Masters

This semester I attended a conference about potential postgraduate options that are available to me after graduating from my undergrad degree this year.

I have always wondered if a masters was the right option for me. But, I wasn’t aware of the variety of options that Bangor University offer as masters, so the conference was extremely useful to me as I learnt a lot of information about masters that I didn’t know and had never realised before.

This conference was led by Clare Bass, who was really encouraging and informative about the Masters program and all the information that you need to know before applying for one, such as: funding options, the different types of masters that are offered and if all the information to make sure we were personally ready to consider one.

3 main routes

For the masters degree there were free main routes that are followed

1. The undergraduate masters: this integrates 9 months of postgraduate study into a 4 year Bsc degree. With this masters, the weighting of the final degree changes so that the third year counts as 40% where as the fourth year counts for 60%.
2. The Msc degree: These are usually taught masters, which last for 12 months. This is the most common masters that most pupils undertake. The only problem with this option is the choice of Msc degrees are limited by what is offered at particular universities, so there may not always be this option if there is not an Msc degree for you.
3. MscRes (Masters of research): This can last between 1-2 years and can also be studied part-time. This option is similar to the first year of PhD study, so would be a good stepping stone if wanting to stay on and achieve a PhD.

Funding

The funding for each of these masters degrees are different depending on which one you are undertaking, so its important to understand the potential funding for each degree before applying. As you need to be able to afford the degree and living costs before being able to undertake one.

For both the Msc and MscRes masters degree, a maximum loan of £10,609 is given via student finance England. However, if you are a Welsh resident the amount of loan you will receive will increase. This means that though the cost of your masters degree will be covered an extent of the living fees may have to be funded by yourself.

The biggest advantage of the undergraduate masters is that your existing undergraduate loan covers the cost of study for the forth year, so you wont have to worry about covering the cost of living fees.

My reflection

This was a really good conference for me to attend as I was very unsure about information about the masters degree. But this conference cleared up any questions I had and helped me to establish an idea of whether I will apply for a masters degree or not, as by undertaking a masters degree it may help to widen my career choices in the future.