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Sussex vs. Warwick

Hi all,
I am waiting response for my conditional offer from LSE and in the meantime I am considering my second option. I am a bit confused because I got offer from Sussex for Global Political Economy and from Warwick for Internatinal Political Economy. I know that both are good universities but I cannot decide which one to choose. The interdisciplinary character of Sussex is promising, but I would really be happy to read your comments as well.

Reply 1

rhododendron

8

I would say Warwick has a better reputation generally, but I don't know much about Politics.

Reply 2

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

Warwick, hands down...
easy answer :smile:

Reply 3

Wise One

11

IIRC, Sussex is better for the critical left-wing viewpoint, whilst Warwick is generally very good for the study of the processes of globalisation. Have a closer look at the modules you'll be doing, and see which appeals. :smile:

Reply 4

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

You better of going to Warwick because of its overall reputation, thats very important.

Reply 5

rhododendron

8

mussy123

You better of going to Warwick because of its overall reputation, thats very important.

Agree

Reply 6

Alan Smithee

Warwick has a better reputation as a uni, but for all you, or anyone else on here knows, there could be a world class scholar in that field at Sussex.

I would personally go where the world class scholar is.

Reply 7

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

Platocrates

Warwick has a better reputation as a uni, but for all you, or anyone else on here knows, there could be a world class scholar in that field at Sussex.

I would personally go where the world class scholar is.

Eh? whats up with you and scholars? You been drinking too much greek oil today matey...

Reply 8

antares

OP

Thank you all for your replies.. Today i've found out that i will definitely not go to LSE.
I want to continue on development issues and it looks like Sussex is very good when it comes to development studies. Therefore I may choose Sussex over Warwick even though the latter's reputation. Does not Sussex also have a good reputation, besides being a critical left-wing uni?
Anyway, thanks for comments :smile:

Reply 9

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

antares

Thank you all for your replies.. Today i've found out that i will definitely not go to LSE.
I want to continue on development issues and it looks like Sussex is very good when it comes to development studies. Therefore I may choose Sussex over Warwick even though the latter's reputation. Does not Sussex also have a good reputation, besides being a critical left-wing uni?
Anyway, thanks for comments :smile:

I would say you making a mistake not choosing Warwick. Warwick has an excellent reputation in the country for all its courses and its more known for social sciences like development studies, international politics, economy, etc.

I know people from the department of economics and politics and i can tell you they all got a good job in banks, world bank, etc.

I urge you to re-consider Warwick because it will give you better career prospects.

I did my Bsc in Warwick and its a great university with a great politics/economics department.

Reply 10

yeung3939

1

As far as I know, the Warwick politics department is not considered as one of the greatest in academic world. It can attract good undergrad students largely because of the general reputation of the uni.

Please be objective. The politics department of Sussex is very famous for its development studies part. It has truly global reputation.

Warwick is good for globalization instead of development issues (narrowly interpreted). That makes a difference.

People in the field should know this, so going to Sussex is not a mistake.

Reply 11

LH

15

yeung3939

As far as I know, the Warwick politics department is not considered as one of the greatest in academic world. It can attract good undergrad students largely because of the general reputation of the uni.

That's not at all true. Warwick is considered one of the very best in the UK along with York, Sheffield, Sussex and of course Oxbridge/LSE. Politics and Economics are two of Warwick's strongest departments which says a lot given the overall reputation of the university.

Reply 12

The Orientalist

10

yeung3939

As far as I know, the Warwick politics department is not considered as one of the greatest in academic world.

Warwick has consistently been in the top 5 in the UK for economics, and in the top 10 for politics for quite some time now. Its has also been rated 5* for Economics and Econometrics, and 5 for politics and International studies in the last RAE (2001) whereas Sussex only got 4 in Economics and Econometrics, and for some reason wasn't assesed for politics in 2001 but Sussex only got a 4 for politics in the RAE of 1996. The difference between a 4 (national level) and a 5* (international level) in a research assesement is enormous. University wise, Warwick is a more prestigious uni than Sussex, and departement wise, Warwick's research seems to be of a significantly higher calibre than Sussex's. Again this is only data, but if I had to choose between a 4 rated departement and a 5 or 5* one, I would choose the latter...Anyway I think the most important factor in choosing which uni you want to go to would be course content, so if Sussex offers a course that seems more appealing, choose that one. But what yeung said concerning Warwick's politics departement is wrong.

Reply 13

yeung3939

1

Why are you referring to ranking results that are designed for undergraduate students? In terms of academic reputation, as far as I know, Oxbridge, LSE, Essex, Sheffield are considered as top. Of course, Kings for war studies, Braford for peace studies, Aberystwyth for international politics, York for political theory. Warwick is a top uni, but it doesn't mean that all of its departments are top. You can just check the entry requirement of their postgrad programmes, the number of politics professors who studied there, the research ranking and the profile of the faculty.

Of course it depends on how you define 'top'.

Thank you....

Reply 14

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

A Warwick degree will open more doors than Sussex. Period. In UK or internationally...

Reply 15

Wise One

11

Not necessarily. Do a bit of research...

Global Political Economy isn't Politics and it isn't Economics.

Now, I'm an undergraduate in SOCCUL (School of Social and Cultural Studies) at Sussex at the moment, and I can honestly say that the school as a whole is pretty damned good. It's particularly good for the critical viewpoints, European Political Economy, and Development.

The scholars here are good; there's a real cross-section of global expertise. As an undergrad IR student, I've had a lecture series by the director of Global Political Economy at Sussex - Prof. Kees van der Pijl - and I can confirm that he is a total star. Furthermore, next year the departments of Politics and International Relations (of which GPE is a part) are splitting, with additional staff being taken on by IR. This is definitely a department on the up...

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/CGPE/

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/irp/syllabus/2006/L1509T.html

-----

Now, Warwick.

Yes, Warwick is overall probably a better university than Sussex, and is very good at Politics and Economics. It doesn't offer IR, however, and doesn't have Sussex's ingrained interdisciplinary focus.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/socialstudies/pais/intpoliticaleconomy/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/prospectivestudents/pgindex/ipe/ipe_modules/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/staff/

-----

My advice to you? Check out the modules you'd be taking, see what appeals more. Check out the staff who would be supervising you, see which uni has the research specialities that best match your interest.

I'm probably biased in bigging up Sussex, but don't mindlessly accept the opinions of others who say that Warwick is a better university full stop.

Do a bit of research. :smile:

Reply 16

Roll-The-Dice-And-Win

1

My advise to you, is to look at employers point of view. If you want to for example work in a bank, world bank, NGOs, UN, they wont look much at your module selection but rather how you did in what you studied, and your passion and motivation for the position you applied for. A Warwick degree will generally open more doors than for example a Sussex degree. The employer wont really pay attention to whether Prof. Kees van der Pijl was teaching you or not. Lets be honest, employers are very biased towards top tier universities such as Oxbridge, LSE, Warwick, UCL, Imperial, etc. specially when you are planning to work in an international organisation. This is where your degree in international studies, politics/economics, et.c will be relevant.

Reply 17

LH

15

yeung3939

Why are you referring to ranking results that are designed for undergraduate students? In terms of academic reputation, as far as I know, Oxbridge, LSE, Essex, Sheffield are considered as top. Of course, Kings for war studies, Braford for peace studies, Aberystwyth for international politics, York for political theory. Warwick is a top uni, but it doesn't mean that all of its departments are top. You can just check the entry requirement of their postgrad programmes, the number of politics professors who studied there, the research ranking and the profile of the faculty.

Of course it depends on how you define 'top'.

Thank you....

Warwick's the best department for the study of globalisation, which is a pretty massive topic within Politics and Economics. Sussex has an extremely good Politics department but so does Warwick. You're trying to pass of your opinion as fact with no basis for it.

Reply 18

rhododendron

8

I have to agree with mussy. If you want a job after your degree, the reputation of the university as a whole is likely to open far more doors than the reputation of a little department who employers - on the whole - are unlikely to realise is as good as you claim.

As people often say, it's better to live in the smallest house in a posh area, than to have the best house in a rubbish area. A little analogy for you.

Reply 19

Alan Smithee

rhododendron

As people often say, it's better to live in the smallest house in a posh area, than to have the best house in a rubbish area. A little analogy for you.

If you're a prestige whore, then yes.

Sussex vs. Warwick

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