u/Free_Dig6820

Hi, I'm an international student holding offers from both universities and trying to decide between them:

• University of Warwick - MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence (WMG department)
• University of Birmingham - MSc Artificial Intelligence (School of Computer Science)

My Goal: After graduation, I want to work as an AI safety researcher at a big tech company in the UK. My current research interest is model-level AI safety. A Ph.D. is something I may consider later, but my primary goal is industry employment.

My Background: For context, I already have some experience in AI safety. I've worked as an AI safety researcher in industry.

My Main Dilemma:

Both programmes have faculty working on AI safety research.

• MSc Applied AI at Warwick (WMG): Warwick ranks higher overall and has a significantly stronger employer reputation. The programme is housed in WMG, which is traditionally an engineering/manufacturing group rather than a core CS department. However, I've found that WMG does have researchers working directly on model-level AI safety, even though the safety research group mainly focuses on safety of autonomy. My concern is that the programme is relatively new and WMG is not a traditional CS department.
• MSc AI at Birmingham (CS): Birmingham's programme sits within a proper School of Computer Science and is well established. The department has strong AI safety researchers and the research environment feels naturally suited to technical AI safety work. However, Warwick's stronger overall reputation is what makes this decision difficult for me.

My Questions:

1. For someone targeting a highly technical AI safety Researcher/R&D role, does Warwick's institutional prestige and employer reputation outweigh the fact that the programme sits in WMG rather than a CS department?
2. How do UK tech employers (especially R&D labs and Big Tech) view a master's degree from WMG compared to a traditional CS department when screening for technical research roles?
3. Has anyone had experience with either programme and can share what the research environment and dissertation supervision is actually like?

Any advice, insights, or personal experiences would be really appreciated. Thank you!