# questions about doing a masters



## strung out (Oct 10, 2011)

hello.

as some of you may know, i've just finished studying for a degree with the OU and am now in the big wide world of work. however, i'm getting itchy feet for education, and as my degree was in a bit of a wishy washy subject (BA Humanities), i'd like to study a bit further and study something i'm interested in and that will prove to be useful career wise.

i've found the course for me, it's a taught course in Information and Library Management at UWE, and after exchanging a couple of emails with the course leader, he's said that i sound 'very suitable' for the MSc and encouraged me to apply.

my questions are thus. there are full-time and part-time options for the course (one and a bit years for full time, two/three years for part time) - what kind of workloads do people normally experience on a masters, and how much paid work could i realistically expect to be doing to support myself on both options? the course fees are about £5k for full-time and £6k for part-time, which i'm fairly sure i could cover with a bit of savings and loans from the bank/family. ideally, i'd want to get it done as soon as possible, but i've no idea whether it would be financially viable to work enough hours to pay rent and eat, at the same time as studying full time. is there any financial support available for masters students that might help me through the year?

i'm sure other questions will occur to me, and circumstances over the coming year could well solve problems or throw new ones up depending on what i get up to between now and september.


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## weltweit (Oct 10, 2011)

I would have thought the key issue if you are considering part time is your own motivation but if you have just done an OU degree it suggests you can work on your own initiative which sorts that issue.


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## strung out (Oct 10, 2011)

well it's a fully taught course apart from the dissertation, which is slightly different to the OU course where i had to teach myself. it's taught tuesdays and wednesdays each week in the afternoon and evening, which theoretically means i'll have plenty of time to fit in paid work, but i know it might not be as simple as that...


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## Mapped (Oct 10, 2011)

You're choosing a good profession. It's the business I'm in. I didn't train for it though, just kind of fell into it. I'll send you a PM


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## ElizabethofYork (Oct 11, 2011)

At the university where I work, we advise full-time masters students NOT to try to work.  If you need to work, I'd say the part-time studying would be better!


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

ElizabethofYork said:


> At the university where I work, we advise full-time masters students NOT to try to work. If you need to work, I'd say the part-time studying would be better!



I'm doing a part-time MSc. Work does get in the way, but sometimes needs must. It helps if you have an understanding employer and if you work in a similar field to the study.

It's the cost of these things though. It's a bloody expensive undertaking, so you need to get the cash in somehow.


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## purves grundy (Oct 11, 2011)

Yeah, I found my full-time Masters hard going - there's no way I'd have been able to have squeezed in work. However, I guess it depends on the person and the nature of the work. I'm not the most organised of people and am the personification of Parkinson's Law when it comes to deadlines. You might be more sorted than me. Secondly, if you can work from home - say, proofreading theses etc - then you may be able to manage it.

Bear in mind too that you might want to enjoy the company of your newly-found friends off the course  I went a bit mad during my Masters - as I spent 2/3 of my undergrad time as a boring straight edge skater, I had some lost time to make up for. The whole experience was so richly rewarding, so gloriously memorable, it was worth whatever I lost from not working.


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## colacubes (Oct 11, 2011)

I did my masters full time and I managed to work 2 days a week for the most part temping. I was in college 3 days a week and did a fair bit of work in the evenings and weekends. I didn't have any exams (apart from a viva at the end), but an absolute shit load of coursework so I founf that in the last couple of months before submission I couldn't work.

I'd advise full time if you can afford to do it, as I've seen lots of friends do masters/PhD's full time and they've really struggled with motivation after the first year or so.


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

purves grundy said:


> Yeah, I found my full-time Masters hard going - there's no way I'd have been able to have squeezed in work. However, I guess it depends on the person and the nature of the work. I'm not the most organised of people and am the personification of Parkinson's Law when it comes to deadlines. You might be more sorted than me. Secondly, if you can work from home - say, proofreading theses etc - then you may be able to manage it.
> 
> Bear in mind too that you might want to enjoy the company of your newly-found friends off the course  I went a bit mad during my Masters - as I spent 2/3 of my undergrad time as a boring straight edge skater, I had some lost time to make up for. The whole experience was so richly rewarding, so gloriously memorable, it was worth whatever I lost from not working.



I'm the most disorganised person around. Luckily Birkbeck where I study is used to people juggling work, family and professional lives, so they have been more than flexible around a couple of deadlines. I can't make a habit of taking advantage of that though.

I haven't done much socialising. Only went for 1 drink with them all last year, promised to go for a pint afterwards tonight though


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## purves grundy (Oct 11, 2011)

N1 Buoy said:


> Only went for 1 drink with them all last year, promised to go for a pint afterwards tonight though


careful now!!


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

Cheeky fucker 

We're all mature students with jobs! Lectures are 6pm to 9pm. It's not that conducive to socialising


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## Miss-Shelf (Oct 11, 2011)

I did a masters very part time (5 years ) on top of full time work and being a single parent (full time)

masters and job were same field though so it dovetailed.

motivation, some organisational skills, being willing not to be perfect, plodding on, being flexible, being focused and giving up much social life - they all help

go for it - it sounds like a great opportunity


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## strung out (Oct 11, 2011)

ElizabethofYork said:


> At the university where I work, we advise full-time masters students NOT to try to work. If you need to work, I'd say the part-time studying would be better!


yeah, this is what i'm worried about. the teaching only takes up tues/weds afternoons and evenings, so it's tempting to try and work a couple of days a week to pay the bills. i'm not sure if this would be setting myself up for a big fail though.

one thing i do know, is that studying full time and not working at all, is definitely not an option (unless i do the old living with parents thing for the whole year).


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## strung out (Oct 11, 2011)

nipsla said:


> I did my masters full time and I managed to work 2 days a week for the most part temping. I was in college 3 days a week and did a fair bit of work in the evenings and weekends. I didn't have any exams (apart from a viva at the end), but an absolute shit load of coursework so I founf that in the last couple of months before submission I couldn't work.
> 
> I'd advise full time if you can afford to do it, as I've seen lots of friends do masters/PhD's full time and they've really struggled with motivation after the first year or so.


this is encouraging. i know that all masters courses are different, so the fact you were able to work is no guarantee that i could too, but even a couple of (decently paid) days work a week could be enough to help me through.

i think what's nudging me towards wanting to work at the same time if possible, is the fact that i've just finished a year of full-time study for my third year with the OU and barely found myself working one week in three, let alone 'full time'


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## strung out (Oct 11, 2011)

Miss-Shelf said:


> I did a masters very part time (5 years ) on top of full time work and being a single parent (full time)
> 
> masters and job were same field though so it dovetailed.
> 
> ...


thanks for the encouragement. i've pretty much made my mind up that i'm going to apply now. it's just deciding whether to go full time or part time


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

Do it strung out  I had a masters evening tonight and the work was hard, but there were good vibes about.

We still didn't manage that drink though


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## colacubes (Oct 11, 2011)

strung out said:


> this is encouraging. i know that all masters courses are different, so the fact you were able to work is no guarantee that i could too, but even a couple of (decently paid) days work a week could be enough to help me through.
> 
> i think what's nudging me towards wanting to work at the same time if possible, is the fact that i've just finished a year of full-time study for my third year with the OU and barely found myself working one week in three, let alone 'full time'



It helped that college was Wed-Fri, so my week was sort of compartmentalised iyswim.  Work Mon-Tues then school Wed-Fri.  I will also say though that I did my masters 10 years ago and there was loads of temping work about then. No idea what it's like now.

Personally I know I would have struggled part time as I know that my motivation levels drop after a while (with anything cos I'm fickle ).  But I also couldn't afford to not work either.  If you can make it work for you I think it can work.  But it's v hard work.


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## Vintage Paw (Oct 11, 2011)

I did my masters part time while working and would have found it difficult to keep on track doing the same full time. My friend did the same masters full time while working more hours than me. She did fine. She's now doing a PhD. Full time. While working.

There's no right or wrong, it's down to the person. Only you know for sure whether you can manage the potential work load from both sides.


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## toblerone3 (Oct 11, 2011)

Are there any jobs left in libraries with all the cuts? Big society voluntary sector etc.


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## Pickman's model (Oct 11, 2011)

strung out said:


> hello.
> 
> as some of you may know, i've just finished studying for a degree with the OU and am now in the big wide world of work. however, i'm getting itchy feet for education, and as my degree was in a bit of a wishy washy subject (BA Humanities), i'd like to study a bit further and study something i'm interested in and that will prove to be useful career wise.
> 
> ...


if you want to study librarianship you should know in advance that you will do lots of things on the course you will never need to do ever again, for example writing a collection management policy and a cataloguing policy. you may find large chunks of it actually quite dull. i'm not sure how up on cataloguing uwe are as compared to eg ucl or city university: you should look at the various courses - not forgetting the distance learning ones like aberwrystwyth - which are out there to compare and contrast. depending where you are you might find there are events about studying librarianship organised by cilip which might answer a lot of questions for you. as for the issue of professional development, there are frankly fuck all jobs out there for recently qualified librarians. lots of people i know are doing library assistant jobs despite having librarianship qualifications. it is not be any means a passport to a land of plenty. you might find there are some jobs in eg law librarianship where you can coin it in - but i would warn you that your investment is unlikely to pay dividends immediately upon completing your course. to give you an idea of the competition there is out there, a recent post i'm aware of for a shelving supervisor saw the shortlisted candidates all have librarianship qualifications despite this not being on the person specification - there are at least hundreds of people going for each librarianship position. the lay-offs happening up and down the country do not make this a particularly auspicious time to enter the world of librarianship as what was already stiff competition is now fucking intense.

as for the workload on a librarianship course, most of it's quite easy - it's far more practical than say humanities and once you've grasped things like the basics of aacr2 / rda or marc21 you should be away. there are a couple of important books you should get before embarking on the course - essential cataloguing by john bowman and essential classification by vanda broughton. these will tell you everything you need to know about those aspects of the course. there's probably going to be a management part of the course which will be largely dull. i've mentioned collection management. if you see something about digital resources in the humanities - or indeed any sort of digital resources - you should take that because it's going to be increasingly important over the next few years. the information sources part of the course - reference books and the like - is very interesting and useful.


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## Pickman's model (Oct 11, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Are there any jobs left in libraries with all the cuts? Big society voluntary sector etc.


very few qualified librarians are employed in public libraries, and that was the case before the recent cuts.


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

Pickman's model said:


> very few qualified librarians are employed in public libraries, and that was the case before the recent cuts.



I work in a public library and I'm not even qualified. It's a fast changing world


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## Pickman's model (Oct 11, 2011)

N1 Buoy said:


> I work in a public library and I'm not even qualified. It's a fast changing world


yes. it's not a great problem if your library assistants aren't qualified. what's more concerning is when no one in the service is a qualified librarian. the decline in the quality of library stock over the past 40 years is a crying shame. where previously each borough took a portion of the dewey sequence and developed good holdings in that area, now you can get the same trivia in each borough (although some public libraries do have good collections) and anything outside the norm is hard for most people to get hold of without going through the time and expense of an interlibrary loan, which relatively few people know exists anyway.


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

I'm not a library assistant. All those guys at my place are qualified. And we have the best stock possible 

Local libraries is an area I need to look into. I'm fairly new to this game. And probably need do something to promote the interlibrary loan more. Times are hard in the boroughs


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## Pickman's model (Oct 11, 2011)

N1 Buoy said:


> I'm not a library assistant. All those guys at my place are qualified. And we have the best stock possible
> 
> Local libraries is an area I need to look into. I'm fairly new to this game. And probably need do something to promote the interlibrary loan more. Times are hard in the boroughs


do you work in gloucestershire?

e2a: i suppose the city of london probably has qualified staff too


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## Mapped (Oct 11, 2011)

I used to live there, grew up there in fact. I work in London, hence all the postcodes in my name and tagline


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## Pickman's model (Oct 11, 2011)

N1 Buoy said:


> I used to live there, grew up there in fact. I work in London, hence all the postcodes in my name and tagline


i ask because 84% of their library staff are qualified - the percentages in many other places are far lower.


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## equationgirl (Oct 15, 2011)

ElizabethofYork said:


> At the university where I work, we advise full-time masters students NOT to try to work. If you need to work, I'd say the part-time studying would be better!


Which is fine if you have no need to, but in some cases it's not possible to have that luxury. I worked 20 hours a week as a library assistant on top of the 40 hours I was spending on my PhD not including tutoring work, because I had a mortgage to pay and no-one to support me. I still got my PhD and working really helped me stay sane.


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## Mapped (Oct 15, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Are there any jobs left in libraries with all the cuts? Big society voluntary sector etc.



Things are moving in different directions with technology and the internet. We have plans


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## equationgirl (Oct 16, 2011)

I loved my library job. I had it fir 4 years and really didn't want to leave, but was moving onto a fulltime job elsewhere. I've quite envious of N1 Buoy and the OP.


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## Mapped (Oct 16, 2011)

PM me with your career plans and that and I can take a look for you. I'm in the best and probably most well funded library. Opportunities do come up


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## crustychick (Oct 18, 2011)

I worked full time and did my masters part time. It took me 4.5 years in the end. Two years taught, then two years out, then 6 months actually writing my thesis.


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## Mapped (Oct 18, 2011)

I think I just managed to find a way to get paid to work on my dissertation  Part time is working for me


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## Steel Icarus (Sep 20, 2015)

Thinking of a Masters through the OU, in Education (Inclusive Practice). How much work do you think I might be required to do, say, per week? I'm now working full-time...

Anyone - Miss-Shelf crustychick equationgirl ?


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## ViolentPanda (Sep 20, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Thinking of a Masters through the OU, in Education (Inclusive Practice). How much work do you think I might be required to do, say, per week? I'm now working full-time...
> 
> Anyone - Miss-Shelf crustychick equationgirl ?



If you're systematic with your reading and note-taking, and are aiming for 60 points per year, then 15-20 hours. If you're like me (slapdash), then more like 30!


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## Steel Icarus (Sep 20, 2015)

ViolentPanda said:


> If you're systematic with your reading and note-taking, and are aiming for 60 points per year, then 15-20 hours. If you're like me (slapdash), then more like 30!



Holy hell. Think I've less than 30 hours free each week, not counting housework!


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## ViolentPanda (Sep 20, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Holy hell. Think I've less than 30 hours free each week, not counting housework!


Bear in mind that my "30 hours" includes accommodating my short-term memory problems, and the fact of needing to read everything 2-3 times because of that.
Also, the old saw that if you enjoy the subject, the work is more manageable, still holds true - even at Masters level.


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## Steel Icarus (Sep 20, 2015)

ViolentPanda said:


> Bear in mind that my "30 hours" includes accommodating my short-term memory problems, and the fact of needing to read everything 2-3 times because of that.
> Also, the old saw that if you enjoy the subject, the work is more manageable, still holds true - even at Masters level.



To be fair it was always recommended I spend 16 hours a week on each module of my degree, and I don't think I ever did that until the final module, which was about, erm, 16 hours a week...


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## goldenecitrone (Sep 23, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Thinking of a Masters through the OU, in Education (Inclusive Practice). How much work do you think I might be required to do, say, per week? I'm now working full-time...
> 
> Anyone - Miss-Shelf crustychick equationgirl ?



Just been awarded a Merit for my Masters in Mathematics. I was doing about 12 hours a week of studying as well as studying through most of my holidays (13 weeks a year as a teacher). From about March until mid-May for two years I was studying every spare hour I had to pass the four exams I had each year. I also took an extra year to write up my dissertation, so the Masters took me three years altogether. It's the most challenging thing I've ever done, and I'm fucking glad it's over to be honest. But well worth it though. Good luck.


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## Greebo (Sep 23, 2015)

S☼I said:


> To be fair it was always recommended I spend 16 hours a week on each module of my degree, and I don't think I ever did that until the final module, which was about, erm, 16 hours a week...


The good and bad news is that the next step will take up nearly all the free time you have.  OTOH if you're funding this yourself, you wouldn't have the money to go out anyway.


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## equationgirl (Sep 25, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Thinking of a Masters through the OU, in Education (Inclusive Practice). How much work do you think I might be required to do, say, per week? I'm now working full-time...
> 
> Anyone - Miss-Shelf crustychick equationgirl ?


Dependsoon what modules you're doing and how much homework and assignments you have, but expect to give up one of your weekend days (suggest Sunday)  and 2-3 nights a week, maybe more when you're revising for an exam.best of luck


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## Steel Icarus (Sep 27, 2015)

Have missed the bloody deadline for getting on, anyway. Going to have to wait a year


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## ViolentPanda (Sep 27, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Have missed the bloody deadline for getting on, anyway. Going to have to wait a year



DOH!!


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## equationgirl (Sep 27, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Have missed the bloody deadline for getting on, anyway. Going to have to wait a year


by how much? Worth an email to the admissions people to see if they can add you in?


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## Steel Icarus (Sep 27, 2015)

Yeah, have already done it, no can do apparently. Bit surprised tbh, thought they'd be keen, especially as it's £1600 in their pocket for very little inconvenience I would have thought. Course doesn't even start til Oct 6th.


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## equationgirl (Sep 27, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Yeah, have already done it, no can do apparently. Bit surprised tbh, thought they'd be keen, especially as it's £1600 in their pocket for very little inconvenience I would have thought. Course doesn't even start til Oct 6th.


I am surprised they wouldn't squeeze you in. Did they explain why?


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