for the England-orientated context of this page, the texts will be provided in English only
I cannot really and truely recommend the KCL. For starters, I disliked the campus (the way it was fragmented made it difficult to be on schedule and especially to plan housing nearby). But what disturbed me most was the poor outset of the summer school. a) the whole experience had more of a school trip than a real university experience b) you barely met people outside your class because of the unbearable amount of attendance duties c) you were tought by phd students only and never got to "real" professors, which led there that d) your teacher's English was not much more sophisticated than your own.
Coming to London I expected native speakers. Coming to KCL with its great reputation I expected good teaching. And of course, our tutor was motivated and the class was good and all - but it wasn't "university".
The assignment consisted of homework only- so that's a plus and a minus, as it is slightly too easy for my taste because you don't actually have to learn for the subject at all. Moreover, the homework is strictly based on a word count so I for myself spent more time adapting, deleting and adding superflous words in order to match the word count than actually writing the essay.
I also get the feeling that KCL takes everyone and still everyone taken seems to feel oh so special and oh so famous. Might have been the fact that some "real" z-level famous actors/actresses and managers attended courses, might be the reputation KCL has, but I got quite the feeling that the reputation in general counted more than the education.
What I do have to make positive mention of is the social activities: These were well planned, easy to get & attend (no extreme run to the tickets) and fun. The fact that summer scholars got fridays off also gave plenty of free time to explore London.
Level of English was easy to follow and judging from other scholars must've been possible for B1 speakers as well.
Very well worked the Summer School Office which dealt with problems, lost account passwords, upload-errors etc. Not so well was the amount of time it took for us to get our certificates. Grades
as well as certificates were only to be recieved about 3-4 month (!) after the stay.
To sum things up, given the choice again, I would choose a different college than KCL - it is just too expensive for a summer holiday camp experience. Plus, if I do a summer holiday camp, then I don't want to spend lots of hours in class with attendance and homework; but doing a university experience - with maybe the hindsight of a postgrad degree - I'd like to hear professors speak as well.
Looking past all the difficulties getting there (change of dates for the course, change of session the course was in, really difficult to get payment done), which are probably one-time occurences anyway, LSE was a great choice.
Starting with the campus, which is located in central London and after a while easy to find and get around in: I liked the modern buildings, I liked the campus atmosphere, I liked the fact that
summer is a regular term here. I loved the library with its odd style.
The way the course was tought gave a great insight into the way LSE works and how going to uni there would feel like. We had classes with tutors in groups of about 20 and lectures in plenum.
Lectures were tought by professors only and they were all extremely motivated and especially motivated to teach us. It wasn't just for show or for showing off knowledge , it really
seemed to be focused on passing on an understanding about the topic. Questions could be asked in lecture if neccessary and were dealt with nicely and well, but deeper problems should be adressed
in classes. Our tutors were all very helpful and had visibly interest in teaching us. I'd just like to briefly mention Henrietta Zeffert here, as she was my tutor and a really great
teacher!
We also got a good and throughout feedback and had the opportunity to practise speaking skills.
Due to campus events and the fact that all scholars on campus were from the LSE Summer experience it was easy to meet people from other courses as well and you weren't stuck on your class. In each lecture were about 130 people, lectures and classes were held every day during the week.
A slight minus was the difficulty to get tickets to social activities - I would have enjoyed seeing more of them or an easier system to get a grip to them; but on the other hand, organising trips
for smaller groups (i.e. Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford etc) was okay too. (I can recommend liladventures btw)
Grades were recieved shortly after the finals and requesting a certificate didn't take too long as well.
I would suggest everyone to find housing by oneself and not using the given ones, as Syndey Webb House (the only "cheap" one) is a bit annoying to reach (changing underground twice, not soo good
area) and the others are far too expensive. Always a good choice are the houses from Unite but there is plenty to find for those who really search. (careful, Unite doesn't provide
bedding/cuttlery/pots/towls/sanitaries)
Finding your way around London is easiest by tfl.gov.uk, just to add.
But coming back to LSE: Alltogether a great experience, with throughoutly nice people - staff as well as students - and a really amazing insight into how it would feel to study in London at LSE.
The final exam was written and held in a very British style (starts only when the clock is at exactly ten, not a second before; allows nothing close to the table except a pen and water; etc etc) but the grading seems fair and having listened to the lectures it is definitely do-able, even with having explored London in the meantime.
->> Hightly recommended!
Info for Vienna Students - Accrediting the course - Bitte unbedingt mit Frau Mag Haas abklären, ob es dafür noch Ects Punkte und wenn ja, dann ob diese
als MP Völkerrecht gelten, gibt! Der Kurs ist "contemporary issues of international law" und wurde bisher anerkannt, ob das immer noch der Fall ist, ist gerüchteweise unklar!
When you are not sure if stuck in a self-help group or actually attending a university course.. then you are probably at Morley College London. On a more serious note, I do find the immense focus
on diversity and integration, even more, inclusion, great. What I'm not so sure is, whether they might overdo it a little. But I would never just nag on that fact, a college seems to not really
have the power over who or who not attends its courses and a slight reverse discrimination would in general not bother me.
What did bother me was a) the unfriendliness of ALL the staffmembers. Impoliteness in London is not so easy to find but on Morley you are overwhelmed by the amount of hectic and arrogant staff
members. and b) the yucky building.
I never ever recieved my students card, even tough I called twice + emailed and everytime I was told "it is on its way" ...yeah sure. I have to add here, that my adress was not an Austrian one,
no, it was my London students home which was actually just two blocks away. Suggesting to fetch the card myself didn't bring me anywhere either as the card was nowhere to be seen. I speculate
that there simply are no student ID cards, at least not for Summer Scholars, but if that's the case I don't understand why it was neccessary to advertise them so vehemently.
I don't want to go more into the teaching staff because I experienced two different kinds, really great ones and really bad ones and I know that it always depends on luck which ones you get.
Nothing the university could change there.
But the campus.. It is very hard to find words for a campus that ugly. It is even harder to believe that a student coming from the Vienna Law Faculty would struggle for words describing an ugly
campus. But I do. I really do struggle. The good aspect first, it is very central. That's about it. And I think I'd rather go half an hour by the London Underground than ever set foot in that
building again. About two third are located underground without windows and with very shady lighting conditions. The walls are - f*cked up. I can't really find any other words. The whole building
looks as if the best days of it are far gone and I believe that most of the spooky feeling is induced by the flickerings of the lights and the fact that the lights automatically turn off every 3
minutes, So mind you, if you want to have a chat on the hallway with a fellow student - without pushing the light switch constantly you'd soon get a haunted house feeling.
To sum it up in one sentence: Would not recommend!
Great campus, shady dorm rooms and the bad knowledge that studying there you'd have to occupy one of those. I do think, tough, that you could really make something out of the rooms. Buying a
radiant heater, putting up posters, doing something against moldy walls, maybe changing the windows (the last two ones would be the university's duty) and somehow finding a solution for the fact
that the rooms are not en suite.
If there is a way around those mentioned facts, then I do not know any greater campus than the one of the University of Oxford.
With its old buildings, the huge outside area, it is a residence that shows power and gives, radiates, the feeling of the old clichee universities one knows from English films.
The student-teacher relationship seems friendly and tuitition is well.
I for myself wouldn't want to pay 9000quid a year living in a molded dorm room, freezing due to English windows and waiting an hour until somebody thankfully leaves the shower, only to get
claustrophobic in the tiny bathroom which looks disgusting even when it is clean. But that's me. And that's more of a rant against the housing conditions than the university, so I will leave it
at that.