The 1994 Group disbands

It's not a huge surprise, at least from prospective students' point of view. People who cared about the "groups" normally only cared about the Russell Group, and people who didn't, well, didn't. There's no point having a group for people who don't care about groups.

I know there are more purposes of belonging to a group than to appeal to prospective undergrads, but as someone who is going through the UCAS process right now, this is what the group system meant to me.

As previously said, this was inevitable. The Russell Group has won the marketing war and managed to get itself to be synonymous with "elite". 94 Group members were slowly leaving to join the RG, e.g. Warwick, LSE, Durham, York and Exeter, and some just left, e.g. St Andrews and Bath, meaning that it only contained quite a small amount of universities, and not particularly big name ones either.

As a marketing tool it was no longer any use, and as a lobbying tool I'm not sure how well it was performing compared to the much bigger Russell Group.

What will this mean for the former members or the 1994 Group, that they'll not belong to any group? Would that make much difference to them?

With so many universities in the Russell Group now, it might risk losing its prestigious and elite image, which could impact on student an lecturer recruitment.