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Avoid bottom 50% of universities

Signals: The university that you go/went to, the rank of the university (for the subject and overall), the degree subject, the grade of degree you attained, your internships/holiday jobs, your hobbies and sports played for the university, whether you got onto a graduate training programme, how career focused you have been from GCSEs onwards, all indicate/signal your level of determination, how tenacious. They all show your work ethic (current and historic), and if you’ll be a good employee, and you will fit their business/organisation, and crucially the dept. A weak subject, at a weak university, you graduate with a 3^rd and no sporting, and no social, or other things to make you stand out, then you will be rejected. If go to top 5 uni, study hard, get the results, play sport for your university, represent the university at Edinburgh Fringe, and joined the UTC (RN/RAF/Army) and did something to help you to stand out (learned to fly, dive, involved in local radio, play a sport for county, raised money for charity doing x activity, write for local newspaper, did a campaign to raise awareness about an issue, etc) and accrued a portfolio of internships and placements in the sector, then you will be snapped up, as you are motivated, have a strong work ethic, are intelligent, and you will be interesting. Bottom 25% - 50% of universities, unless you can justify why you went, are a waste of time.

The bottom 50% regardless of subject show that you have a weaker work ethic. IF the course or department has less than 60% who graduate and get a job that requires that subject then don't go to uni. Universities are pushing the government to increase tuition fees to above £16,000, as some are overly reliant on international students to fund them. Many business degrees are worthless, and the students would be better off doing professional exams. Some lecturers have no experience outside of academia, but they are teaching business.

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

Subscribing to the thread with great interest.

Lost count of how many times I’ve told students that they need to get a pilots licence to be employable.

Reply 2

PS Reviewer

I'd be interested to know how you measure which universities are in the "bottom 50%". Does franchised provision count?

I'm not aware of any public data that shows whether or not "60% who graduate and get a job that requires that subject." I suspect that if that's the measure of quality then no one will be going to university except medics, nurses, AHPs and those on teacher training courses.