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[sweetpotato]

This question is directed to professors. Have any of you sent students to British schools for graduate study in the humanities? How would you compare them with North American ones? Note: this question is not just about the degrees, but the schools themselves. Are English schools more or less selective, generally speaking? I'm semi-seriously toying with the idea of applying to England, hence the curiosity. I've already spoken to one reference writer about it, who thought it was not a good idea because an English school wouldn't prepare me for a PhD and for an academic job as thoroughly as a North American one, but I'd like some further opinions.

[hegemony]

I have had a number of students go on to English universities, I have taught at two, and I have a PhD from one myself.  I don't think you can generalize.  Some of them are very selective, some less so.  On the whole, I would say that the older universities (not the converted polytechnics) are more rigorous than your average American university.  But the name recognition of most is lesser in the U.S., of course.  It would all depend what field you want to go into.  For American literature, for instance, you'd have to have a good reason to prefer a British university over an American one.  For topics in which you'd want to do primary-source research in the British Library, a British degree would be wholly appropriate.  So again, the answer is: it depends.  If you can be more specific about your interests and hopes, we might be able to say more.