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Queen Mary for politics with business management 2014

got an unconditional offer from Queen Mary for politics with business management, is anybody doing that degree?

I can speak only for the Politics side which, if I understand the stuff of the net, makes up the large majority of the work you do in Politics with Business Management (it is not strictly a joint honours).

The academic strength of the School of Politics/ IR at QM is on the up - a number of top academics have joined in recent years and if the Head of School's speech at the start of this academic year is to be believed then more are on the way. As at most good unis the first year courses (and to an extent second year courses) are fairly general but are challenging enough that they should not bore even the most knowledgeable student. The School has particular research strengths in theory and IR (even though your degree doesn't have IR in the title you will still be able to take IR modules if you wish). Traditionally it has lagged behind its London counterparts on British Politics and Comparative Politics but, particularly in British Politics, things are getting much better. The class sizes are good (10-15 in a seminar, generally). Library resources have been criticised in the past but I have had few problems with these and a lot has been invested in this over the last couple of years.

If there was a negative I'd say that the range of options in the 1st and 2nd years is very limiting. There are no opportunities until the 3rd year to take courses in a specific research area such as gender, parliament, the Middle East etc. There is also, perhaps disappointingly for a uni in London, not much engagement with the outside world during the teaching process (there is now a 3rd year module that includes a visit to parliament and talks from parliament's outreach team but all other modules, to my knowledge, are taught entirely on site and by academics).

The final thing to consider with QM is that it is not in the nicest part of London and many of the buildings are 'functional' (i.e. not very pretty). That doesn't really bother me as I commute in each day but is worth considering if you are comparing it to other London unis.