I've been offered two Masters:

City University - MA International Politics
Royal Holloway - Msc in Democracy, Politics and Governance.

I need to decide between the two ASAP - Any Advice would be very welcome

Hi Jordann,
I would suggest that you go back and visit both of them and see which one out of the two you feel the most comfortable in. Also, take a look at the university league tables for your subject and see which one has the best score for research, teaching, and student satisfaction.
I know a few people who have been to Royal Holloway and absolutely loved it, but one person couldn't stand it because she said there wasn't much to do there because it's in the middle of nowhere. I guess it all depends on what you're looking for; are you looking for a quite place to get on with your studies, or are you doing a masters to continue the student life for another year? If it is the latter then the city would be great fun and you would still come out with a masters at the end of it. But if like me you procrastinate over the work, then you might be better off going where you won't get many tempting distractions!
I hope that's helped - Good luck

Thank for your reply. I'm in my early 30's heading back to UNI so I'm not that concerned about the social life. I've looked at the tables etc but they all say that they are not accurate for post grads.

I suppose it all depends on what you're looking to get out of it. You definitely won't be bored in the city of London, and you will have better access to resources (library, museums, etc...) for your research, which will be particularly useful for when you get round to doing your dissertation. Also, when you feel the need to just get away from it all and have a break, at least you know that there are loads of places to go, great places to grab a coffee or have something to eat. What do you hope to do at the end of it all? Maybe you could make the choice based on what you want to achieve at the end of it; you could choose the uni that offers the most interesting modules? Or modules that might help you get the experience you need to progress onto a phd?

if you are doing a postgrad course, I think online facilities are really important - so check the online journals in the library - I have experience at City and its poor IMO - However, I can't compare it to holloway. If you belong to City uni you can also use other london libraries which is a plus.

I heard that royal holloway was 90% female - although could have been a rumour lol. City University is good, the social sciences building is a nice environment too. Maybe have a quick google scholar search and see which teachers from which unis have publications.

Also - the guardian league tables used to rate unis out of 5 for things like teaching - it will probably be the same staff for undergrad and postgrad so its worth checking.

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I can only speak generally here, but I've also heard negative things about City - in particular, students complaining a low number of teaching hours cf. to KCL, QMUL and LSE. I can't say I've heard anything positive or negative about Royal Holloway, but it has a very nice campus.

One thing, that may or may not be of interest, is that Royal Holloway is part of the University of London, which is internationally recognised, and will give you access to more facilities (eg. Senate House library and other college libraries).

city allows access to senate house as well - I thought anyway, alhtough that could be my bps membership that did that.

I completed my degree and Masters at Holloway, before moving onto a PhD elsewhere....

I will cheer-lead for Holloway until the cows come home; great work ethic, great staff....I was in the history faculty but had friends across the Uni. Also, you get the benefit of being part of the Un.of London while being a bit further away from the centre....

Also, the campus is beautiful, which is conducive to good working conditions.....

Yes, I am very biased ;-)

I was wondering about the same thing. I think if you are studying for a research based postgrad degree in a uk university then you are allowed free access to it, but there is an annual fee if you want to take the books out. If you're doing a taught masters then I think you have to get the yearly membership but I'm not too sure...

I've checked If your a member of one of the UCL colleges or undertaking a PHD or Mphil them its free to use senate house otherwise you pay a fee.

In general in undertaking A masters do you need to spend a lot of time in other Libraries. This would get expensive travelling from Egham to central London.

Just to clarify:
- The 'University of London' (UoL) is an administrative body which oversees many of the universities in London, including Royal Holloway. It is also responsible for Senate House, the UoL library.
- 'UCL' is University College London. It is an individual university, like Holloway, Kings or Imperial and is part of the UoL.

Don't get confused between the two when you are trying to work out library access etc!

Yes access will be important if your actual uni has a smaller library - it will be most important for online access though - so travelling not so much of an issue

Thanks for all the replys.

Has anybody here done a Masters in Politics at either city University or Royal Holloway?