[ace-card]

With all the "snobbery" (with want of a better word), regarding university institutions, I have come to wonder if it really matters that I'm studying for a degree in mechanical engineering at an ex-poly. Does the fact that it's accredited by the IMechE not mean that in fact, I will be just as ready for industry as someone with the same degree from a top 20 uni? Are there any employers out there with views on this?

Thanks

[yothi5]

Employers generally have target unis - Imperial/UCL/Oxbridge/top Russell Groups - unis where they would like to recruit from. They prefer students from such unis as those unis have a higher standard of entry, and therefore, a higher calibre of candidates. Doesn't mean you will be jobless though.

[non]

(Original post by ace-card)
With all the "snobbery" (with want of a better word), regarding university institutions, I have come to wonder if it really matters that I'm studying for a degree in mechanical engineering at an ex-poly. Does the fact that it's accredited by the IMechE not mean that in fact, I will be just as ready for industry as someone with the same degree from a top 20 uni? Are there any employers out there with views on this?

Thanks

institution doesn't really matter for engineering but i guess some engineering firms are snobbish but most aren't i think. but institution always matters but not for much but some firms have UCAS points requirements which you may not have.

[alexkol]

(Original post by ace-card)
With all the "snobbery" (with want of a better word), regarding university institutions, I have come to wonder if it really matters that I'm studying for a degree in mechanical engineering at an ex-poly. Does the fact that it's accredited by the IMechE not mean that in fact, I will be just as ready for industry as someone with the same degree from a top 20 uni? Are there any employers out there with views on this?

Thanks

Not really, because there are differences in the structure in the modules and some easier and slower passed one, that in the top 10-20 Unis.
So, you will probably get lower paid than sbd from ie. Sheffield, Manchester.
Is your degree fully accredited?
http://www.imeche.org/Libraries/TAPD...List.sflb.ashx
Is it list A, B, C ?

[ace-card]

Yes, the degree is fully accredited in category A. If institution may be a disadvantage, would it be worth leaving my current uni and joining a better uni? I have enquired about this, and it is a possibility, however it would mean dropping back down to their second year (I have just completed my second year and worked SO hard to ensure high grades).

[alexkol]

(Original post by ace-card)
Yes, the degree is fully accredited in category A. If institution may be a disadvantage, would it be worth leaving my current uni and joining a better uni? I have enquired about this, and it is a possibility, however it would mean dropping back down to their second year (I have just completed my second year and worked SO hard to ensure high grades).

As soon as u get a first, it is allright.
A 2.1 is competitive from better Unis, but with a 1st, you can well-compete a 2.1 from lets say some top20 Unis.
I am transferring next year, to a better Uni, to continue my studies, currently finished my 1st year, so if u have any queries about transferring, I would be more that happy to answer u

[ace-card]

So essentially, if I graduate with a first (for which I am on track for) from a lower ranked uni, I will still be a competitive candidate? If I were to carry on to an MSc at a top 10 uni, would this strengthen my case? Or would my undergraduate institution "overshadow me", so to speak!

[alexkol]

(Original post by ace-card)
So essentially, if I graduate with a first (for which I am on track for) from a lower ranked uni, I will still be a competitive candidate? If I were to carry on to an MSc at a top 10 uni, would this strengthen my case? Or would my undergraduate institution "overshadow me", so to speak!

Go for a first, do a good Msc and u are ok, no worries
A friend of mine did his first degree in Central Lancashire+then MSc in Imperial and he started his career with a 31k salary

[non]

(Original post by alexkol)
Go for a first, do a good Msc and u are ok, no worries
A friend of mine did his first degree in Central Lancashire+then MSc in Imperial and he started his career with a 31k salary

What job is he doing? If you don't mind saying.

[Smack]

This is a loaded question because it assumes that employers everywhere have the same opinion on what are the most prestigious universities - which is also, remarkably, the exact same opinion as the 17 year olds on here. That's not true at all. From what I've seen the people in HR who sift through applications often didn't go to university themselves and have never heard of much, if any, universities outside of their own area. Another scenario is this: I'm going to start at a FTSE 100 oil company soon and they get their HR staff almost exclusively from the business department of the local university. I doubt much of these people have heard about universities outside of Scotland. So if anything you could say there is a bias towards local universities because that's what most are familiar with.

And I'd say that's true. In my last placement at an international oil company people were overwhelmingly graduates of local universities. None of which were "top 20" or Russell Group or redbrick or whatever other labels gets TSRians hard these days.

Otherwise companies are generally much more interested in your experience, your competencies and how well you interview than where newspapers place your university. As long as it's accredited it generally doesn't matter.

[alexkol]

(Original post by Smack)
This is a loaded question because it assumes that employers everywhere have the same opinion on what are the most prestigious universities - which is also, remarkably, the exact same opinion as the 17 year olds on here. That's not true at all. From what I've seen the people in HR who sift through applications often didn't go to university themselves and have never heard of much, if any, universities outside of their own area. Another scenario is this: I'm going to start at a FTSE 100 oil company soon and they get their HR staff almost exclusively from the business department of the local university. I doubt much of these people have heard about universities outside of Scotland. So if anything you could say there is a bias towards local universities because that's what most are familiar with.

And I'd say that's true. In my last placement at an international oil company people were overwhelmingly graduates of local universities. None of which were "top 20" or Russell Group or redbrick or whatever other labels gets TSRians hard these days.

Otherwise companies are generally much more interested in your experience, your competencies and how well you interview than where newspapers place your university. As long as it's accredited it generally doesn't matter.

Once you say that those HRs don't know which Uni has good or bad reputation or studies in the Engineering field, how are they supposed to know if it;s accredited or not.
It is true that companies prefer to have students from the Universities nearby, ie a company in Manchester or Leeds will recruit more people from those Universities, because they know the modules, lecturers and research quality.

An HR from let's say Shell in Scotland, will know Aberdeen, RG etc and off course Manchester, UCl, Imperial etc and maybe not Central Lancashire Uni, that I mentioned before...

[alexkol]

(Original post by non)
What job is he doing? If you don't mind saying.

Working for BP

[Smack]

(Original post by alexkol)
Once you say that those HRs don't know which Uni has good or bad reputation or studies in the Engineering field, how are they supposed to know if it;s accredited or not.

It's usually a requirement for you to apply e.g. part of the requirements will say "applicants must have an accredited degree in the relevant discipline". So by applying you are declaring that you meet the entry requirements.

An HR from let's say Shell in Scotland, will know Aberdeen, RG etc and off course Manchester, UCl, Imperial etc and maybe not Central Lancashire Uni, that I mentioned before...

I think Shell have a centralised UK recruitment system that is based in London. I know that BP do, and when I was at my interview there most people were from big-name English universities.

But I know from many people in my university who have attended interviews and assessment centres at smaller than BP/Shell but still large as in still worldwide with 10-50000 employees that are mainly based up here that Scottish universities are over-represented.

We can hypothesize why this is but since none of us are in HR we cannot give a definite answer. My personal hypothesis is that because knowledge and experience are the most important factor, and some universities teach much more relevant courses to certain industries than others and have students with much more relevant experience, graduates from these universities are disproportionately more successful with certain companies.

It would also be interesting to see where most applications are made from, whether these universities that are over-represented are also over-represented in the application stages. But I don't have access to that information.

[alexkol]

(Original post by Smack)
I know that BP do, and when I was at my interview there most people were from big-name English universities.

Exactly, u come to my point, that everybody knows at least the top10s.

(Original post by Smack)
We can hypothesize why this is but since none of us are in HR we cannot give a definite answer. My personal hypothesis is that because knowledge and experience are the most important factor, and some universities teach much more relevant courses to certain industries than others and have students with much more relevant experience, graduates from these universities are disproportionately more successful with certain companies.

Of course, there are certain Universities that work with specific companies, and their modules are being "controlled" and "manipulated" by them, so that they can afterwards recruit those people and put them directly into work, with less training.

[Smack]

(Original post by alexkol)
Exactly, u come to my point, that everybody knows at least the top10s.

I think you're grasping at straws here. There are large companies that have operations throughout the United Kingdom that have large HR departments, but there are also companies with operations in only a few parts of the country whose HR departments are staffed almost exclusively by people from the local area and using my area as an example because there are many international companies here with excellent starting salaries, I doubt that many HR girls will have heard of any of the "top 10" bar Oxford and Cambridge.

But as I've already said I think that's neither here nor there. Knowledge, experience and how well you interview are the most important things and many HR departments use a numerical scoring system to quantify this.

[alexkol]

(Original post by Smack)
Knowledge, experience and how well you interview are the most important things and many HR departments use a numerical scoring system to quantify this.

+1

[Inkerman]

(Original post by Smack)
This is a loaded question because it assumes that employers everywhere have the same opinion on what are the most prestigious universities - which is also, remarkably, the exact same opinion as the 17 year olds on here. That's not true at all. From what I've seen the people in HR who sift through applications often didn't go to university themselves and have never heard of much, if any, universities outside of their own area. Another scenario is this: I'm going to start at a FTSE 100 oil company soon and they get their HR staff almost exclusively from the business department of the local university. I doubt much of these people have heard about universities outside of Scotland. So if anything you could say there is a bias towards local universities because that's what most are familiar with.

And I'd say that's true. In my last placement at an international oil company people were overwhelmingly graduates of local universities. None of which were "top 20" or Russell Group or redbrick or whatever other labels gets TSRians hard these days.

Otherwise companies are generally much more interested in your experience, your competencies and how well you interview than where newspapers place your university. As long as it's accredited it generally doesn't matter.

+ 1.