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When considering whether or not to take a post graduate course you should ask yourself the following types of questions.
- Am I good enough?
Do you have the correct skills, qualifications and experience the course requires? Ask your current tutors for an honest opinion about your ability to cope with the subject and level of your chosen course.
- How competitive is the course at entry point?
Use prospectuses (use the link below to find postgrad prospectuses on the web) to find out what selection criteria (academic as well as post-experience) to see how you match up to the entry requirements Find out as much as possible about the content, teaching and assessment methods.
- Am I motivated enough?
The non-completion rate for Masters and Doctorates is high.
It can be difficult to sustain self-motivation over a long period of time.
- Are you committed to the hard work that will be needed for a successful result?
- Would you rather study full time or part time?
- What is the main reason for choosing your course?
- Would you be more suited to a vocational or academic course ?
If you are attracted to a field of study that is substantially new to you, it would be prudent to look at your Vocational Profile to see how congruent it is with your intended course.
- Can I afford it?
It's not just a question of affording the fees but
taking into account the cost of being a student, and the loss of
income because you are not earning.
No postgraduate field of study automatically attracts funding except
the PGCE (for training as a teacher). Various Research Councils,
the Arts and Humanities Research Board, professional bodies and
grant-making trusts or charities provide competitive awards, depending
on your choice of subject and institution; and employers may sponsor
you if your study complements your work.
Increasingly, postgraduate students work part time for financial
reasons. In any event it pays to compare costs at different universities
as they can vary substantially. For more information, see the postgraduate
section of the Careers Library and relevant databases.
- What are the potential sources of funding?
- What is the content and subject matter of the course?
How is it delivered and assessed (consider timetable, amount of staff/supervisor-student contact hours + private study expected)
- What level of support is available from tutors? (taught course),
from supervisor (research), and in terms of IT, library and laboratory
facilities, as appropriate.
- Is it recognised by a professional body (if vocational course); does it give any professional exemptions?
- Is the qualification a requirement for any specific career you have in mind?
- Is it recognised abroad? (if appropriate)
- What is the location of the institution that delivers the course?
Here you will need to ensure that it is somewhere you are happy to live for the duration of the course.
- How successful is it in terms of value for money?
(One way of judging this is by looking at destinations of alumni: how many successfully entered employment? What type of employment and with which employers?)
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