Do uni names matter?

so im wanting to study at uni for economics, im not sure what i'll do after in terms of jobs, but im not sure about if i were to go into an economic-related job, would they care about what university i go to? ive done a bit of research, apparently the bigger corporate firms have a ranking list of universities, but at the same time i doubt ill go into banking or something. im only asking bc idk if i should go on a gap year and apply to higher tier unis that i was initially wanting to go to (eg bath, bristol) or settle for something 'lower'. ive still heard as many good things about these 'lower-tier' univerisites but im not sure if it'd give me a disadvantage when applying to jobs in the future

You are using somewhat vague terms like "economic-related job" and "corporate firms" without being specific about what you are looking at.

Yes, investment banks and management consultancies have target uni lists. I would not consider these "economic-related" jobs. Anyone with any degree can go into those roles, as long as they go to a target uni and get appropriate work experience and prepare for interviews etc. Plenty of people do classics, music, biology, etc and go into those jobs.

Economics related roles are things like economics service positions in the civil service, economic policy related roles in e.g. NGOs, central banks etc, and so on. Those are the roles that only economics grads can do.

Other roles and companies do not care where you went to uni. Big 4 accounting firms don't care where you studied, generalist grad schemes at other major multinational businesses don't care where you studied, etc.

It literally only matters for investment banking and management consulting. If you aren't aiming for those, go wherever you wish. The primary differentiator in that case will be your work experience and how well you prepare for assessment centre activities and their psychometric tests.

Unfortunately most employers like to select from the Russell group universities

What about Nottingham? Bath's only 48th in the country for research quality in Economics, according to Thecompleteuniversityguide. Nottingham's 5th. Leeds is 11th.

In addition to the above poster's great explanation of the careers landscape & requirements, it should also be noted that even with some of the more elitist industries like investment banking and strategy consulting, it's still possible to get in from places below the likes of Bristol/Bath/etc.

It's more that it gets progressively more difficult for an average student at each university to get into these fields as you go down the university rankings. People still get in from lower unis than the ones you mentioned, it's just the top unis account for a disproportionately large % of the recruitment intake in these very specific industries.

What about Nottingham? Bath's only 48th in the country for research quality in Economics, according to Thecompleteuniversityguide. Nottingham's 5th. Leeds is 11th.

You are using somewhat vague terms like "economic-related job" and "corporate firms" without being specific about what you are looking at.

Yes, investment banks and management consultancies have target uni lists. I would not consider these "economic-related" jobs. Anyone with any degree can go into those roles, as long as they go to a target uni and get appropriate work experience and prepare for interviews etc. Plenty of people do classics, music, biology, etc and go into those jobs.

Economics related roles are things like economics service positions in the civil service, economic policy related roles in e.g. NGOs, central banks etc, and so on. Those are the roles that only economics grads can do.

Other roles and companies do not care where you went to uni. Big 4 accounting firms don't care where you studied, generalist grad schemes at other major multinational businesses don't care where you studied, etc.

It literally only matters for investment banking and management consulting. If you aren't aiming for those, go wherever you wish. The primary differentiator in that case will be your work experience and how well you prepare for assessment centre activities and their psychometric tests.

so im wanting to study at uni for economics, im not sure what i'll do after in terms of jobs, but im not sure about if i were to go into an economic-related job, would they care about what university i go to? ive done a bit of research, apparently the bigger corporate firms have a ranking list of universities, but at the same time i doubt ill go into banking or something. im only asking bc idk if i should go on a gap year and apply to higher tier unis that i was initially wanting to go to (eg bath, bristol) or settle for something 'lower'. ive still heard as many good things about these 'lower-tier' univerisites but im not sure if it'd give me a disadvantage when applying to jobs in the future