All further education which comes after baccalaureate can be regarded as postgraduate education. It presupposes carrying a lot of research work, acquir-ing knowledge of new methodologies and new trends. It may lead to either a Masters degree (a three-year program of study) or PhD (usually a two-year course of study).
Postgraduate programmes are either research degrees or taught courses.
Taught courses last one or more years and are either designed so that youdeepen your knowledge gained from your first degree or for you to convert you expertise to another field of study. Examples of these include changing to law to become a solicitor and training to become a teacher.
Degrees by instruction are very similar to undergraduate courses in that most of the time is devoted to attending lectures. This may take up the first eight or nine months of the course and is followed by written examinations. A period of research lasting from two or three months usually follows and the results of it are presented in the form of a thesis. Finally, an oral examination is held, lasting perhaps an hour or two, to test the knowledge accumulated throughout the year. Most programmes, which involve classes and seminars lead up to a dissertation.
Research course is quite a different type of study from a taught course. Firstof all it lasts longer, for about three years providing Masters or doctorate qualifi-cations. They allow you to conduct investigations into your own topic of choice and are of use in jobs where there are high levels of research and development.
The most well-known research qualification is the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, a three-year study programme). There is a shorter version called a Master of Philosophy (MPh) which takes the minimum amount of time of two years. Both of these qualifications require the students to carry out a piece of innova-tive research in a particular area of study. Also possible is the research based on Master of Science (MSc.) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. A recent develop-ment is the Master of Research (MRes), which provides a blend of research and taught courses in research methods and may be a taken as a precursor to a PhD.
It is a common practice for students to be registered initially for the MPhil and to be considered for transfer to the PhD after the first year of study, subject to satisfactory progress and to a review of the proposed research. All research degree programmes involve an element of research training designed to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary skills and methodological knowledge to undertake original research in their chosen field of study. The training programme includes the development of generic skills relevant to the degree programme and a future career. Although the training element is not a formal part of the assessment for the degree, it constitutes an important basis for research and may take up a significant part of the first year.
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The start of a research degree involves a very extensive survey of all previous works undertaken in that area. At the same time, if a student is planning to carry out any practical experimentations, the necessary equipment must be obtained.
This preliminary part of the study can take up to six months, but it is impor-tant to note that the process of keeping up to date with other work going on in the subject must continue throughout the entire period of the research.
The next stage of a research course usually involves collecting information in some way. This might be through experimentation, in the case of arts, social sciences or humanities degree. The important thing is that something new must be found.
This second part of the procedure takes about two years in the case of a PhD. The research is written up in the form of a thesis during the final six months of the three-year period. Typically, this will contain an introduction, methodology, results and discussion. As in the case with taught degrees, the research must then be examined orally. Occasionally, if the examiners are not completely happy with the work they may ask the candidate to rewrite parts of the thesis. Hopefully, a good supervisor will make sure this does not happen!
What qualities does research demand from postgraduate stu-dents, those young people who make up their minds to devote themselves to scientific research? Some of these qualities are mentioned in the text below. Think of the other ones, for exam-ple, you may enjoy solving problems, you may have creative abilities or things like that. Are you patient enough, industrious and hard-working for this kind of activity?
Different types of study require similar qualities from the people who un-dertake them. Both demand an inquisitive mind that will maintain the motiva-tion to learn and discover new information.
They also both demand a high level of intellectual ability in order to cope with the pressures of understanding the possible complex arguments, facts or theories. Both require a high degree of organizational ability and time man-agement, as so many different things need to be attended to.
