University application

St Andrews, Lancaster & Loughborough. All top unis and are not RG (they beat most RG's). RG only means something if you make it mean something. It doesn't reflect their reputation, in terms of the actual university world, and was started by themselves. They used to be good on research, but the REF shows that some of them are struggling on that.

The only people that say RG means something is someone who is not that well educated, researchers don't care, employers dont care.

For your course, look at the graduate prospects and the course/overall Ranking and go from their. Look at the REF if you want to see how much good research your department is putting out.

I want to apply for some type of course in journalism, and was previously sold on trying to apply for a Russel Group University. I've done some more research and my choices have opened up more to non RG, however there seems to be a lot of conflicting information on whether or not there is point in going to a university if it isn't Russel Group. I want to know what the best option would be?

St Andrews, Lancaster & Loughborough. All top unis and are not RG (they beat most RG's). RG only means something if you make it mean something. It doesn't reflect their reputation, in terms of the actual university world, and was started by themselves. They used to be good on research, but the REF shows that some of them are struggling on that.

The only people that say RG means something is someone who is not that well educated, researchers don't care, employers dont care.

For your course, look at the graduate prospects and the course/overall Ranking and go from their. Look at the REF if you want to see how much good research your department is putting out.

Yeah I agree with your point. RG doesn't mean anything special in most cases. But I wouldn't use Loughborough or Lancaster as cases and say they beat most RGs. (I mean you can say they are on pair but "beat most" can really be challenged) St Andrews and Bath are more persuasive cases lol.

Another little point is RG actually mean something to young academic staff, because they are likely to provide more funding for new projects. But this is mostly irrelevant and definitely nonsense if you want decent jobs outside academia.

Russell Group is a lobby group for research funding.
Being Russell group has very little to do with undergraduate education, its just these are typically the older, richer unis which tend to be more prestigious but it is a case of correlation not causation, and their are lots of excellent non-RG unis as are their RG unis im sure people would argue are more average.

What you need to decide is what you want from a university, then look at what options you have if the best one for you is a RG great, if not also great.

Journalism is a vocation (job training) course and consequently most RG Unis dont offer it.
That has nothing to do with the 'quality' of the course. As above, 'RG' isnt a gold-star badge, its a just a marketing tool.

Look at places like : Leeds, Brighton, City (London) or Goldsmiths (London).