Imperial vs durham

Hello everyone!!
I am A PG student and i hold an offer from both Imperial (Msc in Environmental Technology) and Durham (Msc in Environmental Economics and Natural Resources). I was determined to choose Imperial but Durham offered me a full scholarship of 10000 pounds. Money is not that much the issue but i am in a dilemma concerning the importance of the scholarship. What do you think?
Thanks!

Reply 1

Baldock

First off - well done! It is hard to say...

I think it depends on where you are looking to work. If you are looking to work in the UK, then I think being a former Durham scholar might look better than a typically Imperial degree. However, if you are looking to work aboard then see: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/10/25/world/asia/25iht-sreducemerging25-graphic.html. Imperial has a much better international reputation than Durham; properly better to be an alumnus of a college employers have heard of then a scholar of one they have not?

Also, if you check world university rankings, Imperial is either rated amongst the top 10 for two of them (QS and THE) and top 30 for the two others (CWUR) and (ARWU). Durham is rated much worse in all of them; still expectational considering how many good universities there are in the world but not close to Imperial. Again, I think the gap might make a typical Imperial degree better than a Durham scholarship (internationally at least).