Hi everyone,

I just graduated with a law degree and I'm planning to go into academia, hopefully specialising in human rights law. I have an offer from SOAS for the LLM in human rights, conflict and justice as well as UCL's MA human rights programme.

I am quite keen on SOAS as the modules look very interesting and are more relevant to areas of human rights law that I am interested in (gender and post-conflict). However, although many claim that SOAS is a good, reputable uni (esp in the areas that I'm interested in), it isn't doing well in rankings and from what I gather on TSR is that SOAS' reputation is going down the drain.

As for UCL, the MA looks interesting and obviously it has a much better reputation compared to SOAS (right now at least). However its focus is mainly politics and not law. I'm not sure whether I would be able to do a Phd in law after a doing an MA.

I was toying with the idea of taking the year out to get some work experience and then reapplying to LSE or UCL for an LLM programme. (didn't make the deadline) I am aware though, that a career in academia is ultimately dependent on the quality of my work as opposed just the uni's reputation, so I don't know whether its worth taking a year off.

Could anyone offer me any advice on the matter? Should I just go to SOAS since I like the programme or should I go to UCL? Or is it worth waiting a year?

Has anyone done an LLM in SOAS? What was it like?

ANY advice would be valuable- I really need to make a decision soon!

Myra xxxx