Contemporary India Research/ option of joint PhD with NUS MPhil

King's College London, University of London

What makes it such a great place to study? -- passionate and intelligent professors -- diverse content (on my degree and chosen modules) -- great location (Strand campus) -- overall good opportunities and support (once you find it) And how could it be improved? -- better access to resources: it's hard to find information on counselling, financial support, exam help, opportunities, etc. I have to work hard to find it myself -- predominantly white administration, even in modules that cover BAME studies -- counselling support is lacking

The best thing is the location and facilities, it’s located central London it has many places to study and I love the architecture of the buildings especially bush house. The worst thing might be just my personal experience but living at home made it difficult to socialise with other students the same

I love that King's prides itself on being a research-led institution and think the quality of teaching is really high. Being in London is an amazing plus as well, but it also means that it's unlike going to university in any other city as there is no immediately visible student population, and the best things to do are out and about in the further community. King's has great facilities, but as an Arts and Humanities student I don't really see them as the majority of investment seems to go into STEM. My university experience has been quite negatively impacted by strikes due to the stubbornness of VPs in the face of teaching staff calling for better working conditions, and there have been controversies every now and then about King's commitment to anti-racism - whilst I've been involved in university-wide initiatives, it seems the university still struggles to take a firm stance on combatting it, again because of the sustained interests of higher-ups. The administration is also incredibly ineffective, and I really struggled over my year abroad from their lack of organisation (e.g. not submitting my details to my partner university, and not offering support for us when navigating visa-related crises.) Overall, I've enjoyed my university experience, but to say that it has been perfect would not be true. That said, the issues raised are definitely not specific to KCL and are endemic in modern universities from what I can gather from discussions with friends at other universities both in and out of London.

King's College is right in the heart of London, which makes it easy to always find something to do. You'll find a diverse community here and always someone to talk to. However, coming from an American university, you lose the traditional, close-knit community feel of a college town. My accommodation is about 30 minutes from my campus building, so it can be a hassle to coordinate walking to class or tubing every day. I think the most frustrating thing I found with King's was their class selection process. I'm not sure if this was just an exchange student problem, but I literally had to fill out a google form and was unsure going in whether or not these classes would clash with each other. It wasn't until much later I found out about class times and clashes, and when I had them I had to fill out an additional form, looking up the timetables and writing down all the lecture times to make sure they didn't clash. Why they put this all on the student's end is baffling to me and was certainly a stressful experience.

The classes are good, but the scheduling has been really uneven throughout the week which has been difficult to adjust to, especially so during the strikes. Really messes with my internal schedule and autism.