Why Philosophy at King's?
Why philosophy?
Philosophy, one of the oldest and most fundamental academic disciplines, seeks to understand reality in its most general aspects, including mind, value and nature.
By studying with us, you will not only gain the opportunity to grapple with some of the most gripping questions to face the human mind, but you will also acquire a wide range of critical reasoning skills that will serve you well in whatever career you intend to pursue.
The Department of Philosophy is one of the largest and most distinguished in the country. It was ranked as one of the top three UK philosophy departments for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and is ranked fourth in The Times Good University Guide 2012.
Undergraduates
We devote a high level of personal attention to our undergraduates, wtith small-group teaching incorporated into every module that we offer. The success of this approach is evidenced in our National Student Survey (NSS) results, which are consistently excellent. In the most recent NSS:
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95% were satisfied with the quality of the teaching on their course
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98% of our students reported that they find their course intellectually stimulating
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Our scores for feedback, provision of learning resources and personal development were also consistently above the sector average
(Source: National Student Survey 2012)
We also offer a range of exchange programmes that allow our undergraduates to study for part of their degrees at our partner universities in North America and elsewhere while paying King's tuition fees.
Postgraduates
For taught postgraduate students, we offer a range of distinctive and highly-specialised MA programmes, taught by world-leading experts in their fields, which allow you to focus in depth on areas of philosophy, including history, mind & psychology, medicine, and language & cognition. We also offer a unique interdisciplinary MSc in the Philosophy of Mental Disorder, taught in conjunction with the Institute of Psychiatry, which allows students the opportunity to get to grips with the philosophical implications of the latest research in mental illness. Meanwhile, our MA in Philosophy offers an intensive conversion for students from other disciplines looking to take up philosophical study, either to pursue a future career and doctoral study, or else just for the love of the subject.
Research
At MPhilSt and PhD level, we have a large, varied and very lively community of graduate students, which plays a central role in the life of the Department. Our graduate students organise a large number of reading groups and research seminars, and thereby contribute actively to the research life of the Department. Meanwhile, our academic staff offer unbeatable levels of supervision and support, with particular research strengths in: history of philosophy; philosophy of mind & psychology; philosophy of action and normativity; philosophy of language & linguistics; metaphysics, epistemology & philosophy of science; ethics and political philosophy.
Career prospects
A philosophy degree is well respected by prospective employers. Our graduates have gone on to a wide range of careers after leaving King's. Among those who have recently graduated, a survey uncovered a banker, a police constable, a barrister, a trainee journalist, a trainee teacher and several who have returned to university to take higher degrees.