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What is a Russel group

What’s a Russel group? Are they the best universities for highly academic students?
Nope. It is a group of research intensive unis which means nothing for students unless you are doing PhD research or above. Students rarely have access to research (people doing research may not teach).
Original post by Revision Boiii
What’s a Russel group? Are they the best universities for highly academic students?
Some ******** marketing crap more or less that students get suckered into. It was created so a bunch of universities could protect their own interests.
They aren't all necessarily the 'best' universities but there are a lot of good universities that are Russell Group members.
Ivy League is to do with sports, but it happens to be a good approximation of the leading unis (with some exceptions). RG is the same.

Original post by alleycat393
Nope. It is a group of research intensive unis which means nothing for students unless you are doing PhD research or above. Students rarely have access to research (people doing research may not teach).

If you're doing PhD, isn't it more important you have a specialist in your area supervising you? What's the specific benefit of having research-intensive, presuming you have that specialist?
Reply 5
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gjd800
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*Russell
Research intensive = more likely to produce papers, more funding, better research facilities etc. It's a balance between all that and finding the right supervisor. There's no point in having a super specialist and no appropriate facilities. Equally you can have the best facilities and no one appropriate to supervise you and hence a balance is needed.
Original post by Notoriety
If you're doing PhD, isn't it more important you have a specialist in your area supervising you? What's the specific benefit of having research-intensive, presuming you have that specialist?
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Original post by Notoriety
Ivy League is to do with sports, but it happens to be a good approximation of the leading unis (with some exceptions). RG is the same.


If you're doing PhD, isn't it more important you have a specialist in your area supervising you? What's the specific benefit of having research-intensive, presuming you have that specialist?

Correctamundo. The institution maters relatively little. It is all about the supervision at that stage,
The Russell Group does have some of the finest universities in the UK represented. Also the top 4-6 or so in the country argubably are contained. However, there after it gets more vague and there isn't much between them. Till maybe the last 2 or 3 of the 24 which are decidely not great.

Which if the Russell group were smart would remove and fill in Bath, Lancaster, and Loughborough.
Original post by alleycat393
Research intensive = more likely to produce papers, more funding, better research facilities etc. It's a balance between all that and finding the right supervisor. There's no point in having a super specialist and no appropriate facilities. Equally you can have the best facilities and no one appropriate to supervise you and hence a balance is needed.


Ahh, I see. Facilities more of a STEM/lab-based issue, then?

I wasn't contradicting you. I have just heard the line that research intensive means better at research, and that it only matters PG+. Especially as funding comes through DTPs a lot of the time, and these include non-RGs as well, I wasn't quite sure what it meant.
Original post by gjd800
Correctamundo. The institution maters relatively little. It is all about the supervision at that stage,

Yeah, for law as well, I cannot help but think it matters not a jot. If the academics do research, then as long as they're in your area and they have some experience, RG wouldn't matter too much.
Original post by alleycat393
Nope. It is a group of research intensive unis which means nothing for students unless you are doing PhD research or above. Students rarely have access to research (people doing research may not teach).


Original post by alleycat393
Research intensive = more likely to produce papers, more funding, better research facilities etc. It's a balance between all that and finding the right supervisor. There's no point in having a super specialist and no appropriate facilities. Equally you can have the best facilities and no one appropriate to supervise you and hence a balance is needed.



I’m doing A-levels is it good idea to apply for a Russel group university? (I’m doing Chemistry, Physics, and Maths) I do like research related stuff :biggrin:
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Original post by Notoriety
Ahh, I see. Facilities more of a STEM/lab-based issue, then?

I wasn't contradicting you. I have just heard the line that research intensive means better at research, and that it only matters PG+. Especially as funding comes through DTPs a lot of the time, and these include non-RGs as well, I wasn't quite sure what it meant.

Yeah, for law as well, I cannot help but think it matters not a jot. If the academics do research, then as long as they're in your area and they have some experience, RG wouldn't matter too much.

I can see how better facilities aid lab work. Made no odds to me, and my personal library for Indo-TIbetan stuff is about 3x larger than our university one, haha.
Original post by random_matt
Some ******** marketing crap more or less that students get suckered into. It was created so a bunch of universities could protect their own interests.


So they aren’t more or less than other unis? (Except with research)
Original post by Revision Boiii
So they aren’t more or less than other unis? (Except with research)

Alleycat explained it perfectly.
Not necessarily just a lab issue. If you don't have central support for access to journals or archives that your uni doesn't own or pieces of kit for bits of field work (could also be in the humanities or social sciences) or funding to publish open access/go on conferences etc that can all affect your PhD experience. Also DTPs are fairly new and fund specific things so a lot of PhD research happens outside them.

And a PhD is PG+...
Original post by Notoriety
Ahh, I see. Facilities more of a STEM/lab-based issue, then?

I wasn't contradicting you. I have just heard the line that research intensive means better at research, and that it only matters PG+. Especially as funding comes through DTPs a lot of the time, and these include non-RGs as well, I wasn't quite sure what it meant.
Original post by Revision Boiii
I’m doing A-levels is it good idea to apply for a Russel group university? (I’m doing Chemistry, Physics, and Maths) I do like research related stuff :biggrin:


It makes no difference. Just pick a course that interests you. You may like research but you won't see much of it as an undergrad. Also this forum is for postgrads.
Original post by alleycat393
It makes no difference. Just pick a course that interests you. You may like research but you won't see much of it as an undergrad. Also this forum is for postgrads.


oops sorry I didn’t realise 🙇🏽*♂️
Thanks for the advice! :jumphug:
Original post by alleycat393
Not necessarily just a lab issue. If you don't have central support for access to journals or archives that your uni doesn't own or pieces of kit for bits of field work (could also be in the humanities or social sciences) or funding to publish open access/go on conferences etc that can all affect your PhD experience. Also DTPs are fairly new and fund specific things so a lot of PhD research happens outside them.

And a PhD is PG+...


I thought expenses also came from applications to DTPs?

Will defer.
Original post by Notoriety
I thought expenses also came from applications to DTPs?

Will defer.


Not necessarily. Depends on how it’s set up and what costings have been approved. And as above DTPs don’t fund everything. Each dept for example may have 1-2 which covers 10-20% of students in the dept.
Reply 19
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Original post by Notoriety
I thought expenses also came from applications to DTPs?

Will defer.


Some do, some don't. Was more normal for our lot to apply to the school rather than the DTP.

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