Master in Economics at Birkbeck

Could obtaining a Master's degree in Economics from Birkbeck serve as a starting point towards pursuing a PhD or another Master's degree at a top-tier university in the future? Thanks

Thank you for your response and for providing your recommendations. I currently hold a bachelor's degree in economics from a university outside of the UK and am interested in pursuing a master's degree or ideally a PhD from a reputable UK institution in the future. Unfortunately, I am unable to leave my current job to fully dedicate myself to studies at this time. This is why the opportunity to study at Birkbeck is particularly appealing to me. However, I would like to inquire whether a master's degree from Birkbeck is widely recognized and sufficient to pursue further postgraduate studies at a top-tier university in the future. Thanks again for your comments!

I guess it depends what you consider a 'top-tier PhD'. Without a very strong undergrad, I think it would be pretty tough to get onto a funded PhD at unis like LSE, UCL, Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, etc, with a MSc Economics from Birkbeck.

Are you currently living and working in the UK? If not then I don't understand how you'd study at Birkbeck if you don't leave the job you're in atm. If you are in the UK, and have highlighted Birkbeck due to its part-time nature, then your only options to get into a top tier PhD would be to either do the GDE at Birkbeck, then a MSc at a better unis, so you can get into a good PhD (though the GDE is really meant for people with no economics background, though this one year course might appeal if you don't have a strong undergrad). Alternatively, you could do the MSc Economics at Birkbeck (which is likely the right level for you), then do another master's elsewhere at somewhere better, then apply for a good PhD program (tho this seems a bit overkill and overly expensive).

Would it not be better to save for another year or two while working and then just apply for a good MSc straight away?

What do you mean by strong undergrad? Do you mean the institution you did it at or the grade you recieved?

Both. A solid master's can go some way to mitigating this if you don't have this background, but would still be quite difficult to get onto a top PhD course with funding.

Both. A solid master's can go some way to mitigating this if you don't have this background, but would still be quite difficult to get onto a top PhD course with funding.

Ok, so a top uni or a Russell Group and a 2:1 or above?

Can having done a foundation year affect getting onto a top PhD course - with and without funding?

There's not some hard and fast rule on this kind of thing, I've seen people take lots of different routes. Whether it was on my economics PhD program, or friends who attended ones at other top UK unis, I think you'd really be wanting to do your master's at one of LSE, Cambridge, Oxford, UCL or Warwick.

Whether you do your undergrad at a top5 isn't super crucial, I've seen lots come from undergrads at places like Manchester, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Bristol, etc. But it was pretty rare to see people on the good PhD programs who didn't do their master's at top 5 unis. And this isn't shocking because quite a large proportion of PhD students stay at their MSc institution (probably because the unis know how good they are and they've built relationships with profs).

For PhD admissions, while they do care about your undergrad grade, it's not super super important, and your grade is take within the context of the quality of course you got it on. PhD admissions is much more about your research experience, whether that be dissertations, working papers or RA experience. It's also about whether your research interests closely match the expertise of any of the profs that are taking on new PhD students. Undergrad grades are fine, but they only really care about your grades in so far that it signals whether you'll be able to keep up with the coursework. But really anyone going into academia should be going for firsts and distinctions anyway.

I've never met anyone who's done a uni foundation year and attended a top PhD course, so I've got no idea. I think if you did well in your undergrad degree and this is at a decent institution, then get onto a top MSc course, I can't imagine PhD admissions teams will care too much about a foundation year if you've got good uni grades and research experience & skills.

Would Cardiff University be considered a good undegraduate university? It is an RG and has good research.

Also, do you think you haven’t encountered many people doing a PHD who did a found yr because people who do a found yr (because they didn’t get the grades NOT because they didn’t have the correct subjects) are less likely to want to go into academia or do you think there’s an equal rate of people who did a foundation year applying to do PHDs but are more likely to get rejected (whether this is because OF the foundation year or because they’re less likely to meet academic reqs for PHDs)? Or maybe people who did foundation years and are doing a PHD don’t mention it because they’re in academia?

There’s a youtuber I watch named Vee Kathivu who did a Lady Margaret Hall foundation year at Oxford and then progressed onto a humanities degree at Oxford. She then went on to do a Master’s of education (I believe) at Harvard and now she is doing a PHD at Claremont University in California. I don’t know if she is a rare case or its more common than you think?