undergraduate work because the coursework in the top universities is more advanced.

Reply 54

Kaykiie

15

roginho

No. In certain areas (particularly in economics) it does matter where you did your undergraduate work because the coursework in the top universities is more advanced.

Not necessarily. Chester is 81st in the 'league tables' and we had a review last year for English. We have one of the most rigorous testing structures and quite 'advanced coursework' as you put it.

EDIT: Just read your post properly :p:

"In certain areas".

Reply 55

Zweihander

3

Prestige is everything.

Reply 56

Jack.O

roginho

No. In certain areas (particularly in economics) it does matter where you did your undergraduate work because the coursework in the top universities is more advanced.

You're right that in certain cases, specialised postgraduate courses may require that your undergraduate degree is in a particular subject. I can't find any mention of reputability in terms of how it affects admissions though - could you send me a link? Here's what Oxford's postgraduate Economics admissions team seems to have to say about it,

University of Oxford: Economics

Taught Programmes
MPhil in Economics
MSc Economics for Development (Joint with International Development)
MSc in Financial Economics (Joint with Saïd Business School)

Entry Requirements
Undergraduate degree with a first- or upper second-class honours or equivalent. Applicants who do not hold, or will not shortly hold, a UK undergraduate degree must submit the results of a recent GRE General Test
Source

Am I wrong in reading this as being an entry requirement of a 2:1 or above, in any degree, not from any university in particular?

Reply 57

heyimbored

17

Zweihander

Prestige is everything.

For people who need to make up for shortcomings elsewhere :wink:

Reply 58

phen

14

Flajamafloffl

Am I seriously the only one bemused by the fact that there is an "Airport Management degree"?

Nope. I'm glad that educational institutes in the Netherlands that offer degrees along those lines don't call themselves universities, because that title usually implies they offer degrees that actually help you further.