Law graduates face a bleak future at the bar

I don't actually understand this weird Russell Group thing TSR has going on. I didn't know my alma mater was even in the Russell Group until I was in 2nd year. It made literally no difference to how I perceived it and it wasn't something I even checked when applying. Furthermore, I think it's highly unlikely to be in the minds of recruiters. A far more reliable indicator might well be entrance standards; as Roh points out above.

From what I've picked it up at events etc. I think a few training partners don't know who's in the RG but, due in part to excellent marketing in the national press by what is essentially a lobby group, think someone has slapped a handy tag on the group of unis they've always recruited from anyway.

A couple have said when I asked where else they attend 'other Russell Group unis like here mainly' and my uni is not in the RG. I suspect they're overestimating it's size somewhat.

However, if it continues to expand to include the likes of Bath (not that relevant for law admittedly), SOAS, Leicester, St Andrews etc. it could become a sort of kitemark for top unis and create a divide not dissimilar to the old universities and polytechnics.

I suppose that's plausible but I'm not sure how reliable it would be for law because of course Russell Group just means research intensive. I'm almost surprised that the recruitment partners wouldn't be aware whether the Uni was in the Russell Group or not. I had simply meant that it wouldn't really be a factor they'd take into account in coming to their decision although that makes it seems plausible to me that they just don't know who is and isn't in the club.

I think it's hard to be certain this is the filter, when it would seem to be A Level grades. It'd be interesting to see if someone with BBB who got into an RG on an access scheme would be favoured over someone with A*A*A who goes to a post 1992 because they want to live at home, simply due to their uni.

I suspect it's more that there is a massive concentration of AAA students in certain unis and those students being most employable due to that, as the uni itself. As it is because students with those grades keep going to certain unis we will probably never find out for certain if it is something the unis themselves instil in those students or simply that they took the cream of the crop at A Level and firms assume the top end is still made up of those same students post degree.

Clever and glib is of course journalism

I do think people should have it made clearer to them the realities of entering the profession when they are looking into doing Law at Uni. The people best placed people to make students aware of this are the universities themselves at Open Days, but the unis doing this would of course be like turkeys voting for Xmas and they won't. Thus it is left up to schools' careers services, which can leave a lot to be desired (notably brain cells) or the students own initiative.

My father's a lawyer and says much the same, that the Universities over-promise and under-educate.

To be honest i'm referencing pupillage committees more, but all the same you can't deny that a top 10 uni looks better than a bottom 50. I see your point about borderline a-levels but generally speaking decent a-levels = top 20 uni, generally they go hand in hand. I'm sorry if i come across as rude as that's not my intention, but, i think it's important to be realistic in a general sense. Obviously individual circumstances differ but contextually you can't logically deny that Russell group > ex poly when it comes to recruitment.

Oh and when i reference the 'Russell Group' i mean 'decent' universities in general, personally i went to SOAS so i don't have a hard-on for said group.

Reminds me of this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383580/Law-graduates-managers-clamour-6-hour-butcher-job.html

Ah OK, sorry. Yeah, that's it, chicken and egg I spose, because top students won't stop going to top unis we'll never find out which it is that matters more. And yeah, if nothing else just for networking.

You appear to be trying to break into a really tough profession and you didn't go to Oxbridge or, at worst, LSE?! Be prepared to be told how you've no hope by a 17 year old who clearly knows way more about the Bar than you and who's never seen your CV (but does have a raging semi for the RG).