Birkbeck, University of London

Poor Experience, hopefully this review will save someone else from making a similar expensive mistake. Subject matter was generally good but the actual teaching was lacking. The level of response and assistance from tutors was seriously poor. Took months to get a response from a personal tutor. Think carefully before committing to your chosen course or subject matter, especially if going into a new/different subject matter as the support might not be there. Meant to be the place for people returning to study but I found this not to be the case in my experience. When you think about value for money in terms of teaching and support its pretty poor. If you are confident in your subject matter and coming straight from an undergraduate degree then I'm sure it is perfectly ok. But if like me you have been out of education for a while and were looking to expand your knowledge/career in a new area then I wouldn't recommend it as a first option. Look at alternative options more closely and decide whether it is worth the cost very carefully.

The keynes library

Great university for dedicated and interested students. You have to commit to your own studies and be independent, using the classes as a supplement to your personal studies. Graduated from Birkbeck proudly in 2020. Thanks so much for the experience, knowledge and passion you shared with me.

I spent four, long painful years (evenings, weekends and every other possible free day) of my life here. Overall experience was a positive one. However library was only ever open 24 hours in very small periods, classes were cancelled at short notice and in some cases not taught at all (during various strikes). The admin team are nothing short of amazing, very helpful each time I had a query and switching to part time study was both an easy and straight forward process. Facilities in general are okay, some locations are not well maintained and the use of class rooms can vary depending on availability at weekends (especially if you wish to work within small groups and libraries are not always the most appropriate place for discussion). Seminars were often taught by recent masters graduates and didn't feel that well supported in some aspects. You are on your own with a majority of the time and encouraged to use both your initiative and common sense. Time management will either be your friend or your worst enemy here. Not the conventional university set up and support is there if you absolutely need it, although guidance as to who is best for each case can be somewhat misleading. Very rarely covered all the reading materials in lectures, almost impossible given the 90 minute format, so you are expected to cover the remainder in your own free time which I imagine cannot be easy for the lifestyles of some. Would recommend this University if evening study suits your circumstances!

Library isn't open on weekends. Closes 9pm on weekdays. 6pm on Friday. Have to book a slot JUST TO ENTER the library 2 days in advance. Utterly useless for people who are working and can't come during the day. Defeats the whole point of the uni as advertised. Rip-off.

Not sure what kind of impact this may have, but at this point I am quite determined to have some kind of justice. I am into Computer Science/Data Science, and Birkbeck Uni is terrible. I can only talk for the Computer Science department masters: if you are smart and have any kind of doubt, stay away from here! The most glaring issue: randomly assigned thesis supervisors. You've read it right. You cannot choose your supervisor. You will be assigned one randomly with no option to change it. How it works: they make you answer an extremely generic "questionnaire" very late towards the end of the MSc (while you want to start researching and working on your topic earlier). This "questionnaire" is composed by 1 (one!) multiple choice question with 4-5 options, each indicating an extremely broad area of "potential interest" (like one is "Artificial Intelligence" - how do you choose the sub-area in that universe!). Then, based on your answer, they assign you the "best-fit" supervisor for that area. If you're wondering if this means your work on your topic of preference will be revised by a complete stranger that has no experience or knowledge whatsoever in your actual subject of preference, that is correct. Then, the supervisor will be of no help, or rather detrimental, not replying to emails or very late, making random comments just to state that they contributed to the supervision. That is just a way for the understaffed Birkbeck personnel to "manage" students and get away with less work. Other issues: Data Science course is put together with a complete lack of vision. Meaning, a course in Data Analytics will be shoved down your throat first semester without any student being previously tested on their knowledge of Statistics, and/or any introductory course in Statistics. This meant an absolute nightmare of a course where 30% of the class was completely lost and continuously interrupting the lessons for, guess what, beginner's questions. In addition to that, the course includes two *mandatory* "classes" that are "taught" by the pretentious MSc Director himself, which are are a horrible mish-mash of copy-pasted googled material (no joke). The rest of the classes are basic CompSci classes stripped down in content to fit the schedule without any vision. Essential topics like Data Structures and Algorithms are basically skimmed over, while too much time is lost on other basic topics the industry gives zero interest in (e.g. boolean calculations by hand). After talking to other students, I gathered that also the optional modules are similarly bad. Realising the mess that Data Science MSc is midway into it, I switched to Computer Science (they "allow" you to do that with a fee of about 800£ for an extra exam to do). There, the situation is less bad (no purely bad modules). However, the course is still very basic; sometimes they cut material useful for professionals (most of the time), sometimes for Academics (prospective PhDs), with little vision. And again, there was little to do when it came to the most important part of any MSc: the final project and the randomly assigned supervisor. If you care about any kind of supervision, good luck. If you're happy on doing the project yourself, like doing your own app and writing a bunch of thesis pages on it, you'll be ok – then again I can't see why you'd have chosen a MSc degree in the first place. Most students were incredibly frustrated and/or unsatisfied. The online experience during Covid has been ok-ish, although they somehow managed to make it worse over time. They switched from a fully working software that was great (Panopto) that was deployed in the early months, to go for Microsoft Teams, losing useful features in the process. Why they did it is everyone's guess: no teacher or student I talked to is happy about this switch. If you are looking for a Computer Science program, I'd go for another Uni. The randomized thesis supervisor is unique to BBK Computer Science Department. I know for a fact that other BBK Departments (e.g. Psychology) do not have such system.

Best University in London for those who work and want to get back to classroom learning.

Idk I'm just nice

That uni has such a great cafe to eat something(actually those are soo yummy)in perfect prices.

Great Uni

Studied here and it was the best place I've ever been able to learn at.

I love this University.. It is very unique as you get the chance to be around and study with mature and professional people.. Highly recommended for adults ????

Birkbeck University London is always a nice place to be, and Work whenever deployed by my Company, CIS Security Ltd.

Here I found the most disgusting person in the world, George Tsogas

I did half a masters and left because I found it really poor quality of teaching. The topics were basic and the teaching was almost non existant. The campus and library etc are nice and it's a nice feeling uni but the teaching was lacking.

I applied for a History MA having been seduced by the wonderful diversity of modules available. When I got to enrolment I received an email asking me to pick my modules for that year. Low and behold half of the modules advertised were not running. Lucky for me I haven't received my loan yet so I've managed to get the hell out of there. Oh Birkbeck, you never change!

Birkbeck, University of London (legally Birkbeck College, University of London; informally Birkbeck and abbreviated BBK) is a public research university located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder, Sir George Birkbeck, and its supporters, Jeremy Bentham, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham, Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom.

Good student service so far, nice cafe lol. Very nice decoration in the school of art. Sincerely hope I can have a fun time here for MA.

Happy and proud to have graduated from this Uni. Highly recommended.

Modern and respecting it's students. Great teaching staff, flexible studying hours and amazing location. Joining Birkbeck is one of the best decisions of my life!

Worst university ever. HIGHLY unhelpful with financial situations, take disgustingly long too. The lecturers are very bad and seem to lack passion in their teaching making the classes very boring and hard to try and understand/listen to. The lecturers are even rude towards students, showing no support towards students and look at students like “oh well not my problem you don’t understand”. I would never in a million years recommend this university, they set you up to fail. They don’t even have space in their own departments for lectures, you have to walk all the way to UCL for the most part.

Lovely uni

Poor quality tuition. You're better off buying a book and teaching yourself. By coming here all you are doing is paying for a piece of paper. The teaching and university life experience here is abysmal.

To all those thinking about joining the University... The University has a lot of potential to be great but unfortunately simple things let it down. One of the main things are they always seem to recruit lecturers who aren't fluent in English and by that I mean it is seriously hard in understanding someone with such a strong foreign accent i.e African/ Other Nationalities. It is important to have lecturers that we all understand but when students are leaving early and not attending the sessions due to not being able to understand the lecturer this is a serious problem. Many students have filed a complaint but unfortunately the University hasnt taken this into consideration and instead every class you walk by the majority lecturers are from Africa whose accents aren't clear enough for all students to understand. When paying such a large amount to gain a degree the University should be recruiting people from all over the world but with clear English accent. Recruiting people from all over the world is not an issue but if UK born students are fidning it hard to understand how are students from all over the world able to understand a strong accent. It's simple things that need to be resolved as these things can have a strong impact on a students future. Students should be able to provide feedback after taster sessions as to explain who they are able to understand as obviously the recruitment for the University do not sit in the classes so they should be providing the students this power. Many students are struggling and are now having to self teach themselves as the lecturers arent explaining the topics clearly either and this is also another big concern. I wouldn't be surprised if this University gets more negative feedback due to the poor recruitment in lecturers. Haven't witnessed any observations or feedback forms via email for students to voice their opinion on how well their classes are going. Universities need to listen to the students more as this needs to be resolved as soon as possible. I will be filing a formal complaint on this, if anyone else is having the same issue please also file a complaint as we need the University to make a change urgently. Kind regards Sabbir Chowdhury

15,000 students in ucl university london

International university with high research standards. Classes take place mostly at night, so you can work during the day. Tons of events for the community and aids for international students.

I studied for 7 years at Birkbeck. Part time evening BSc Biology & LLM Law. Turned out to be a good investment for me. Made friends I still see several years later. This is a grown up university, so if you want your hand held maybe better to look elsewhere. Like all universities, departments differ in terms of reputation, teaching and research. Blanket comments are not very helpful.

Just walked through the campus.

Horrendous experience at Birkbeck. 1st year they make it very easy with lectures in the main building and many surveys to see how you are getting on and questions on whether you know of people wanting to give up. 2nd year it continues Like that. From 3rd year onwards they start moving all your lectures around. You might have a lecture in holborn and then the second part on the main building meaning that after working all day you might have 3 hours non stop just because your 15 min break are spent moving around buildings. By the 4th and 5th years lecturers are trying to set you to fail. By the 5th year and you need to go on with your dissertation you learn that even though it's an evening university ... the supervisors are not available in the evening for support. You also learn here are no support sessions and you're left on your own. You paid £9K per year for the university plus whatever you owe to student finance and by the 4th and 5th years the university is losing the interest in you because they know that you will never be able to swap your degree for somewhere else... There is also a very dirty culture of inflated egos amongst lecturers. There are a few peacock behaviours that are off putting. Many times forgetting they're dealing with adults that can see straight through their rubbish. Administrative department is useless. From not responding to student queries to providing wrong information leading to loss of grades and lots of time and patience... to lying, I could make a list. Points of escalation within the university, because they know they don't have enough people and are overloading the staff, will assume their side, forgetting it is us who are paying for the rubbish service they provide. I wonder how it was when fees are about 3.5K ? I bet the same... the problem currently is that more pockets are being stuffed and student are just paying to perpetuate this. Publish the results of your leaving students... not only the 1st and 2nd years !

Sadly a very bad university for international students studying here. Have been racially discriminated on campus, even cheated by staffs, maybe just because I am a foreign student from Asia. Staffs in the offices are usually unprofessional and arrogant to us. It's just not a normal university and they don't even have a completed system about how to manage this university. There are some good lecturers but apart from this, I can't see any good experience here. I would choose another university if I could have the second chance.

Quality teaching, world renound and overall a fantastic environment to broaden your horizons. I have done two degrees through BBK, changed my life. Thoroughly recommend.

Organisation of this University is poor. Everything from choosing modules for the next year to releasing exam results are last minute for this so called University. As a quick example me and fellow class friends are STILL waiting for results and to pick modules for our second year and theres only 2 weeks till the start of the year.. how does that work Very poor protocals

Amazing University, very professional and reputable and rightly so. As a student they help me achieve the best of my capability, the lecturers and seminar tutors are always willing to help. So badly want to get my degree and represent the university. As a disable student they do not discriminate, I get the best attention, software and help with the university. Seminar tutors are great in answering questions and clearing doubts. Birkbeck University Of London is where to be if you want to seriously work and achieve your best.

Fantastic university! I did my BA in history, intellectually stimulating and the lecturers are world class! Enjoyed my time so much I am going back to do my MA. Would recommend to anyone looking to study at degree level but cannot commit to a campus lifestyle.

Birkbeck university is great for any student struggling with normal day lectures. It offers you the ability to work day time and attend lectures in the evening. It can be difficult at first but it is definitely a good choice. Further more there multiple way how to access the location .

A lovely community of mature academics. Evening degrees in sciences, law and humanities. I have been a student here for many years, and enjoyed it immensely.

So I’m currently in my first year at this uni in the Stratford campus and I can hands down tell you right now don’t choose this place. I’m in my final term and I have been to 4 lessons out of 20 and here are my reasons. Teaching is very poor, they just assume that you know basic which coming from college we don’t learn. Teachers seem to hold a grudge against students. For example I wasn’t feeling well so I didn’t talk to my class mates next to me as she asked us to do so for the next 4 lessons she kept looking at me with weird looks kinda rude looks too and kept indirecting me in lessons so I didn’t go to any more of her lessons. I wasn’t the only one multiple students didn’t go any more too. Another teacher that I currently have said to us and I quote “ if you don’t understand go on moodle I’m not explaining” we filed a report but nothing happened. Teachers like to ramble on about useless stuff half the time not even related to topic. All my assignments and exams I taught myself as I found them useful. They are not good at telling you where different things are for example due to poor teaching I failed one of my exams and my tutor got in contact with me to explain my recent result and she told me to come to some building that I have never heard of or been told of so I assumed that because I study at the Stratford campus that’s where my tutor and that room is when I got there the stuff haven’t heard of her or even knew where the building was so I contacted her and she replied to me saying “My god, kainum” that’s not how you spell my name and gave me quiet a bit of attitude in the email. Overall I have not had a good experience with this uni and therefore due to the depression and anxiety caused by this place I have decided to drop out would not recommend.

Short answer is no. The (IT) course tutors are either current students at Birckbeck or self employed sort of freelance non-staff sometimes quite rude outsiders with no grades or titles. Classes are overcrowded and the whole thing appears to be heavenly driven by profit rather than the quality of teaching. Who would spend hard earned money (unless your daddy pays for it:) ) to be tought by another student /or ungraded outsider? The problem is that Birbeck unlike other universities (hides this critical information when one registers for a particular course) does not publish the course tutors and their profile hence is very easy to get bogged into this only to find out after you started. And be aware that the staff there could be very hostile towards any student who tries to raise any matter at all.

Discrimination performs by security officers choosing certain types of students to control exclusively without explanation. A University should be place of progress and tolerance. Apart from that the teachers are insightful and inspiring (MSc Corp Responsibility and Sustainability)

I love this uni! Been studying here for a year already and their support and pastoral system is great! I really enjoy being taught by Birkbeck lecturers as I feel the quality of education I’m receiving is unmatched. They give you independence but also give you tons of advice on how to improve on your work and also the study skills workshops as well as online resources are amazing. My only disadvantages are that they can be quite slow in processing things though, as they’re very busy sometimes. Also, the student union isn’t the best and sometimes events are during lecture hours, but this is understandable as it’s an evening uni. And being part of UOL, you can access other institutions’ libraries and seminars too- which is great!

A super university (where I've studied) which focuses on the needs of working people who want to get an education, with a mix of students from young to very old! Birkbeck is part of the University of London so is very prestigious and has an impressive line-up of visiting lecturers. While it has a very good research library and other facilities of its own, students who are studying here can also take advantage of the other academic institutions that make up the wider University.

I wouldn't send my children to that University in for a million years. I can't believed it I can't passed the modules for year 1 and 2, was even told that they are selling the transcripts to their friends for a little pocket money. Shame on you Birbeck. You are not so pretty anymore.

Excellent place to study with a wide range of learning facilities, very convenient to the extent that at times you can adjust your timetable accordingly to your preference. I've had never a problem with any of the staff, so there isn't any sign of discrimination, it's a place a genuine person would fit into, really just marvelous.

Great place to study, especially if you are at work or have other committments during the day. They run many short courses and part-time degrees and are well respected in the academic world and are renowned for offering the best evening-based study going. Facilities are great and it looks like they have invested money into it. The library is also extensive and over 5 floors and has books on just about anything that you need to study on. In a word, fantastic university.

Our uni is renting space here for lectures, so I can't comment on the quality of teaching. The facilities are good though. They could upgrade the toilets however.

11 minutes and then a simple unfortunately we cannot take your call and hang up, been trying since 9am! It's 11:13!

Great University. School of Law is outstanding however student feedback and careers advice could be better.

The fact that you're learning in an environment of matured people gives you the courage to know that one can do better. Birkbeck also gives you the opportunity to learn at your own pace since you're working full time plus having a family. I will come back to pursue my Msc soon x

Love the library and facilties but my friwnds house where my law lectures are hold however the library's charges on overdue books is UNACCEPTABLE. £4.50 a day. I was abroad when 3 of my books were request which meant that I couldn't renew them as I was planning to. When I returned to the UK, I had about £30 to be paid on my account. It's a rip off!

Birkbeck College was transformed to Christmas festive to shoot a film and it is worth running around. Wow