Shreya Review at University Of Birmingham [BIRMINGHAM UNI], Birmingham | Collegedunia

My Master's at University of Birmingham review

8.7
Verified Review (Out of 10)
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Academic
10.0
Accommodation
8.0
Faculty
10.0
Infrastructure
10.0
Social Life
8.0
Placement
6.0

Student's Snapshots

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Shreya
Reviewed on Jul 7, 2025(Enrolled 2024)

Course Curriculum

10

  • The MA International Relations course difficulty level is moderate to high. It was both theoretical and practical in nature. There was one course with SPSS and STATA software usage.
  • The best part was that the course was more student-based, wherein the students were given more opportunities to discuss with peers and come up with the conclusion of the given topic. It was very interactive. The negative part was the assignment being tougher than the class discussions.
  • Rest were more theoretical and contemporary issue-based.
  • I had 3-hour classes (2-hour class and 1-hour seminar), which were 3 classes per week. There is also an option to choose a non-credit foreign language (I chose Arabic level 2) so I had a 1-hour class per week for it. Total 10 hours per week.
  • I had 64 students in the full-time course. There were 7 Indian students in the same course.

Admission Experience

  • I applied to 12 universities in the UK. Most of them I got a conditional offer letter; for a few I got an unconditional offer letter. I received my offers from the University of East Anglia, University of Exeter, University of Leeds, University of Bristol, Aston University, Coventry University, Durham University, Newcastle University, University of Bath, Lancaster University, University of Birmingham and University of Bath. I rejected the rest by keeping in mind the interest of the module, familiarity of the Indian population and food, availability of Indian groceries, racial discrimination index, University ranking and affordability.
  • I chose this university as it has better modules, societies of my interest, activities and opportunities of my interest, a better world ranking, and is part of russell group.
  • The admission process required you to provide documents like an IELTS, TOEFL, or PTE certificate of 6.5 bands with 6 band each for english language proficiency; a CV and Statement of Purpose wherein you explain your passion for why you want to do this course and join this particular university; two reference letters from a university or job; and a provisional or degree certificate.
  • If you get accepted, there are some other requirements, like an English language minimum requirement, passing of undergraduate university level with their set percentage, or provision of a reference letter. They give you a conditional offer letter, which needs to be made an unconditional offer to get the CAS letter to proceed with the student visa application. This process takes 2 weeks to 1 month depending on University. Then when the CAS letter is given by University, we need to make partial or full payment of tuition fees, keep specific funds in the bank account to file, and provide a TB test (which takes 1 day to 1 week to get the result) for the UK visa application.
  • The requirements of the English test and university marks vary from course to course. For M.A. International Relations, it's 6.5 bands on IELTS (I only took IELTS), with an exception if a student got 75% in the English language in 12th standard from CBSE or IGSE or ICSE board and 80% from the State or NIOS board. The university requirement is 75% at the undergraduate level from India.
  • The overall experience was excellent; the professors are extremely supportive. I had a wonderful experience with the society and events; however, I struggled to ace my assignments, as their method is very new to me and they have higher expectations and I couldn't get more marks even with utmost efforts.
  • I applied for the 2024 September intake and I wanted to specialise in my own field, BA international Relations (hons.) to MA international Relations for better job prospects.
  • Collecting documents ( Reference letter from university professors)—1 month.
  • Provisional degree (2 months after final exam)
  • TB test (on the same day)
  • Conditional offer letter to Unconditional offer letter (2 months, as my results were not out)
  • Visa application (3 weeks waiting for approval).
  • I started in October 2023 (Ielts test as the first step) and ended it by July 2024 with visa application. By August 2024, I got my Student Visa.

Faculty

10

  • 1 out of 100 students has a chance to secure Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant or Departmental Assistant position in university of Birmingham. Usually undergraduate students have a higher chance to secure it, as they are in a longer term of years. Students get paid opportunities as student ambassadors, teaching assistants, research assistants, on-campus cafe baristas or restaurant staff, and library assistants. 20 hours per week is legal for international students on student visas.
  • Securing a job on campus is moderate to difficult. If they have previous experience, they can have it easier.
  • Legally in UK it's 12.50 pounds per hour that students earn from part-time jobs. Some students can earn more depending on the job requirement. It's quite difficult to secure a part-time job along with studies in the UK and it can take around 3 months to a year to find a part-time job and a lot of applications on indeed and other platforms. Student has to make a suitable CV for the part-time job without a picture and educational marks. Usually students apply through indeed or Glassdoor, and some also ask in the store, restaurant or cafe, along with their CV to ask if there is any vacancy available. When it's done, they are either called in for an in-person interview, a trial shift or an online interview of 15 to 30 minutes based on their profile and the suitability of the job requirements.

Campus Life

10

  • We have two campuses; one is in Dubai,UAE and the other one is in Birmingham, UK.
  • We have Library,Cafes, restaurants,food trucks,cycle repair shop, stationary shop, University Support Center, religious Chaplaincy of Christianity,Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, Sports complexes of various kinds, a guide to student buildings, a lot of study space ,winterborne Garden, study spaces with vending machines, microwaves to use, water filters, coffee machines, on-campus first aid, and ladies toilets with free tampons and sanitary napkins.

Part Time Jobs

  • 1 out of 100 students has a chance to secure Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant or Departmental Assistant position in university of Birmingham. Usually undergraduate students have a higher chance to secure it, as they are in a longer term of years. Students get paid opportunities as student ambassadors, teaching assistants, research assistants, on-campus cafe baristas or restaurant staff, and library assistants. 20 hours per week is legal for international students on student visas.
  • Securing a job on campus is moderate to difficult. If they have previous experience, they can have it easier.
  • Legally in UK it's 12.50 pounds per hour that students earn from part-time jobs. Some students can earn more depending on the job requirement. It's quite difficult to secure a part-time job along with studies in the UK and it can take around 3 months to a year to find a part-time job and a lot of applications on indeed and other platforms. Student has to make a suitable CV for the part-time job without a picture and educational marks. Usually students apply through indeed or Glassdoor, and some also ask in the store, restaurant or cafe, along with their CV to ask if there is any vacancy available. When it's done, they are either called in for an in-person interview, a trial shift or an online interview of 15 to 30 minutes based on their profile and the suitability of the job requirements.

Placement

6

  • Less than 10% have a chance of securing a full-time job if they don't have any previous experience through internships, jobs, certifications or volunteering.
  • For jobs after graduation, the university provides career networking days, CV and job assistance and skill development courses. Apart from that, students can apply for jobs/internships and volunteering on indeed or main websites.
  • Currently my course is ongoing and will end at September 2025 , so I have no idea about placements of my batchmates.

Accommodation

Off Campus
8

  • I got student accommodation off campus through Amber Student. I paid in 9 installments of 1,015 per installment. I didn't face any challenges as such for my accommodations; however, for some accommodations, they require a UK Guarantor (a local guarantor for accommodation; if the payer forgets to pay the rent, the Guarantor will be contacted to make the payment on their behalf), which can be very tricky if the student doesn't have trusted local relatives or family members in the UK and also if you want to leave student accommodation for some reason, we need to pass on the accommodation contract to another person who is willing to take that remaining housing contract; however, it's not the case for rented apartments.
  • As for suggestions for students, student accommodation is a much better option if they take it nearby and helps to keep the person more socialized, as there are around 5 to 10 flatmates depending on the accomodation and also no need to pay extra for wifi, security and utilities.

Exams

  • I had given the IELTS test for English proficiency; there is no other admission test for MA International Relations. I needed 2 reference letters, a CV, an SOP, a passport, and a provisional degree and transcript. There is no interview process for MA. International Relations; however, there are mark requirements and an English proficiency requirement for the admission.

Fees

  • My fee is 24,000 pounds paid in full installments. For food and other expenses I got 300 pounds per month. For hostel fees I paid 166 per week for 52 weeks (8,632 pounds for the entire year), which includes the utility bill.
  • The university takes both full-year and semester-wise payments.
  • My estimate for monthly expenses is 300 pounds, including groceries, transportation and regular expenses if utilised smartly with proper considerations. I applied for student accommodation so rent is paid in 9 installments of 1,015 pounds from September 2024 to April 2025 each month.

Scholarship

  • Yes, I received a scholarship from the University of Birmingham, which is the Global Masters Scholarship. They give this scholarship to the specific country in the list, including India. The student needs to have more than 60% in the undergraduate, accept the full-time master's unconditional offer letter and pay 2,000 as a deposit. This scholarship is only for overseas students. I received a 2,000 pounds deduction from the 24,000 pounds fees payment.
  • I don't have many details on the average number of scholarships received by students each year.