Durham Postgraduate School of Government and International Affairs

Hey all! Is anyone planning to obtain their MA in International Relations or in a related field at Durham this upcoming Fall?

Reply 1

EdG1994

Hi,

I did MSc Global Politics at SGIA last year and am now doing a PhD at Durham. Feel free to ask any questions.

Durham University

Durham

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Reply 2

williamsr94

Original post by EdG1994

Hi,

I did MSc Global Politics at SGIA last year and am now doing a PhD at Durham. Feel free to ask any questions.

hi @EdG1994,

Thanks for the reply! If you wouldn't mind, I do have a couple of questions regarding the SGIA. I'm assuming you were satisfied with your MSc, if you're now completing your PhD at Durham. Are you able to comment on the international relevance and quality of the department as a unit? As an international student, I am more concerned about the weight of my MA in IR to employers throughout Europe and North America. What types of opportunities or events, in terms of networking and employment, are offered to SGIA graduates? What drew your attention to study a MSc in Global Politics at Durham rather than at another university?

If you'd also like to comment on the campus atmosphere, I would appreciate that as well.

Thank you!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

EdG1994

A friend of mine last year did IR with research methods. He is now in work but it wasn't particularly easy to find employment, but it usually isn't easy anyway. There isn't much offered in the way of careers advice if I'm being honest but they do have a kind of jobs fair at one of the colleges (usually Josephine Butler) in the first term where you can get information on grad schemes. I went to that and got a load of free stuff and some friends of mine got some advice on careers.

There isn't that much for SGIA specifically though. You can probably ask for advice but I never did as I knew I wanted to do a PhD. The department itself feels like it favours people who study the Middle East, which is what the department is generally known for. If you are interested in Middle East politics you might get more opportunities.

I applied for 5 universities for postgrad and got accepted to 4 of them. Durham accepted me first, which helped with the choice, but the collegiate setup of the university is also very appealing. You get to be a member of a community that holds its own events and has its own sports teams and societies. These contribute most to the campus atmosphere for people in SGIA as the department isn't on the science site with most of the other departments.

As far as colleges go, if you want proximity to the department St Mary's, Trevelyan, St Aidan's and Van Mildert are good bets (assuming you live in).