Student review [#4525]
at University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is an excellent institution if you are thinking about doing a PhD programme. The university is one of the largest and most beautiful in the country, and is part of the Russell Group, the most important cohort of research-intensive institutions in the UK. The facilities are modern, inviting and ever-changing. The university community is made of friendly people from various nationalities, which creates an international and welcoming environment. The quality of the academic programmes varies across colleges, departments, and courses. Having studied and/or been part of the staff across various departments within the university at undergraduate, master’s and PhD level, I can confidently assert that I got a good idea of the differences across them. For instance, I met, was taught, and supervised, and/or worked along many great and very knowledgeable academics at the university, but I also encountered some others who directly expressed to me their lack of interest in helping students. Some members of the administrative staff, specially those dealing with enquiries by foreign undergraduate and postgraduate students, were specially unhelpful. Many times, I spent weeks trying to sort out simple administrative issues which should have taken only some minutes to be dealt with. In various instances, it was impossible to deal with the issue at hand. I was left with the impression that the university’s administration has an unwritten policy of stopping to reply to emails at will, when they deemed it necessary. Many times, all the way from enrolment to the MSc to graduation from the PhD, I had to find ways to solve problems created by the administrative staff. Fortunately, the academic quality of my PhD programme, and the excellent supervision that I had at doctoral level made up for many of these issues. And telling from my own experience, and the comments of many of my PhD colleagues, I can state that most of us had an excellent, very good, or good experience as PhD students at the University of Birmingham.