How long does it take to receive a postgraduate offer?

I applied to UCL for a masters seven weeks ago. They haven’t responded- does this mean I don’t have an offer? Is it normal for applications fo take this long?

Different unis have wildly varying times, even different faculties at the same uni. I've been waiting on QMUL for months, Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester offered pretty quickly, waited on Nottingham for months only to get an email they were cancelling the course for the year and had waited for weeks after taking down the course page to inform applicants and didn't even offer a refund for their stupid £40 application fee. Can you tell I have a massive distaste for notts? They're ****.

Reply was "there's nothing we can do about that".

That's clearly bull****. If they have enough money to open multiple campuses across the world to suck even more money from international students, they don't need to be charging £40 for applications for Mscs. They don't even charge for MRes' so what's the cause of the disparity there?

Actually, surprisingly... The overseas campuses fee's are much lower and barely profitable. But your right....do consider Notts for a PhD though it really is a lovely place to study. I guess MRes is for training researchers... The primary mission of all universities... You can't really get a good job with one.

They can't very well be charging full price given its essentially a random branch and you don't actually get the experience of studying in the UK. If they're barely profitable then that's due to the uni doing a bad job with that and maybe they should be looking into scrapping it or making it more profitable/worth their while.

'I guess MRes is for training researchers... The primary mission of all universities... You can't really get a good job with one.' What's the relevance of this statement to having to pay £40 for an Msc and not an MRes?

Second line...make the connection....if they are all going into academia or the majority who end up doing a PhD....that means connections later if they are a successful cohort...important for QS survey rankings done by academics.

Secondly, i'm not saying the campuses are losing money..but the primary cash cow is bringing foreign students to UK, but obviously it creates a more famous university by having multiple campuses...alot of universities actually fail at this btw. I thoroughly enjoyed Malaysia campus in my second year...was actually one of the reason's i desperately wanted to go to Nottingham lol.

But i can understand your disgust, and i totally feel your pain. I'm sure you'll get a great place!

Actually i've personally decided to do my Master in the Netherlands, it's all in English...similar ranking, actually slightly better in comparison to Notts where i'm headed at least in 3 out of 4 international tables....and a fraction of the cost.....Also the Dutch are determined to start uni in September, i also had an offer for Leed's lol but that's starting in January and my friend is stuck with it! I don't really feel UK postgrad is good value for money in general.

That still has no connection to the fee disparity. Are you saying an MRes is worth more than an Msc? If so, shouldn't the uni be charging the £40 for the MRes applications and not the Msc?

Yeah, I'm going to a much better uni than Nottingham that didn't drop their entry requirements for a very similar course from a 2:1 to a 2:2.

You need to be careful when saying statements like this. Nottingham may not have as high a ranking as some of the World leaders, but they offer an outstanding campus experience, with excellent facilities and stylish academic and sports buildings. From my own experiences, I enjoyed Nottingham so much more than UCL.