Lately I have been thinking applying to queen mary university in london for a MSc in Global and Comparative Politics. I am checking the rankings every year and it seems that unis tend to change place dramatically from one year to another. What's happening??? What if i apply for QM, get accepted and next year they drop 10 places in the rankings? Does the rankings provide a real insight in the unis quality?

======= Date Modified 18 May 2011 12:37:32 =======
League tables are an inherently flawed concept:
http://plus.maths.org/content/understanding-uncertainty-league-table-lottery
http://plus.maths.org/content/understanding-uncertainty-premier-league

Do you really think a prospective employer is going to look at your degree and say 'Well QMUL are down a few points this year so maybe this person isn't worth employing right now'? What really matters is:
1. What is the course content?
2. Does it provide you with the learning and training opportunities that are going to be beneficial to your career plans?
3. What's the quality/reputation of that department?
4. (to some extent) What's the general long term reputation of that university? (in QMUL's case, pretty sound)

Seriously - league tables are good to give you a vague idea but not worth stressing over the details.

Hazyjane has the perfect answer for you. Don't read all the newspapers. The long term reputation is what matters and QMUL is one of the best!

Fiddling stats to get students (and their money) is what universities spend a lot of time doing. Find out the reputation of the course and ask around people who have done it already what it was like.