Taught or research - whats the difference?

jamesozzie · 05-07-2006 10:33am #1

I have decided that i would like to undergo a masters or postgrad. Can somebody please tell me the difference between a taught or research masters?

Andrew 83 · 05-07-2006 10:37am

Taught you go to classes and have essays etc to do for them as if it were an additional year of college and then do a dissertation usually in the 20,000 word range. Normally lasts one year.

Research masters would usually be with a view to continuing on into a PhD and you start your research with that intention most of the time. after a year you can then normally transfer onto the PhD register or else continue on till you finish your longer than taught masters dissertation.

Hitchhiker's Guide to... · 05-07-2006 7:26pm

research masters normally lasts for two years, and you can sometimes get scholarships to fund you through it.

e.g. from irchss.ie

(although the deadline is gone for this year)

taught masters are sometimes more useful from an employment perspective unless you want to go into academia.

research masters can 'drag' a bit. i know someone who has spent 6 years doing a research masters (full-time), and probably won't be finished for another year!

RDM_83 · 08-07-2006 5:52pm

-5000 euro to +12,000 depending on fees and funding. There isn't really very many taught masters in Ireland (though more are appearing) so if your interested in one look at the UK (especially since there is the occasional one with funding even if it is only your fees).
On a very slightly related note does anybody know what Bangor (in wales) is like (thinking of doing a taught masters there)

punka · 08-07-2006 6:48pm

RDM, I know two people who went to Bangor for undergraduate degrees, in Psychology and Music. I know it's very highly regarded for both those subjects, and in terms of social life it seems to be a lot of fun. If you want I can put you in touch with one of them, just send me a pm.

Stargal · 10-07-2006 2:23am

RDM_83 wrote:

There isn't really very many taught masters in Ireland (though more are appearing) so if your interested in one look at the UK

Don't think that's right; there's loads of taught Masters available across all the colleges in Ireland.

John · 10-07-2006 4:02am

I think it depends on what area of academia you're looking at, some areas have loads of taught masters and others have none. I imagine it's hard to do a taught masters in some courses.

Nietzschean · 10-07-2006 12:41pm

i imagine it isn't very applicable in some though....

Hitchhiker's Guide to... · 17-07-2006 11:56am

RDM_83 wrote:

On a very slightly related note does anybody know what Bangor (in wales) is like (thinking of doing a taught masters there)

What subject are you thinking of studying? You can look up their departmental RAE (Research Accreditation Exercise) rating - which is an excellent guide to the quality of their Masters. (although it is not necessarily a very good guide to the quality of their undergraduates)

When i did my Masters, it was jointly taught by two departments. One was five star, the other was four star. The difference was very noticeable.

glucosamine · 17-07-2006 11:11pm

What's the difference between a 5 star and 4 star hotel by the way? I think RDM is looking for Geography taught masters.

Hitchhiker's Guide to... · 18-07-2006 7:42pm

glucosamine wrote:

What's the difference between a 5 star and 4 star hotel by the way?

something about having a swimming pool / gym as far as i recall

glucosamine wrote:

I think RDM is looking for Geography taught masters.

ratings for geography from the last RAE assessment in 2001 are here:

http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/rae_dynamic.cfm?myURL=http://195.194.167.103/Results/byuoa/uoa35.htm

Can't see bangor on the list. Bristol would be the nearest uni to Bangor with a 5* rating. (although my geography is woefully bad (no pun intended), so it may not actually be the nearest 5* institute.)

Taught or research - whats the difference?

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