I got an offer with a studentship to start my PhD in Politics at the University of Hull. I am so excited as you can imagine. However, some discouraging people including friends have been negative over my decision to apply to Hull. They say the city is dull etc. Some even say it's no use doing a Phd at a university like Hull. But Hull is ranked 5th in Politics in the 2009 Times university rankings. With my little knowledge of Britain, I am getting confused even though I certainly will go to Hull regardless of this negativity. I don't plan to stay in the UK after my Phd and I come from a country where university rankings matter less so I care less about rankings, popularity. I would still like to get some assuarances from people who are already at the University of Hull or those with inside knowledge about both the Uni and department.

I have never visited the dept itself, but have met a few staff from there, and they have been consistently excellent. Hull may be ranked 5th by THE, but it is not perceived as traditionally one of the best, although it has made significant improvements. My worry would not be the dept as such, but Hull itself as a place. No insult intended to anyone from/who lives in/who loves Hull; but it is a bit of a ghost town. it is miles from any decent sized city that would have a good social/cultural scene. It has high unemployment (which in itself is nothing to be ashamed of) but does not create a positive atmosphere.

I'd say Hull is a good university - fair enough, it's not one of the big international hitters, but it is known as a "good" solid university, and certainly not known as a mickey mouse university. Two of my friends who were privately educated and achieved good A level results chose Hull to study law. The town is working-class (an old port/fishing industry town) and it has suffered a decline and it is dull (similar to many other English towns), but I don't think it's fair to judge the university based on its location. For instance, Warwick University is in Coventry (which by many is known as a dump), but this doesn't usually detract students. Like Warwick, Hull university isn't slap bang in the middle of town, but nearer the suburban areas.

I visited friends at Hull, and many live in Cottingham which is a nice village (famous for Philip Larkin - the poet) just near the university, and they never ventured into the actual town centre, but spent their time in Cottingham or on campus. I've been to many universities, and the Hull's students were by far the friendliest I've ever come across (and it had the cheapest beer).

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Hull itself is not a very attractive place to live. However, it is cheap and this will count in its favour if you're living on a bursary. It might also mean that you could afford to live in a nicer part of town (the nicer areas being relatively inexpensive compared to bad areas in nicer cities). I think the quality of the department is more important for a PhD than the quality of the town itself, and as far as I know Hull has a reasonable reputation for politics. In my opinion, the ranking of the institution at which you do your PhD is far less important than it might be at MA or undergraduate level, because you do all the research yourself anyway, so many of the factors that affect rankings (such as staff-student ratios, quality of curriculum etc.) are irrelevant at PhD level.