About postgrad study : Where should I study?

When choosing where to study ensure you take into account both academic and personal factors.

Choosing an institution

• If you are currently studying at undergraduate level, speak to your tutors, they may have knowledge and personal contacts relating to their subject area that can point you to suitable postgraduate options.
• Check for institutions providing courses that provide options or specialist pathways that enable you to focus on particular interests.
• Consider the relative merits (or otherwise) of studying at a different institution to where you got your undergraduate degree.
• Contact alumni societies or use online student forums at the universities you are interested in to speak to current students and find out what it is really like.
• Access postgraduate forums at Find a Masters  to talk to other students about applications and to gain an insight into issues postgraduate students face.
• To look for suitable courses at a variety of institutions try search courses and research, universities and departments, Jobs.ac.uk , Find a Masters and Find a PhD .
• Search for programmes of study using a wide range of names and key words as courses in the same subject area may have a wide range of titles.
• Use postgraduate fairs to find details of postgraduate open days and postgraduate study fairs. 

To narrow down your choice consider:

• Academic entry requirements: many postgraduate courses require a 2:1 or higher.
• Work experience requirements: some courses expect you to have a certain amount of related work experience. This is usually the case for social work, teaching, medicine and other health care courses and some business courses.
• Modes of study available: full time, part time, distance learning or online.
• Facilities and resources available: for example for scientific or media production courses, does the department have the most up-to-date technology?
• Possibility of funding: does the university offer a scholarship or bursary or is a grant available from a research council?
• Reputation of the course/institution: use The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)  for quality reports on HE institutions. Accreditation by professional bodies is also a good indicator of the quality of a course and may lead to a professional qualification that is essential for progress in a field.
• Ratio of staff to students.
• Job prospects after the course: ask for destinations of the last cohort of students.
• Postgraduate community: numbers of students, specific social opportunities and facilities for postgraduates.
• Personal considerations: accommodation costs, location of institution and associated travel costs.

Research programmes

In addition to the above, when making your selection you should also consider:

• Whether the topic of the research project will fit into your career plans. As topics are often proposed by supervisors it is important to ensure that you are comfortable with it.
• Who will your supervisor be and do you feel that you could have a good working relationship with them? Read the published work of potential supervisors and contact them for initial discussions as early as possible.
• Whether you will be working alone or as part of a research group. You will have to be very motivated and self reliant to work alone. In this instance it is important to ensure that the university has a thriving postgrad community with whom you can share ideas.
• What resources are available? Will you have your own computer/lab space?
• Will you be able to earn extra money teaching undergraduates or is this expected from you with no payment?
• What research rating does the department have for your field? See the Research Assessment Exercise  website for details. Departments that score 4* are rated world leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

Tom, currently doing a PhD has some useful tips relating to choosing a supervisor:

About a year before you wish to start it would be sensible to meet with your proposed supervisor to discuss potential research areas to see what is viable, they may also be able to suggest sources of funding. Even better would be to have done an internship or spent some time in the department in which you are interested in finding a PhD position. Choice of supervisor is very important; this can greatly affect your enjoyment of the experience and how successful it might be.