Royal Holloway (RHUL) 2024 Offer Holders

1. Contact hours: How many hours per week and how are they allocated in terms of lectures, tutorials and seminars? 4hours of lectures and 4hours of seminars per week (8hrs) and weekly external seminars and talks of at least 1 hour per week. Tutorials weekly for new students. All together maybe around 10hrs of contact time at the start then probably around 9hrs assuming i go to all organised talks.
2. Parking permit: will I be eligible? Should be elligible since the requirement is 1.5 miles distance from campus and it would be first come first serve basis with good availability around 8-8.30am each morning.
3. To what extent is eastern philosophy taught and researched? One student has said she studied chinese philosophy partly in a 2nd year politics module. There is a chinese philosophy module in 2nd year honing in on ancient side of it. Study of the self is taught. Buddhism is briefly touched upon in 1st year but currently does not extend further.
4. What is covered in Philosophy and Literature? Differs greatly between individual lecturers.
5. Would I be able to do a dissertation with a focus on self and buddhism? If so how would support work considering RoyalH has no focus in such areas? This would certainly be possible. 3rd year dissertation is throughout the whole year and you do it while you are doing the other modules. 3rd year- 3 modules each term (2 terms) so 6 modules.
6. List of optional modules for years 2 and 3? There are at least 18 optional modules to choose from and they rotate between years 2 and 3 so you can choose them at least one of the years, meaning classes have both 2nd and 3rd year students. First year is all compulsory modules.
7. Are there exams in philosophy ba? Yes, they are intended to test ability to act under pressure succinctly. Not exactly exams. First and second years have open book 3 hour "exams" online. Lecturers made it clear these aren't really exams in the traditional sense and only some modules have them. In modules that do, the exam is a maximum of 50% of the mark for the module.
8. Does office time feel rushed and do you have time to really make use of it? Very useful, lecturers are accommodating and respond very quickly to email queries. One girl said her lecturer came to have a discussion with her over lunch purely because she had no time to both have lunch and meet him separately.
9. Lockers in library NEED to be booked in the first week of starting at the reception as they are in high demand and disappear rapidly.
10. Library is 3 floors with silent study areas and group study areas. Had a nice feel to it. Some bean bags laying around for usage. Private conference booths and rooms with screens and big tables that need to be booked in advance for use. One area with loads of whiteboards on the wall for group study and tables facing them.
Hope this helps if you need it.

1. Contact hours: How many hours per week and how are they allocated in terms of lectures, tutorials and seminars? 4hours of lectures and 4hours of seminars per week (8hrs) and weekly external seminars and talks of at least 1 hour per week. Tutorials weekly for new students. All together maybe around 10hrs of contact time at the start then probably around 9hrs assuming i go to all organised talks.

2. Parking permit: will I be eligible? Should be elligible since the requirement is 1.5 miles distance from campus and it would be first come first serve basis with good availability around 8-8.30am each morning.

3. To what extent is eastern philosophy taught and researched? One student has said she studied chinese philosophy partly in a 2nd year politics module. There is a chinese philosophy module in 2nd year honing in on ancient side of it. Study of the self is taught. Buddhism is briefly touched upon in 1st year but currently does not extend further.

4. What is covered in Philosophy and Literature? Differs greatly between individual lecturers.

5. Would I be able to do a dissertation with a focus on self and buddhism? If so how would support work considering RoyalH has no focus in such areas? This would certainly be possible. 3rd year dissertation is throughout the whole year and you do it while you are doing the other modules. 3rd year- 3 modules each term (2 terms) so 6 modules.

6. List of optional modules for years 2 and 3? There are at least 18 optional modules to choose from and they rotate between years 2 and 3 so you can choose them at least one of the years, meaning classes have both 2nd and 3rd year students. First year is all compulsory modules.

7. Are there exams in philosophy ba? Yes, they are intended to test ability to act under pressure succinctly. Not exactly exams. First and second years have open book 3 hour "exams" online. Lecturers made it clear these aren't really exams in the traditional sense and only some modules have them. In modules that do, the exam is a maximum of 50% of the mark for the module.

8. Does office time feel rushed and do you have time to really make use of it? Very useful, lecturers are accommodating and respond very quickly to email queries. One girl said her lecturer came to have a discussion with her over lunch purely because she had no time to both have lunch and meet him separately.

9. Lockers in library NEED to be booked in the first week of starting at the reception as they are in high demand and disappear rapidly.

10. Library is 3 floors with silent study areas and group study areas. Had a nice feel to it. Some bean bags laying around for usage. Private conference booths and rooms with screens and big tables that need to be booked in advance for use. One area with loads of whiteboards on the wall for group study and tables facing them.

Hope this helps if you need it.

Omgg thank you sooo much. I actually wanted to ask about how they taught philosophy from a more global context rather than a European one including Buddhist philosophy and African philosophy. Your notes have been very helpful so thank you so much!! Also, can I ask what was the feel of the university environment, did it feel kind of “homely” in a sense. Is it pretty, did you take any pictures, are the accoms okay too?

You are very welcome, I had to make a choice so was forced to take useful notes 😂 I didnt check accoms since Id commute unfortunately 🥲 Its a homely feel for sure. Nice little forested area that is very peaceful and a little park area with benches and open grass. The library is homely and has a warm feel. The founders building is just as pretty as they say. No pictures haha im sure there must be tons on google if you need. Idk about African philosophy 🙁. My estimate is you can walk around the whole campus in around 15-20 minutes so its compact which adds to a "homely" feel.

Ahh okayyy, thank youuu. Right now it’s not looking like I’ll even be going royal so I’m not even sure if I’ll go to their next open day but I’ll see. Anyways, wishing you the best at either reading or royal!!!

Oh, how come?

I got an offer from kings to do philosophy and I’m thinking of firming it. Kings cover a lotttt in their philosophy programme, they’ve got stuff like the philosophy of maths, advanced logic, philosophy of physics, incompleteness and paradox and many more. I just find their modules the most interesting out of all of my uni choices, I’m also thinking of them insuring soas since their modules are interesting too and I’ve been to the uni and I really liked it there. Royal also has good modules but I find kings and soas more interesting tbh. I might go royal just to look around but idk, I’ll see😬

Ahh, fair enough, kings is probably really good yeah, never looked into it since my academic profile isnt strong enough. Very nice. Enjoy!

Ah I see, I heard that kings can be lenient sometimes. I know someone who got in through clearing with BBC. But anywho, I’ll probably be going there instead (hopefully). Have you decided on royal or reading yet?

Not sure yet 😭😭 its been driving me crazy trynna decide. I wanna make the right choice for the right reasons and avoid a biased/rushed/impulsive decision, the way the ancient stoics would. Enjoy Kings 🎉

Ahh, I see. Have you gone to reading’s offer holder day too? And if yes, can you imagine yourself studying there?

Ahh, I see. Have you gone to reading’s offer holder day too? And if yes, can you imagine yourself studying there?

Does anyone know if RH tends to give any leeway if you just miss your grades? I wanted to put it as my insurance but my offer is the same as where I want to firm, but I’m hoping RH might be a bit more lenient? 🤞🤞

Depends on your course, if its a competitive one or with loads of applicants like sport science or computer science it will be less likely they are lenient but if its like philosophy where not many people apply it will be lenient, i got in with 2 grades below.

Yep, went to both. Okay help me 😂. Here is my data.

Royal Holloway:
- Campus is 8/10
- Library is 8/10
- Spending money would be £98 per week after minimum food
- 20min drive so 40 min a day of travel
- Allows alternative travel by public transport in case car breaks down since its so close
- Taste lecture was 9/10

Reading:
-Campus is 5.5/10
- Library is 10/10
- Spending money would be £65 per week after minimum food
- 50min drive so 1:40hrs a day of travel
- Taste lecture was 4/10
- Better rated by at least 7 spots on ALL uni league ranking tables
- Contact time would be higher by 1/2 hours per week
- Includes a bit more of a focus on buddhism which I am happy about

Thanks. It’s economics, politics and IR. I’m worried I might miss maths by a grade or so.

Oh wow, now you got me stuck😭. Tbh I don’t really knoww. You rated reading’s laster lecture lower than royal Holloway so that might be a sign to go royal. Even though you did say you prefer the modules at reading, the fact that you have it such a Lowe rating may suggest the teaching quality isn’t the greatest there. Plus a 50 minute drive is crazy, and gas is expensive. The £98 a week for yourself also seems promising. Though reading is ranked higher, royal is still a very respectable uni and it is part of the university of London group (grouped with other unis like soas, kings, ucl, imperial etc.) and I think that it’s part of that group says enough. That will allow you to go to any of the Uol libraries (I heard kings and ucl libraries are really nice). And from the looks of it, you have more downsides to reading than royal Holloway, you haven’t really said anything bad about royal. It seems to me that you’re more drawn into royal tbh 🤷🏾*♀️

You are correct. What's with the emoji at the end 😂.