Dear all,

I am on a crossroad in between choosing a postgraduate studies (masters) in either
a) coursework
b) by research

A little bit about me:
- do not have a family yet
- full-time working in a university (lecturing and tutoring) - a total of 22 hours per week
- if I were to take Master by Research- I do not have to pay as I will be taking it from my uni (in return, I have to be bonded with my uni)
- if I were to take Master by Coursework- I have to pay at least RM20k (uni not funding any coursework degree)

I have been reading around this forum, and I've seen forumers stating that postgraduate by research holds lot of uncertainties.

I am very new in research as I've not done any research before even in my undergraduate.

What's your advise?

Should I go for masters by research or coursework?

People have told me to listen to my heart and what I really wanted. And the reason I am here is because, there's just so many things in my mind, that I can't decide properly.

This post has been edited by mycolumn: Aug 28 2013, 04:54 PM

Go for research if you intended to do phd after master..


Gomen got scholarship for both research and coursework, myBrain 15..pay only tuition fees..

If I do not have intention for PhD after master, should I still go for research?

An old post I made regarding this topic:

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=60779762

This post has been edited by jonoave: Aug 28 2013, 09:22 PM

thanks

Master by research have no fix time frame on when you can graduate, it depend on the outcome of the research and also depend whether the examiners accept your research outcome or not. You have to give quite a numbers of presentations to your examiner to assess your research outcome and finally you have to pass your thesis/dissertation.


Dangers of master by research:

- Fail to obtain proper research outcome due to poor supervisor or poor facilities of the university.

- Unable to pass presentation due to lack of presentation skills of the candidate or unprofessional examiner who have no experience on that field (very common, therefore candidate need to have good presentation skill to avoid misunderstood).

- Fail to maintain a good relationship with the supervisor (or bad supervisor that impossible to communicate), and finally stop study. Change supervisor is also possible but may need to start everything all over again.

is it possible for coursework postgraduate's student to obtain PhD ?

It is possible to go from Master (taught course) into Phd (research).

Or do you mean is there Phd by taught course? I am not sure but I have yet to hear it being available in Malaysia.



In regards to TS's question,

If you want to get your master quick and do not intend to further into PhD, I strongly suggest taught course.

Benefits: save time (just follow syllabus) and still able to further into Phd.

Cons 1: No exposure to the research environment which is crucial for academic career especially when you plan to further into PhD.

Cons 2: You need to pay more compared to by research. However,if you can afford it, this sum is worth every penny as master by research has a lot of uncertainties. Better be safe than sorry.

I'm a bit annoyed with the general obsession to take the shortest time. Doing things faster isn't necessarily better.

A Master's degree is a Master's degree.

Applying for PhD requires Masters, or some places might accept a first-class bachelors.
In PhD, you need to come upt with a doctoral thesis, which is like your final-year project in Bsc. Did you jump into your Bsc with your final-year project straightaway? No right?

You will spend the initial months or even first year mostly learning and bit of trial and error. If you obtained a Master's degree by coursework, then the learning curve is even bigger as you lack even more research skills and background. This is espeically true in the scientific field.

if social science, then maybe a Master by coursework or research doesn't make a big difference.

As far as I know, there is no such thing as PhD by courswork. A requirment for receiving a PhD is to produce a doctoral thesis, i.e. a research project.

Sure you can take courses, but those are just complimentary for your research project or other skills.

Because of that, I'd say you'd be better off doing Master by Coursework

If you do a Master by Research, you will face a lot of hardships and sleepless nights.

One can always learn research methods and research skills by writing academic papers, not necessarily by doing a Master by Research.

Before you extrapolate from the wisdom of crowds in this forum, could you tell us what real reasons you choose to get a Master's degree are?

(1) For the pursuit of knowledge
(2) For the prerequisite to becoming a college professor
(3) For future professional opportunities
(4) For fear of “the real world”
(5) For an ego boost

or what else?

If TS just wants a quick Master degree to advance a career outside academia, then yes.

But if he/she intends to pursue PhD or a research career, I disagree with your opinion. Making the leap into research at PhD level is quite difficult without a research background, and even more so as TS don't have research background even at degree level.

Sue he/she can learn by himself, but then he'll also spend more time at the initial stage just learning. So while he might save time at the Master coursework level, he will still have to spend more time at PhD level to figure things out.

I personally went for MSc by coursework due to time factor. Took me 1 1/2 years to complete it. Whereas for research I think it requires min of 2 years. I've seen some of my friends extended their master research up to 4 years. Dislike such uncertainties. I was in the teaching line as well btw.

And I do intend to pursue my PhD. In fact, I left my full time job and went for it last year-but it didn't worked out due to some issues with my supervisor.

For social sciences, Master by coursework or research gap is quite different too. For those going from master by coursework to PhD, they do lack research skills in terms of methodologies, theoretical frameworks and etc. hmm

yea, actually i have thought about this alot. It's either MSc by coursework or research. About the time factor, I am lecturing full time, so by coursework or by research time to complete will almost be the same for me. But the only thing is that, there are plenty of uncertainties when it comes to research like for example: enrolment form getting delayed, candidacy delayed, the whole paper work process delayed (based on experience from other post graduate students from my university), and that is why I am a little reluctant.

and about supervisors, those who can work well with supervisors are really very blessed. My research with my previous supervisor did not work out well too. Finally, the research came to a dead end. And now, I have another new supervisor. And he is quite hard to handle too. The pressure is literally building up. He loves to say "You do not have a choice!!" And this is the 2nd reason I do not want to start pursuing master.

the real reasons that motivates me to pursue a master's degree is to earn the degree for personal satisfaction, career advancement, and ensure the continuous survival in the academic place. And somewhere in between all that, for the pursuit of knowledge too.

ego boost is not my thing lols, so yeah, those are the reasons.

Thanks jonoave, your posts are insightful. Yes, I would love to advance my career in academia, and has always been reminded by my dean, if you wanna be in academia, universities worldwide are competitive, hence knowing how to do research is alot better.

The thing is, I think I'm lack of determination, perseverance, commitment....since I am having problem of juggling between my full time job and studying.

This post has been edited by mycolumn: Aug 30 2013, 10:40 PM

If you want to pursue on academia, one thing you can consider is the fast-track Masters to PhD, i.e. Masters (1 year) then PhD.

This kind of program usually revolves around the same project, so you can cut down on the learning time in PhD since you already spend some time in Masters. This is different than the regular kind where the Masters and PhD is usually separate programs and unless you're lucky to get the same supervisor where you might get to continue the same project.

I've not seen this kind of Master programs being offered in local unis, but they're quite popular in UK. But of course, I'm not sure how heavy this kind of fast-track Masters program is, and whether it is possible to do it on a part-time basis.

Edit: Also to add a bit more, some unis (like UKM) offers a chance to convert your Masters to PhD. Before the end of the third semester, you can apply to convert. Then you will need to do a presentation before a panel, and what extra additions/research you will carry out to qualify it as "PhD level research". As well as your current progress and grades by the third sem (you'll need 3.5 at least IIRC).

The goodside is you can save time. The downside is that if you mess up, there is no going back and you cannot downgrade it back to Masters to get a Masters degree since you're now enrolled in a PhD program.

This post has been edited by jonoave: Aug 30 2013, 11:04 PM

(1) What kind of determination is that determination?

(2) What kind of perseverance is that perseverance?

(3) What kind of commitment is that commitment?