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| Selecting and Connecting with Degree Programs |
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Narrowing the field among the more than 100 universities in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland may seem overwhelming. Excellent electronic resources, listed below, will help you get started. The Graduate
Fellowships Office has postgraduate prospectuses (similar to
our catalogs, but less detailed) from many British
universities. These are also on the WWW. Start
there, and then go to the most current information about
particular programs of interest to you.
The Marshall Scholarship site has links to every UK
institution of higher education. Personal contacts are
invaluable resources, so start talking early on to faculty, research
supervisors, and others who know you, your work, and your academic interests.
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| Resources from Official Sources |
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UK Graduate Careers and Study
http://www.prospects.ac.uk
Use Postgrad Study in the navigation bar to search this data base of all taught and research courses at UK universities by type of degree course, subject, key words, and/or institution. Brief descriptions include helpful details such as number of students admitted annually, and teaching methods. Site also includes information for international students.
The British Council’s Education site
http://www.educationuk.org/
Use Course Browse to search by subject ,or Advanced Search for more
specialized inquiries.
HERO
Higher Education & Research Opportunities in the UK
Resources, including regional maps
and university locations
Institutions
of Higher Education in Ireland
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/u/universitiesandcollegesinireland.htm
Especially useful for Mitchell Scholarship applicants,
as UK sites do not include the Irish Republic. The
US-Ireland Alliance site also has Irish university
information http://www.us-irelandalliance.org/institutions.html
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Excellent Unofficial Source |
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UK and Irish Fellowships
Put up by one of the most experienced advisors in the
U.S.
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League Tables |
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Published in the popular press, but not exactly the equivalent of U.S. News and World Report, these ratings are based on
measures that include entry standards, student: faculty ratios, library and facilities expenditure, completion rates, and salaries two years out.
These sources emphasize undergraduate programs and do not
separate out the information on graduate courses, but they
can provide some interesting insights.
The Times Good University Guide
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,716,00.html
Education Guardian University Guide
http://www.EducationGuardian.co.uk/universityguide
See also the Guardian Research Assessment Guide
http://education.guardian.co.uk/researchratings/
0,11227,616612,00.html
The Guardian’s interpretation of the Research Assessment
Exercise, carried out periodically to assess the quality
of research in selected fields at UK universities. This
guide
includes interactive tables that you may sort on various indicators, depending on your priorities.
As with all such systems, the numbers don't tell the whole
story-- for one thing, they represent whole fields and not
necessarily the sub-specialty of interest to you. Use
these data judiciously, and rely more heavily on the
detailed information on university websites.
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| Personal Contacts |
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Often the most useful resource of all! Ask faculty in your field of interest what they know about
leading departments and scholars in their subject in the UK
and Ireland, and
whether anyone in their professional network can help you in
your exploration of degree courses.
If you are applying for a research degree program, do a literature search on your topic to find the specialists in Britain. Use the
internet to see what their research centers, labs, and
departments are doing currently. Contact the scholar directly, describing your background and your proposed project for graduate research, to inquire about the possibility of working under his or her supervision.
Financial support for non-Commonwealth overseas students is
very limited, but there are some sources other than the
prestigious fellowships described on this site. Some
of the internet resources above have links to information
about funding.
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Degrees and other terminology |
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British degree nomenclature can be confusing for
Americans. Different universities may use different
terminology for comparable degrees. The important
distinction among masters degrees, the most likely
level for your post-Pomona study in the UK, is between
taught and research degrees. Taught masters programs usually have a thesis component as well as or in place of exams
during the last third of the course, but the research
may grow out of coursework and is usually limited to a
10-20,000-word dissertation. You do not need to have a
thesis topic in mind when applying to a taught program; whereas for a research degree you must have a very clear idea of your topic, as you will be working independently under a supervisor
from the start, with little or no classroom work. You may also want to determine whether a particular taught degree (diploma or masters) can count toward a research degree (masters or doctorate)—some do and some don’t. You also need to be sure of the duration of the particular
program. A "one year" program can last for
9, 10, 11, or 12 months.
Because of the differences in educational systems, you may
want to consider a second bachelor’s degree. In years past many Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship recipients studied at this level. Recently, however, a masters degree has become the usual choice, unless you are switching to a different field. Review the requirements and seek advice if in doubt.
Diplomas and Certificates are usually 9 month programs consisting of the taught components of a master’s degree, without dissertation.
Taught Masters degrees, depending on the university and
subject, may be:
- One year MA, MPhil, MSc, or Mlitt
- Two year MPhil or BPhil
- Professional degrees such as MBA, LLM, MFA, MMus
Research Masters degrees, depending on the university and
subject, may be:
- One year MA, MPhil, MSc, Mres
- Two year MPhil, MSc, Mlitt
- And others
Doctorate Degrees are usually 3+ years, and may be PhD or DPhil.
If you are interested in doctoral studies in the UK,
find out if the masters degree you are considering can serve as a transition into the more advanced level of work.
You’ll find other differences in terminology, including: Faculty (we’d say Division, School or sometimes Department, e.g. Faculty of History = History
Department, Faculty of Arts may include subjects we would
term Humanities); Academic Staff (the people we call faculty); Course
(a whole program of study leading to a degree or diploma); Module (a class, e.g. ID1); Tutorial (independent study or group independent study); Revising (reviewing, as in “We stayed up all night revising for our exam”). You’ll catch on as you read
each university's prospectus (catalog with general
information about degree courses) and see unfamiliar terms used in context.
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