Best place to study international politics ? City London VS Geneva (Switzerland)

sarah_1993

Hey guys,

So I have an unconditional offer from City to study International Politics (MA) and I'm not sure I want to go. I'm having serious doubts and freaking out, how well do you think it's regarded in the IO/NGO field (in comparison to a UCL/LSE degree for example)? I also have an offer from University of Geneva (Switzerland) and I'm wondering which one between those two is best suited for the field.

I've been studying in Geneva for the past few years and completed my BA here, but I'd like to move out of the country a bit, which is why I was interested in London in the first place. But I'm really questioning whether it's worth it or not.

Thanks for the help!

Reply 1

Tcannon

What makes you apply to City for MA International Politics, does the course fit with your specific interests? It is a rather unusual choice as City is not really top ranked in UK politics departments. Even among London colleges, City is clearly behind LSE, UCL, SOAS, King's and Birkbeck for MA politics. These colleges have their strengths in subject areas. To my knowledge, City does not host an politics institute/research cluster of national excellence. By most metrics, Politics at City is more likely outside top 15 and it offers relatively poor cost benefit due to tuition and higher London cost of living.

I think subject wise, City would be a step down from Geneva Uni for politics. I hope this is useful. Good luck.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

sarah_1993

The course has many human rights and global ethics modules, which are areas i'm really interested in. What bothers me with Geneva is mainly the fact that I've spent my whole life there, but I guess with an exchange program or an internship abroad that could easily be changed.

I definitely understand your point, though. That's exactly what I was thinking. I did get into SOAS too, but after hearing so many bad reviews about it falling down the league tables, I was hesitant. You're saying it actually has a good reputation in the field?

Reply 3

Tcannon

SOAS is a niche uni and excels in some areas (Development, area studies and some aspects of international politics). SOAS has good placement with the non profit sector. It attracts certain students, I guess people either love it or hate it. If you have doubts, don't go as you may be unhappy.

Even for the field of HR and global ethics, I would consider some other MA programmes ahead of City. Some of them are outside London. The only good (on national level) MA programmes at City are at its Cass Business School and MA Journalism.

Reply 4

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by sarah_1993

...............

SOAS is a lot better than City in your field (in fact probably all - though they share few exact comparators I suspect).

I'm not aware that SOAS has any issues of any substance, league tables are a complete nonsense and anyway always generate aberrations when scoring specialist institutions.

Reply 5

Tcannon

I concur with threeportdrift's analysis. As a specialist uni, SOAS is unfairly handicapped in the ranking game. It offers a few subjects in humanities and social sciences, but can't offer STEM subjects hence the lower ranking. But SOAS does well in its courses (see specialist subjects) and has good track record in research. It has good master's and PhD programmes and some grads move on to good PhD programmes within SOAS or at other unis. Some research clusters at SOAS are supported by research council grants.

Best place to study international politics ? City London VS Geneva (Switzerland)

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