The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Ucl
Reply 2
Ucl.
Overall rep wise, UCL. But King's is well regarded for its research. I'm not sure how UCL pg courses rank.
Reply 4
yeh, probably ucl. but kings is very excellent nevertheless. (tautology!). actually, for postgrad stuff, kings could be worth looking into as much as ucl is.
Reply 5
dharmabum06
Hey there. I'm a postgraduate student from the US trying to decide where to study next year. All things being equal, which do you think is an overall better university and/or program for English -- KCL or UCL? Any advice?


i got rejected for both, so i wouldn't know :mad: (can you sense the bitterness? lol) but generally it depends on what YOU are looking for. don't go on what we say !
Reply 6
I'm a postgrad at KCL. Trust me, go with UCL.

Actually, to be less flippant, it does rather depend what your interests are. I'm in renaissance/early modern/etc. - I applied to King's specifically because the academics are much more aligned with my interests than UCL's. Also, to be honest, as a postgrad you spend most of your time in the library, so it matters rather less where you are in terms of institution. Also, I am bitter because some of those academics I so wanted to study under have been on sabb this year. But, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about King's; I'll try to filter out the bitterness. :smile:

You might have a look at Queen Mary. Possibly it's less well known than the other two, but it has a really excellent English department.
Reply 7
Thanks for all the advice. Honestly, I was leaning more towards UCL to begin with, not to mention the fact that I've already been accepted there and have yet to hear back from King's. That isn't to say that I've ruled out KCL (if I am offered a place that is), but I've heard nothing but good things about UCL from everyone I've talked to. Thanks again!
Reply 8
zigguratted
I'm a postgrad at KCL. Trust me, go with UCL.

Actually, to be less flippant, it does rather depend what your interests are. I'm in renaissance/early modern/etc. - I applied to King's specifically because the academics are much more aligned with my interests than UCL's. Also, to be honest, as a postgrad you spend most of your time in the library, so it matters rather less where you are in terms of institution. Also, I am bitter because some of those academics I so wanted to study under have been on sabb this year. But, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about King's; I'll try to filter out the bitterness. :smile:

You might have a look at Queen Mary. Possibly it's less well known than the other two, but it has a really excellent English department.


i was impressed by queen mary :biggrin: the department looks good and the course is great too :smile:
Reply 9
One more question: According to the Guardian, King's ranked higher overall than UCL (which I was quite surpised to discover) and moreover ranked 1st in English -- higher than Oxbridge! How seriously should I consider these findings? Is the Guardian considered THE rankings for the UK (Im a yank so I wouldn't exactly know)? I've been under the impression that UCL is generally a more prestigious uni and that the programs are quite similar in terms of ranking. Am I wrong?
Reply 10
Guardian rankings are a joke. UCL is a more prestigious university than King's and is generally considered to be a better all round institution. That's not to say that King's is poor, it's just not as good as UCL.
Reply 11
if you're going to look at any rankings, look at the times. Once thing i will say about UCL vs KCL for english, is that, although UCL might have a little more prestige, KCL has an excellent department and some fascinating courses are available for postgrads. Plus it's in a better location. I dunno, i'd pick kings, UCL just seems a little set in its ways, as far as english goes.
Reply 12
I'm not sure about the English course but location wise Kings is in the strand which is by the Thames and the Student Union is meant to be really amazing. So I'd go for Kings just for that reason...although you should look at both courses and see which one you prefer.
Reply 13
According to the Times (go to the 'Education' section on www.timesonline.co.uk), UCL is ranked 5th for English. I forget where King's is, but it's a fair way lower. So rankings aren't the be-all and end-all (though the Times' rankings are generally considered much more reliable). I would probably choose UCL but then, I don't really know enough about the courses. Are they very different?
Reply 14
Location-wise, beleive me, I haven't seen any uni in major cities in the world whose location is better than UCL. UCL is in Bloomsbury, the intellectual/cutural centre of London. Both British Museum and British Lib are within 10-min walk. Besides, the Senate House Lib and other libraries of the colleges of London U (Birkbeck, SOAS, IoE, etc.) are all in Bloomsbury. The Senate House Lib (with a collection of some 3-million volumes) is epsecially very much useful for humanities majors since it is based largely on humanities and social sciences. Last but not least, since there's a cluster of academic institutions in Bloomsbury, there are academic conferences or seminars or talks going on every week here. You'd have lots of opportunities to see big name scholars from all over the world: last year Habermas, Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy, Spivak, etc. all gave talks or hosted workshops in the Bloomsbury institutions. This coming May Slavoj Zizek will host a one-month workshop at Birkbeck, open to everyone.
Reply 15
Both Times and Guardian league tables are barely useful for postgrad studies since they're based on undergrad education. Look at the RAE for postgrad studies.
...Bloomsbury is a dump. Really crap.

Rankings wise, especially with a subject like English, they are really quite arbitrary. The difference in standards of teaching between Oxbridge and the rest of the top 10 is negligible - most of the work you do will be your own.

Also, both The Times & Guardian are a tad fishy - the Guardian's scores are value-added (taking into account 'Inclusiveness') and The Times' placing such an emphasis on entrants' A-Level scores (which has nio bearing on the quality of the course).
UCL generally has the best rep for English so I would go there