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Does the university you go to affect the possibilities of getting a well-paid job?

Why should the university you go make the slightest bit of impact on what job you get? As far as I am concerned, a degree in itself means you've dedicated 3 or 4 years of study. If employers are more likely to select Oxbridge graduates just because the students went to those universities is academic elitism. Don't get me wrong - if people have worked hard to get into top unis then they do clearly have strong academic ability. My point is that it is deeply unfair to judge students/potential employees based upon what university they went to or even if they went to university.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Hmm, you went a bit off the rails towards the end... it's deeply unfair for employers to judge applicants based on whether they went to university or not? I doubt many would agree.
Let me use a (bad) analogy. You’re a young football player playing at the worlds leading youth development squad, think Barcelona, Ajax etc. who would a premier league (big company) prefer to sign? Someone from these elite youth squads (unis) or someone from a relatively unknown youth squad?
Original post by AussieGang
Let me use a (bad) analogy. You’re a young football player playing at the worlds leading youth development squad, think Barcelona, Ajax etc. who would a premier league (big company) prefer to sign? Someone from these elite youth squads (unis) or someone from a relatively unknown youth squad?

i see what you're saying, in that context it would make sense to choose someone who's gone through sufficient training. But if you're putting reputation first, that's not really giving eveybody a chance. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Original post by EH34
Why should the university you go make the slightest bit of impact on what job you get? As far as I am concerned, a degree in itself means you've dedicated 3 or 4 years of study. If employers are more likely to select Oxbridge graduates just because the students went to those universities is academic elitism. Don't get me wrong - if people have worked hard to get into top unis then they do clearly have strong academic ability. My point is that it is deeply unfair to judge students/potential employees based upon what university they went to or even if they went to university.

What are your thoughts on this?

oxbridge students in EVERY subject have so much more work than other unis, it's harder to get a first and nearly all course results are based only on final exams rather than accumulated module scores. Also the teaching just is more rigorous at oxbridge
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by StriderHort
Hmm, you went a bit off the rails towards the end... it's deeply unfair for employers to judge applicants based on whether they went to university or not? I doubt many would agree.

Why should having a degree make you more employable? Most universities just teach you academic nonsense you'll most likely never use again.
Original post by betabarker
oxbridge students in EVERY subject have so much more work than other unis, it's harder to get a first and nearly all course results are based only on final exams rather than accumulated module scores. Also the teaching just is more rigorous at oxbridge

Yes I am aware of that and to get a first at oxbridge would be very impressive and such students who show this potential clearly have a lot of talent. But the point I'm trying to highlight here is the lack of social mobility - just because Oxbridge graduates are intelligent why should they dominate professions like law and politics where nearly every Prime Minister went to (28 PMs went to Oxford/14 went to Cambridge). I think it's unfair to not even give others a chance.
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Original post by EH34
Why should the university you go make the slightest bit of impact on what job you get? As far as I am concerned, a degree in itself means you've dedicated 3 or 4 years of study. If employers are more likely to select Oxbridge graduates just because the students went to those universities is academic elitism. Don't get me wrong - if people have worked hard to get into top unis then they do clearly have strong academic ability. My point is that it is deeply unfair to judge students/potential employees based upon what university they went to or even if they went to university.

What are your thoughts on this?


Probably depends on the job you are going for.
Original post by EH34
Why should having a degree make you more employable? Most universities just teach you academic nonsense you'll most likely never use again.

I don't think anyone is going to take that argument seriously :redface:
To an extent, yes.
I've literally seen some jobs that state they want graduates from certain universities.
Original post by StriderHort
I don't think anyone is going to take that argument seriously :redface:

Really? You've clearly never listened to Winston Churchill or Alan Sugar then - both of those didn't go to university or support them.
Original post by 1secondsofvamps
To an extent, yes.
I've literally seen some jobs that state they want graduates from certain universities.

What universities, and in what field?
Original post by penguingirl18
What universities, and in what field?

I'm guessing law
There are a very few employers in a very few areas for whom it's all-important.

For the vast majority? Your post was long since outdated when I graduated, in a year which started with a 19.
Original post by EH34
Yes I am aware of that and to get a first at oxbridge would be very impressive and such students who show this potential clearly have a lot of talent. But the point I'm trying to highlight here is the lack of social mobility - just because Oxbridge graduates are intelligent why should they dominate professions like law and politics where nearly every Prime Minister went to (28 PMs went to Oxford/14 went to Cambridge). I think it's unfair to not even give others a chance.

Take away oxbridge and those same ppl would still be in power - oxbridge isn't a cause of social inequality, only a symptom of it. Just because going to a private school can help you get into unis like oxbridge doesn't mean the institutions and the graduates they produce aren't the best. Take Thatcher or Heath for example, neither of them were upper class but they'd still fall into your basket of 'evil PMs who went to Oxford'. It's not that ppl from other universities aren't given a chance, it's just that ppl who applied to oxbridge age 18 are generally the most intelligent and ambitious, and those traits don't really change over time.
What you say maybe true, but consider this - can people still be intelligent if they don't go oxbridge?

And secondly, consider this - you say people who go to or apply to those universities tend to be the most intelligent - our current PM and most of his cabinet went to oxbridge, I wouldn't exactly say they were intelligent.
Original post by EH34
Really? You've clearly never listened to Winston Churchill or Alan Sugar then - both of those didn't go to university or support them.

Doesn't mean much, no one said you couldn't make it on your own. By that logic my doctor went to uni and became a doctor, so uni is 100% successful. :borat:

But stating that it's unfair for employers to seek and discriminate between skilled staff or that unis do not teach any useful skills is simply outlandish. You were on firmer ground querying the difference between different unis rather than trying to weakly poop on all of them.
Original post by EH34
What you say maybe true, but consider this - can people still be intelligent if they don't go oxbridge?

And secondly, consider this - you say people who go to or apply to those universities tend to be the most intelligent - our current PM and most of his cabinet went to oxbridge, I wouldn't exactly say they were intelligent.

I think Boris Johnson's definitely intelligent, the buffoon act he puts on does indeed gain him public likeability, or it used to. I think he just has no real beliefs and only cares about scoring points socially though, his personality is clearly more to blame than his intellect for his mistakes
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by betabarker
I think Boris Johnson's definitely intelligent, the buffoon act he puts on does indeed gain him public likeability, or it used to. I think he just has no real beliefs and only cares about scoring points socially though, his personality is clearly more to blame than his intellect for his mistakes

Well yes that is true - he most certainly is a devious man whose intelligence only appears in the form a calculated act. But if he's intelligent then why did he brake lockdown rules during COVID-19? Surely an intelligent person would have faith in their own legal system, especially since he's the one who made those rules? Seems to me that this govt. are not really intelligent but instead too privileged to understand reality
Original post by EH34
Well yes that is true - he most certainly is a devious man whose intelligence only appears in the form a calculated act. But if he's intelligent then why did he brake lockdown rules during COVID-19? Surely an intelligent person would have faith in their own legal system, especially since he's the one who made those rules? Seems to me that this govt. are not really intelligent but instead too privileged to understand reality

that's what I mean, he doesn't even believe in the laws he makes, cos he has no moral compass. I don't think he believes the country CAN be controlled by anyone, so he lurches from disaster to disaster but never blames himself.

He's clever at rhetoric, spinning narratives, campaigning and putting on a show but I think he's basically a selfish nihilist as well

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