Warwick vs Birkbeck

Hi everyone,

I have a simple question: what is a better option for doing an MSc Econ - Warwick or Birkbeck.

Of course, I have done some research into this myself, I understand that Warwick probably has a better reputation, but from what I hear Birkbeck might actually have a better quality of teaching. Also, there seems not to be such a large gap between the two of them, as BBK also does well in the rankings, though it does not appear in all of them as it's not a standard university with its 'evening' teaching organisation (which I wouldn't mind, it would at least give me some opportunity to earn some money along).
I know that the decision also depends on what the after-MSc goals are, I do have some idea about that but would like to leave it open for this discussion as I would like to hear various opinions and reasons for them.

I might also have an additional question, what if the Birkbeck MSc was in Finance (say, my interest in the two fields overlaps).

Thanks very much for your opinions.

Thank you for your replies.

Of course, I did have a look at other threads before posting this one, including the econ sticky in postgrad section.

Warwick's mentioned there as a good option, which I don't doubt it is, but I didn't find it compared to Birkbeck which I suspect might be not be worse than Warwick.

Reputation's one thing, which the university acquires through a long time and the quality of translating that research reputation into quality of teaching in a taught postgrad course might be another thing altogether (I've heard some nasty things about unfair exams etc, can't tell if it's just a rumour or a fact).

Besides, I'm a bit scared off by the communication of the Uni of Warwick - from its rather poor website (uncomparable to BBK, at BBK you can even have a look at most of the teaching materials, modules syllabuses, etc. even if you are not yet registered), to the long time it takes the admissions/registry dept to reply to an email, etc. Although this has nothing to do with the research/teaching directly, it tells you something about how the institution works and whether it cares for its (potential) students.

I did my first degree (5 yrs, approx. an equivalent of an MA) in Public Economics and Administration, in my home country Slovakia, so it can be considered a no name poor quality uni, although with good marks, Dean's Award for my thesis and helping out in a Slovak econ think-tank. I also spent a year as an exchange student at a German University in Osnabruck, but it was not very different from what I experienced at home.
This year, did a Graduate Diploma in Finance at Birkbeck to get something more credible into my CV and to try out the UK/US system for myself at first, and, as I expected, it was a completely different world - the teaching, the content, the exams, the schoolmates, everything. It was simply great.

Now, I've got an offer from Warwick and an expected offer (expected distinction, in that case you get an offer to continue with them) from Birkbeck. In the future, I'd like to go on to a PhD.
I guess, with so much bad experience (from Slovakia and Germany), I'm just too scared to leave something that I know is good (BBK), though not with as much reputation (but is the rep difference so great..?) for something which looks good in rankings but I know nothing about it personally and hear different things about (Warwick).

No, you can do a full-time Masters at Birkbeck.

My mistake. I thought BBK was all and only about part-time.

The Warwick and BBK sites both list the modules:
http://www.ems.bbk.ac.uk/courses/msc_pgdip/msc_econ
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/pg/modules/

page 15 of the Warwick handbook lists which modules are required as part of the msc:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/pg/econ/msc_handbook_2008-2009_-_master.pdf

I meant that on BBK web you can even access the course materials from the previous term even if you are not yet registered and so get a better picture what and how is being taught there, eg:
http://www.ems.bbk.ac.uk/for_students/msc_econ
http://www.ems.bbk.ac.uk/for_students/msc_econ/ETA2_EMEC025P/index_html.
You can also usually access at least one past exam for each subject, unregistered, and of course, as a registered student, you have access to all past exams.

Whereas I didn't find anything like that on Warwick web/brochures.

Re my switch from Finance to Economics:
like I said, I wanted to try out the UK/US system first and reconsolidate my basics in a 'conversion course', like the Graduate Diploma, as I was aware that there is a huge quality gap between Slovakia and UK. I figured that because my first degree was in Econ, I would not be admitted to a conversion course, because there's not much room for conversion between econ and econ. :-) So I chose something related to econ, something with what my work (at uni at home and at my work) overlapped anyway, Finance.

As to your background knowledge for Econ MSc, I think I can handle most of what's in the post, to a large extent thanks to the Graduate Diploma course at BBK, even though it was a finance one. I guess, this says a lot about how the econ on the Continent often sucks as econ is usually regarded as something not having to do much with maths....
Besides, I am prepared to work on issues I might not be as good at, before I start the MSc, may it be anywhere.

Thank you for your replies, especially Paulwhy, your posts are very helpful, and not only those in this thread.