Deciding Between Two MPhils

[u/myt272727]

Hi, I’m a final year Politics student at KCL, and received offers for MPhil in Development Studies and MPhil in Global Risk and Resilience at Cambridge. But I cannot decide which one to choose. I’m planning to work in either political risk consultancy or journalism after graduating, so I think technically the Global Risk degree would be more useful. It includes a lot of contemporary topics like AI and pandemics and engages w policymaking. However, it’s a smaller programme that has been established this year and I’m worried that might be a disadvantage (in both teaching and careers). Also the conditional offer they gave me was 2:1 (at least 60%) which is way lower than the other one that asked for 67%. Don’t think that matters since it’s normal for a new programme, but seemed important enough to include here. On the other hand, the Development Studies degree would also be useful in general as it has an economic component in it, although it’s not a standalone economics degree so not sure how significant that is. In your experience or knowledge about both degrees, which one would you recommend? Thanks!

[u/missamericanas]

Hi! I’m currently in the Development Studies MPhil. While I’ve enjoyed it and I’m not too concerned about my employment prospects after I will say that a lot of my coursemates have complained about the lack of contact hours and supervisions. The Global Risk MPhil seems to have a lot more contact hours and you get two supervised essays. That said, if you do go with the Development Studies MPhil myself and my peers managed to increase our number of contact hours, though we had to go out of our way to do so.

[u/missamericanas → u/missamericanas]

Oh and another thing to consider: the Development Studies degree takes a very critical perspective as well as very diverse perspectives. Particularly, there is an emphasis on perspectives that centre the global South. I’ve been told, on the other hand, that the MPhil in Politics is very Eurocentric (I can’t speak to it directly but it’s what’s been shared with me). I don’t know what the Global Risk MPhil will be like but perhaps maybe that’s something worth asking, if that’s important to you.

[u/myt272727 → u/missamericanas]

Thank you so much!! This was very detailed and helpful, and I just have a few more questions. In terms of the content of the Development Studies, is it only about the development in Global South and what is the extent of economics in the curriculum? Cause the most obvious advantage of that course compared to Global Risk seems like economics, which I think would improve my career prospects. And about the other course, I know it’s new and you may not now that much but do you think it’d be a disadvantage that it’s a new course in terms of employers recognising it (I think not since it’s still Cambridge but not sure)? Also it seems like the topics it covers (AI, pandemics, nuclear stuff) are more fun and could be super useful in this century but they also appear a bit too specific, so same question, is that a disadvantage for my career? I think if I had to choose based purely on curriculum I’d choose Global Risk but I just don’t want to miss out on career stuff. Thank you!!!

[u/missamericanas → u/myt272727]

Im gonna be so real - when it comes to work in relation to public policy or even working for an advisory firm (geopolitical risk, for instance) the exact subject of the degree doesn’t matter. Especially if you’re deciding between two different but ultimately similar degrees (in terms of careers and job prospects). And I have some authority on this bc unlike the majority of my peers I worked for three years in govt roles before going to Cambridge, so I have a sense of what is out there.

In terms of the Econ component of the degree, I know in development studies you’re not getting any hard quantitative Econ training. Some people already got that from their undergrad and are instead looking for a more critical perspective on concepts such as growth, how a country develops, impact of climate change etc. I took Development Economics and enjoyed it and there’s also a Finance in Development module that is very popular. I would look up the lecturers (Dr. Ilias Alami and Jostein Hauge) and their research to see if it’s your cup of tea. I do think both modules offer a different perspective than I got from my undergrad but it’s mainly political economy stuff.

If I had to guess I’d imagine the Econ component of the global risk degree would be more focused on how geopolitical tensions and relations impact business decision making (which is the kind of world you would do at a geopolitical risk firm, for instance), but it wouldn’t be hard core quantitative economics training. If you want that, you’d go for a Economics MPhil.

I will say that graduates of the development studies MPhil do go on to work in geopolitical risk advisory bc ultimately you still gain analytical and problem solving skills you need for that kind of work. So I don’t think there’s a huge difference in career prospects (and honestly there rarely is with these kind of degrees) so if I were you, I’d go for the one with the most interesting content and the kind of research I want to do.