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Five Ways a Postgrad Degree Differs from your Undergrad Degree

You’re approaching your final exams – congratulations. You now have a big decision to make: take a postgraduate degree course (master’s) or enter the world of the graduate job market. Lecturers have probably already started trying to sell you a place on an MA/MSc course. It’s important to note several key differences between a postgraduate and undergraduate degree.

 

The Nature of Lectures Changes

The first thing you will notice is that each course has fewer students. Where a typical bachelor’s degree lecture might have anything between 20 and 30 students, your course will have closer to 10, sometimes fewer than that. The nature of lectures will change; there will be more discussion and you may even be set work to do ahead of every session. Unlike your BA, you won’t be able to get away with not reading the set chapter.

 

You Will Have More Work

As well as having reading to do ahead of practically ever lecture, you’ll find you have around double the number of projects to do. They are also likely to be far more varied than they were at undergraduate level. Projects could include research reports, book critiques, poster design, presentations (including grading on your speech and technical skills). You will have essays to do, but these are likely to be longer.

 

More is Expected of You

As well as having more work, more will be expected of you from each piece of academic work. You will be expected to engage in more primary research, more critical analysis of the data and formulate more in the way individual argument. This would have guaranteed you a 1st class mark at undergraduate level, but at postgraduate level, it is the minimum requirement. You are at a much higher level now.

 

Independent Everything

You will find much less guidance at master’s level. Independent research, independent study and independent thinking – these are essential. Although you can ask your tutor if stuck, for the most part, they will give you the bare minimum information available. You will have to do the rest yourself. Only around 5% of the UK population has a master’s degree; they are not for everyone and they are difficult for a reason.

 

Your Dissertation

The dissertation is the biggest part of any degree programme. That does not change at master’s level. If anything, it becomes more important especially if you want to do a PhD. All of these issues above apply in your dissertation, and then some. You will need to find a question that nobody has done before. You will need to use all of the tools of your 4-5 years of study in one single project and produce a well-though, well-written and comprehensive report.