Masters/PHD

monosharp

Hey all.

I'm abroad at the moment and will be until October '08 at the absolute minimum. Anyways, I have a 4 year BSc in Computing from an Institute of Technology in Ireland and I want to look into doing a masters/phd but I want to do it through distance/non-taught/etc methods. i.e > I don't want to have to stay in Ireland.

I've put my name down with my old IT for a research masters before I finished my BSc but have heard nothing and from what I can gather will likely not hear anything unless I'm around looking for grants/etc myself to do said masters.

I was hoping people here could give me some advice on what I could do or what I should do ?

As well as the above, my BSc was basically a software engineering degree but I'd like to see about getting out of the development side of things. This is of course less important but just something I was thinking of.

I was hoping to do a postgrad through one of the Irish universities and from what I know, basically my only option is a research masters which is fine by me. But perhaps there are other options I have not thought of ?

Thanks all.

H2G2

If you are not living in Ireland, why do a degree in Ireland?
While there is distance education taught MSc programmes, such a concept does not really exist for a PhD. That said, I did my PhD (part-time) in UK, while living in Ireland, but was over and back all the time. If you want to do an MSc then best to decide where you will be living for next 18 -24 months and then look at universities. A PhD is probably too long a time commitment for you now.
Aside: As a supervisor, I wouldn't take on a student who was going to live outside the country unless I knew them; or they made a really excellent case as to why it was a reasonable situation.

monosharp

H2G2 wrote: »

If you are not living in Ireland, why do a degree in Ireland?

Because I'm living in a non-english speaking country and will probably have to stay here for personal reasons. Even if I didn't have to, I want to stay.

While there is distance education taught MSc programmes, such a concept does not really exist for a PhD.

This is why I'm asking here because I really don't know I remember getting a lecture on doing a research masters before at my old IT and it was said that after a certain amount of time (2 years-ish at the masters) we could "upgrade" up to a Phd if some such conditions were right or the work was enough to warrant the upgrade or .. (I really forget what exactly was said).

So I'm completely wrong here ?

Aside: As a supervisor, I wouldn't take on a student who was going to live outside the country unless I knew them; or they made a really excellent case as to why it was a reasonable situation.

Ah I see.

I was hoping to get into a research masters with some of my old lecturers in my old IT but there doesn't seem to be any openings at present.

So you suggest that I should go home if I intend on doing a postgraduate ?

Tom Dunne

monosharp wrote: »

This is why I'm asking here because I really don't know I remember getting a lecture on doing a research masters before at my old IT and it was said that after a certain amount of time (2 years-ish at the masters) we could "upgrade" up to a Phd if some such conditions were right or the work was enough to warrant the upgrade or .. (I really forget what exactly was said).

So I'm completely wrong here ?

No, you are not wrong.

While I was figuring out what I was going to do, I was told the same thing - you enroll on an MSc course that leads to a PhD. The idea being, that if you pull out after, say, three years, at least you come out with something. It is common in the Institute of Technology sector, not so much in the University sector.

monosharp wrote: »

So you suggest that I should go home if I intend on doing a postgraduate ?

Not necessarily. I know DCU do a few distance education MSc courses, though I can't say I have heard anything positive about them (www.oscail.ie) . Also, off the top of my head, UL does a part-time distance education in Project Management (can't find the URL right now).

Edit: These courses are, as you would imagine, taught masters, not research based.

djpbarry

monosharp wrote: »

I remember getting a lecture on doing a research masters before at my old IT and it was said that after a certain amount of time (2 years-ish at the masters) we could "upgrade" up to a Phd if some such conditions were right or the work was enough to warrant the upgrade or .. (I really forget what exactly was said).

DIT?

That's pretty much the idea. The reason they do this is because it's easier to get funding for an MPhil project than a PhD. Regardless of whether you intend to do a PhD or not, everyone starts out as an MPhil student (in my faculty anyway). After 12 months, you decide whether or not you want to complete the PhD, or leave it as a Masters, in which case you would finish once your initial 2 years' funding expires (assuming your work is up to scratch). If you wish to complete a PhD, you are granted additional funding (usually a further 18 months, so 3.5 years in total) if you're work is up to scratch.

If you were to do a research degree with DIT, I think the only place you could be based outside Dublin is Uppsala University in Sweden, but I’m open to correction on that.

monosharp

Ok guys.

So say I was just asking for advice on how to get started with a Uni/IT ? Whats the general road I need to take ?

Do I contact lecturers or start looking in the papers for research grants or .. ?

H2G2

The best info. will probably come from a lecturer in a institution that you would like to study in. You may find it easier to target you old IT first as they may remember you. Reading papers, etc is always a good idea... it means you can have a better informed conversation with a potential supervisor and you will almost certainly come across as more credible.

patrickwall

Certainly, avoid these taught PhDs as they are very stressful and do not support the student. I did part of one in UCC and would advise nobody else to do so A real PhD should be 100% research and should take as long as it takes and not be rushed.

djpbarry

patrickwall wrote: »

Certainly, avoid these taught PhDs as they are very stressful and do not support the student.

A taught PhD?!? I've never heard of such a thing. A PhD is, by definition, a research degree.

Tom Dunne

patrickwall wrote: »

Certainly, avoid these taught PhDs as they are very stressful and do not support the student. I did part of one in UCC and would advise nobody else to do so A real PhD should be 100% research and should take as long as it takes and not be rushed.

And I'd say the exact opposite.

Horses for courses really.

The only real thing is the snobbery regarding taught doctorates, they are not regarded as "pure" PhDs.

Tan Princess

Whats a taught phd? One where you do coursework in the first year? All of UCDs are like that now I think

Esmereldina

Tan Princess wrote: »

Whats a taught phd? One where you do coursework in the first year? All of UCDs are like that now I think

No, that would the the 'new structured PhD'... :rolleyes: Basically they are tacking taught courses on to it, but you still have to do a thesis of same length and academic depth as before. That's why the mininum length is now 4 years instead of 3. A taught PhD is different again. It would have coursework and a shorter thesis I think. It's generally offered in more vocational areas, like Education for example. I can't really see it working in the humanities...

Red Alert

The structured PhD is unique to UCD as far as I know, although a lot of colleges have had some sort of taught course requirements for people starting PhD's.

convert

I heard rumours that TCD were going to bring in a structured PhD too...

I'm not a big fan of either the taught or structured PhD system.
While it can make the first year of your PhD less isolating (especially if coming from a taught masters), a lot of the courses that must be undertaken can be irrelevant to the actual area of studying. Quite a few students have found this to be the case, and have to spend ages studying and learning about statistics when they're actually writing a thesis on English literature! [that said, maybe it'd work for economics, sciences, etc., but not a great idea for humanities!]
There are also a number of students who found that due to their timetable (ie - having maybe one compulsory class almost every day of the week, generally in the middle of the day) they have found it extremely difficult to get sufficient time to do their own work, especially if their thesis is research based and doesn't involve them spending all day on campus.

I think that, for humanities, a structured PhD isn't really the way to go. Maybe sciences might be better suited?

nicardgr

i wouldnt say that sciences are better suited, yeah it may be good to have to do classes in analytical techniques/synthesis depending on your project but if you are on synthesis, you cant always be free at a certain time every day or x amount of days a week, if it means not having the reaction go to completion.

And i'm doing an analytical research and due to the annoyingness of DCU they havent fixed the autosampler on my machine so i have to go down every half hour to do injections!

Stepherunie

Red Alert wrote: »

The structured PhD is unique to UCD as far as I know, although a lot of colleges have had some sort of taught course requirements for people starting PhD's.

I've applied for a UCD PhD, from what the current students told me I don't have to do courses unless you want to - most of them took courses that interested them, or undergrad courses that helped them with there research i.e. one of the them took a course in computer programming as she needed to do some as part of her work and hadn't done any in her undergrad.

The UCD system, well in the School of Medicine and Medical Science and for the IRCSET application is you start out on the MSc and then after a year you decide whether you want to stay on and your work is checked to see if you're good enough to stay on. So it doesn't seem to be a IT only thing.