EDDi Extra: Postgraduate Tips I
Advice for Postgraduate Students
Dear subscribers
As promised, this week is an EDDi Extra.
It’s the first of our Postgraduate Tips. Nothing too heavy, just a slight leaning towards theory alongside advice, guidance, and support on/with postgraduate study.
As an educationalist you’ll know a lot about credentialism - that social status and professional/career advancement are nowadays directly related to one’s possession of academic qualifications.
Well, sorry to have to tell you, it’s about to get worse.
In the UK alone, postgraduate applications are up by 20% as thousands of people (teachers and educationalists amongst them), faced with a shrinking job market due to Covid, apply to study ‘panic masters' degrees.
We at EDDi cannot stop you panicking, but below (and in future EDDi Extras) we offer you advice as you embark on, or work your way through, your own (increasingly essential) MA, MBA, MEd, MSc or Doctoral journey.
Happy reading
EDDi
QUESTION:
What would motivate someone to continue to postgraduate level study?
I have supervised and taught postgraduate students for many decades and frankly there is no single motivation that dominates among them.
Some do it for career, others for personal satisfaction and pleasure, some because they cannot think of anything else to do with their lives, and a few because their parents/friends/family expect it of them.
My motivation was simply that I wanted to change. I first embarked on postgraduate study at the age of 40 and finished six years later with an MA and PhD.
That process and experience changed me dramatically.
And changed my life.
It shifted me from being just another individual with a creative mind and little theoretical knowledge, to a fully-fledged academic and writer. At times since my PhD I’ve even considered myself an intellectual.
If you want to exercise your mind, grow your brain power, expand your network of like-minded thinkers, or learn in depth about a particular field of research, do postgraduate study.
Both Masters level and doctoral level study will have this impact on you, though the Doctorate is far more influential in terms of its psychological (and emotional) impact on an individual.
At the very least, as this research by Dr Denry Machin suggests, I would advise anyone in education who is serious about progressing up the career ladder to ensure they get a Masters in something:
From 129 sampled schools, 43% require a Masters for senior leadership posts.
But, don’t undertake a postgraduate study, just for a job, nor to look good or sound good. It may help, or it may not. Do it only because your brain (or your soul) tells you that you must - because you have a burning desire to challenge yourself academically, not for the end result (the certificate) but for the process itself.
What type of Masters (or Doctorate) will most suit which types of career pathway? Well, that will be the topic of this new ‘Postgraduate Tips’ section in upcoming EDDi Extra editions.
Watch this space.
For now, if you haven’t already undertaken postgraduate study but are thinking of it, what’s YOUR motivation?
