Our location in central London puts us at the heart of the UK’s political life and at the centre of academic London. You can walk down to Parliament and Whitehall, while Bloomsbury contains some of the world’s most famous libraries and centres of research. You can take advantage of the rich research collections within walking distance, including Senate House Library, the British Library, and the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics. Our Department of Politics is a world-renowned centre of original, influential research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), Politics at Birkbeck was ranked 17th in the UK. The Department organises a lively programme of seminars and conferences and is home to affiliated research centres, such as the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, which run seminars, conferences and other events where some of the world's best scholars present their latest research.

To be considered for direct entry to a Master's degree at Birkbeck, you will normally be required to have successfully completed a Bakalavr/Specialist Diploma from a recognised university with a minimum final grade of 3.5 for programmes requiring a UK 2:2