Security studies: KCL vs UCL

Dear friends,I have received an offer from King's (MA intelligence and international security), but haven't heard yet from UCL (security studies). As my offer from King's is set to expire soon, I was wondering if you could provide me with some info/insight of the two programmes and respective departments, so that I could decide whether or not waiting for UCL would be worthy. I have read that King's War studies department is actually quite good, but also that UCL looks nicer on your CV, so I am really stuck.Could you help me? Thank you all in advance!

Reply 1

Dresh

Original post by Saimontato

Dear friends,I have received an offer from King's (MA intelligence and international security), but haven't heard yet from UCL (security studies). As my offer from King's is set to expire soon, I was wondering if you could provide me with some info/insight of the two programmes and respective departments, so that I could decide whether or not waiting for UCL would be worthy. I have read that King's War studies department is actually quite good, but also that UCL looks nicer on your CV, so I am really stuck.Could you help me? Thank you all in advance!

Hi, both universities are excellent in terms of teaching and reputation.
In your specific field, King's Department of War Studies (DWS) enjoys an outstanding reputation worldwide. Further to their links with organisations such as the IISS, they have the biggest department in the field. Don't let the rankings misguide you. If it wasn't for a number of "weaker" subjects (King's is huge and they do so many courses, apparently not all of them successfully), King's would be at the same level as UCL. In fact, they are for all the main subjects. They're also both part of University of London, the golden triangle, the russell group etc.

Also, their programmes are a bit different as at UCL you would study a bit of statistics too, while at King's you will have a broader choice of international security related subjects as a result of being part of the DWS, but no statistics.

TL;DR: they're both good, but if you want to study anything related to War Studies, King's is the place to go. Same goes for Economics at LSE, Chinese at SOAS, Medicine at UCL or Maths at Imperial (assuming we only consider London of course)

Reply 2

Saimontato

OP

Original post by Dresh

Also, their programmes are a bit different as at UCL you would study a bit of statistics too, while at King's you will have a broader choice of international security related subjects as a result of being part of the DWS, but no statistics.

Thank you very much, I do tend to overrely on rankings as they're my main source of information.
One additional question if I may, do you happen to know (by experience, knowledge and the like) whether these "quantitative" skills are particularly sought after by prospective employers? Cause otherwise I would see no point in taking them given the kind of programme I'd take (although I did a bit of them for my BA).

Thanks!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

Dresh

Original post by Saimontato

Thank you very much, I do tend to overrely on rankings as they're my main source of information.
One additional question if I may, do you happen to know (by experience, knowledge and the like) whether these "quantitative" skills are particularly sought after by prospective employers? Cause otherwise I would see no point in taking them given the kind of programme I'd take (although I did a bit of them for my BA).

Thanks!

Rankings are important to an extent. There are other things they don't say e.g. at LSE you cannot contact your professors to discuss about a feedback, and many many students I know are pissed about this. In the end, it's not the title you get that counts but the skills and expertise, and things like that really have a negative impact on your learning process. Still, when you want to do something for which a particular university is extremely famous, it is generally a good idea to do that there. (E.g. economics at LSE).

Anyway, sorry for the long text.
Quantitative skills are vital and useless, depending on what you want to do. It is not like you will do a lot of them, so you can't eventually land a job that requires a good knowledge of them. And if you're studying this subjects, the odds are, you won't need them that much anyway in your potential jobs, apart for postgraduate research, in which they will be taught anyway.
You can always do an intensive course focused on methods (LSE has that but I'm sure that UCL and many others do too) and they last for a few weeks.

Still, if you are 100% sure you will do a job that requires them is a good idea to start studying them now :smile:

Security studies: KCL vs UCL

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