Queen Mary University of London - QMUL Speciality : Politics
programme: Politics and International Relations

QMUL offers a wide range of interesting modules, which lecturers are clearly passionate about. I am currently studying and am in my penultimate year at QMUL. Additionally, the university offers insightful learning opportunities that provide information into future employment. These events are held both on and off campus and are a great opportunity to think about future employment.

I just finished my second year, and as I am preparing to start my final year at Queen Mary, I want to take some time to review my journey. I moved to London alone, drawn by its effervescence and energy, but also scared and uncertain about my place in it. I am lucky to be a Queen Mary student because the diversity and inclusiveness promoted by the university helped me find friends and a community.
Furthermore, I wasn’t familiar with the British educative system but the expertise, professionalism and passion of the teachers and staff helped me to adapt smoothly. It is very enriching to study Politics and International relations alongside different cultures, backgrounds, and points of view. I am excited for my final year and can’t wait to finish my dissertation.

I do believe that the school offers excellent education in the material that the courses cover, however the structuring of the program is very self taught. The lectures are useful sessions of information, but the seminars are often unhelpful and the seminar tutors often seem just as, if not more so, lost as the students are. The people are excellent and there are some really wonderful professors, but there are a great deal more who seem unbothered by the ineffectiveness of their seminars.

The Queen Mary University of London delivered as promised. The learning style was broken down and students were treated with respect. Group studies, lectures, lecturer to teacher relationships are par excellence.
The environment was serene and people respected each other. The community was friendly and religious beliefs were nothing different to a multicultural friendly environment. I could walk home late at night and wasn’t bothered about getting waylaid.

While the first year was full of compulsory modules and slightly overwhelming, I have really enjoyed the last two years. They have allowed me to explore what I am genuinely interested in (specifically human rights) by offering such a wide range of modules. This is what I have enjoyed most out of the course. There was a long directory of modules to choose from in the last two years, all with different types of assignments (either entirely exam-based, entirely coursework or a mixture of the two). As I picked mostly human-rights based modules and such, I have realised that I want to work in this field too, and am also preparing to apply to a masters in this field within the next two years. However, some of the module assignments changed after registration in the third year, and this caused some problems in the last semester when students tried to change modules, as each module change is done manually in the Politics department. I know that some students, including myself, were unhappy with this experience when modules filled up too quickly.

Student support has been amazing. Lecturers and professors have been very helpful with assignment-support. The help has ranged from office hours to telephone calls and emails. In my second and third year, I have found this particularly helpful in pushing my grade higher as lecturers are always open to looking over essay and assignment plans and offering helpful advice. One small problem that I encountered with this in the third year was that marking criteria was inconsistent with some modules and lecturers. However, this was only limited to one or two modules, and overall, I was happy with my experience.

Career support is also very good. I only started using the resources available from the careers office this year, but it has been a good experience. Meetings are available every week and I have used them to get my cover letter checked as well as having a mock interview for an internship. This really helped me to prepare for possible questions as it was my first interview.

I would definitely recommend this course and university to a friend. I have enjoyed my time and know what I want to do in the future career-wise.

Good uni, good academic resources and opportunities for networking, very interesting events. Good location, very convenient. Fairly safe. Very good teachers. The strike situation is a bit annoying though.

The staff is very approachable and willing to help in all circumstances. I also lived on campus in the first year and the facilities were very good and useful – and a lot of emails were sent to help first-years to facilitate our integration into uni life