Personally, I'm not going to a Russell Group university, and I'm 25. I'm not bothered by the university, I'm not even bothered by the degree, I'm going to university simply for the education, which I know I can get from any of the universities.
I also wanted to stay in my region, and the university I applied to had a course that was more suited to me. I'm going to be doing a joint honours in French and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and the other universities in my region don't offer the combined subjects route.