Hi people,
So I have a few 1+3 studentship offers one of which is from Sussex through the SPRU. I did my BA in Dev Studies at Sussex which was great. My supervisors would be supportive and well suited, I know I'd have a great experience.
My only concern is, does it look bad or hinder postdoc prospects at other universities to have all your degrees from the same institution?
And also what is so important about Russell Group Universities? (am I mad to turn down 3 russel groups for sussex?)

Thankyou very much for any replies!! :-)

It's often said that people should move around. I think it's supposed to show flexibility and experience or something. I'm yet to find an academic who has told me that they didn't take a post doc because they had all their degrees from one institution however. A postdoc in my lab has gone from undergrad to PhD to PD and now has just got a second PD a different institution so it obviously didn't hinder her progress. If you are working with a good research group and you have a good supervisory team, that is probably the most important thing.

Russell Group Unis do have a better research record so they are probably better in terms of quality of research and career opportunities.

There are good reasons for a person to have 2-3 degrees from the same uni. These may include that uni being top class for that particular subject, or personal circumstances of the candidate meaning that relocating may be problematic. There can be bad reasons too, though, such as a candidate being unadventurous/unwilling to get out of their comfort zone, or unlikely to be accepted at another university.

So I think it basically comes down to you and what your reasoning is, and whether you could 'defend' that should you need to. There is no harm in sticking with a good formula if you believe you have hit on one, but you should be aware that you might lose out a little in terms of being exposed to the different perspectives you might get elsewhere if you had moved on. But this can be, to some degree, remedied by getting out of one's comfort zone e.g. going to conferences and lectures at other organisations.

Essentially, the extent to which it's a potential problem (if at all) is in partly in your hands with regard to how to ensure you don't get too stale or narrow in your focus.

Whether your degrees are all from the same university or not is secondary to the quality of your institution, the department you study in, the supervisors/lecturers you had, etc…
I got all 3 degrees from different universities but I'm certain that if I had stayed at my Bachelors institution it wouldn't have made a bit of a difference.
As for the different perspectives argument, you can easily be exposed to different perspectives in the same institution: I had two supervisors during my undergrad years who held completely different views on issues.
Finally, as far as Russell are concerned, they are research intensive universities and so they are held in higher pedigree. A PhD from a Russell Group uni would be more distinctive in that regard. Depends on which Russells you turned down tbh and your field so we can't say whether you're mad or not (I hope you're not though :))

Yes, this is a good point. If you are planning to carry over the same supervisor from Bachelors to Masters/PhD, that is when you would definitely need to seek additional input from others so that you didn't develop too narrow a focus or just become a clone of your supervisor.

Thanks so much for the advice! muchly appreciated!

I have a Bachelor, Master and PhD from three different universities in two different countries. Other people with degrees all from the same department, with lesser qualifications, get jobs ahead of me. They have been in the system in the same university for so long that they know how to play the political game.