This week in the Careers Service we\u2019re focussing on Further Study as quite a few of our students will choose to leave Bath and pursue this avenue. This blog takes a look at the essential info you need to work out whether this is right for you, and how to find the best course and have the best chances of success in your applications. For the final years amongst you who read your faculty email last week, you\u2019ll find the content is very familiar!<\/p>\n
What sort of further study?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In the UK, there are several choices for postgraduate study \u2013 the masters, the conversion course and the PhD.<\/p>\n Masters courses<\/strong><\/p>\n These are the most common, and are mostly MSc or MA courses, with largely taught content and an extended dissertation or project. They take 12 months and use all of it, with no extended summer break. They are an ideal way to get deeper knowledge, or to move into a different area (eg to management, or computer science, from engineering). In some countries, at least 4 years of study are the norm, so getting a job can be hard in those countries without a masters.<\/p>\n There are also MRes courses, with less taught but more research content; these are designed as \u2018taster\u2019 courses for the PhD.<\/p>\n Conversion courses<\/strong><\/p>\n Some postgraduate study enables you to move from your undergraduate degree into another subject, and are the recognised \u2018entry point\u2019 to those professions \u2013 for example the PGCE for teaching, and conversions to Physiotherapy and Psychology.<\/p>\n PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n These are 3-4 years full-time research-only degrees and are for those who have a real love of a subject and want to pursue extended research into it. Think of it like a 3-year Final Year Project or Dissertation and you will have a good idea what it\u2019s like. They are commonly required for work as a lecturer and can aid progression into some other fields as well.<\/p>\n Should I do further study?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are some really good reasons to consider further study \u2013 needing a masters to access a job, wanting to specialise, wanting to refocus \u2013 but do think very carefully if your main reason is \u2018it will generally make me more employable\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m not sure what else to do\u2019. For lots of information and advice have a look at our GetStarted: Further study<\/a> guide which will look in more detail at everything mentioned so far.<\/p>\n I want to do further study \u2013 how can I choose, and how do I apply?<\/strong><\/p>\n Choosing a further study course is similar to choosing an undergraduate one \u2013 but there is no centralised way of applying, so you\u2019ll need a different application for each course. To find courses, you can use the fantastically-named findamasters.com<\/a> and findaPhD.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n We have loads of resources on further study<\/a>, including information on writing great personal statements<\/a>, funding your studies<\/a>, and studying in other countries<\/a>. These will help you work out which sort of course would be best for you.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d rather, you can come to one of our talks on Considering a Masters<\/a> or Considering a PhD<\/a> (or listen to a recording) and ask us questions. And don\u2019t forget, you are very welcome to use our Applications Appointments<\/a> to get feedback on your personal statements.<\/p>\n Thank you to Ghislaine Dell, Acting Head of the Careers Service and Careers Adviser, Engineering & Design who wrote this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week in the Careers Service we\u2019re focussing on Further Study as quite a few of our students will choose to leave Bath and pursue this avenue. This blog takes a look at the essential info you need to work...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1547,"featured_media":2032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[16,6,35,417,19],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-applications","tag-careers-advice","tag-further-study","tag-masters","tag-phd"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2020\/12\/laptop.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}