Study Skills for Master's Level Students, revised edition. Sally Hayes Tyler

      1

      WHAT IS MASTERLY?

      This chapter covers the following key issues:

      INTRODUCTION

      Relatively little literature exists regarding the transition to postgraduate study, and the research or literature to support learning that is available tends to focus on doctoral study. O’Donnell et al. (2009) surmise that this may be based on an assumption that once students graduate with their first degree, postgraduate-level study simply represents ‘more of the same’, or ‘taking things to the next level’, and that therefore there is little (if anything) in the way of a transition to be undertaken. As senior lecturers supporting students to take that leap into Master’s level study, we disagree with this assumption. Furthermore, we support findings from the research that suggest that difficulties in the transition to postgraduate study are experienced as difficulties in the mastery of key skills or academic practices, suggesting that postgraduate students do not come ‘equipped’ for their studies in higher education (O’Donnell et al., 2009). Students come to Master’s level study with very different expectations and experiences and with different levels of skills in areas such as writing, use of information technology (IT) and even in their ability to access and identify relevant literature. The standard use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as, for example, Web CT and X-Stream, can therefore be quite a challenge to some students whose IT skills simply have not kept pace with advancements since completing their Bachelor’s degree. However, the most common anecdotal anxiety is ‘What is different about Master’s level study and what does Master’s level writing look like?’ This book is therefore intended to support students who are new to Master’s level study and who are seeking help in understanding what is expected of them and the challenges that will be coming their way.

      STUDYING AT MASTER’S LEVEL

      There are many reasons why individuals who already have a Bachelor’s degree wish to undertake further study at Master’s level. Some of these reasons may be professional – for example, career development through studying a Master’s in advanced practice, in order to develop nursing practice to include assessment, diagnosis and treatment in a nurse practitioner role or a consultant therapist role. Other reasons might include: looking for competitive advantage at interview; a love of reading; a wish to recapture the experience of university life and education; or simply a lust for learning. All of these reasons may apply as motivations for professionals from health and social care backgrounds. However, there may be further reasoning. In professions where learning is recognised and valued as driving quality and where reflective practice is a reality, individuals often need the space that academic study can give to stop, unravel, examine and re-create understanding and solutions to the everyday problems that they face in practice. They are looking for the opportunity to face those problems as a ‘master’. But what does this mean; what is ‘masterly’? Why does undertaking Master’s level study make a difference to the ways in which health and social care practitioners think and practise and, importantly, in what ways does it benefit patients and service users?

      Various types of Master’s degrees exist in the UK, reflecting the independent nature of higher education institutions and the diversity of traditions that exist within different disciplines. For students, this means that there are no nationally agreed definitions of types of award and also that awards with similar titles can vary in nature both between institutions and across disciplines. However, all Master’s degrees are expected to meet the generic statement of outcomes set out by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in the qualification descriptor within The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (August 2008) that is examined below, or The Framework for Qualifications of Higher Education Institutions in Scotland (January 2001). The qualification descriptor sets out broad expected outcomes for a Master’s degree in terms of what graduates should be able to demonstrate and the wider abilities that they would be expected to have developed.

      According to the QAA, the opportunities that Master’s study offers students include the following: