Why study a postgraduate degree?

Speaker 1 Hi, I'm Danielle and today we are going to be discussing everything that you need to know about a postgraduate degree. Hi, I'm Izzy and I'm studying Fashion Design. Speaker 2 My name's Josh and I'm studying Sport and Exercise Nutrition. My name's David and I'm studying Physiotherapy. Speaker 1 My name's Danielle and I'm studying dietetics. So what is a postgraduate degree? It's any course that you do after an undergraduate degree. So this could be a Master's or you may go on to do a PhD after your Master's. You can also do a PGCE if you wanted to go into the more teaching route or you can do more specialist courses if you wanted to go on to do architecture or nursing. So what are the benefits for you studying a postgraduate degree? Let's have a discussion. Speaker 3 So I did my undergraduate here, I did Garment Technology and I only found out the niche I wanted to go into at the end of my final year, so I knew that I wanted to continue researching adaptive fashion and clothing for people with disabilities, so the best way for me to do that was to carry on to do a postgraduate degree. Speaker 2 Yeah, likewise as well. With my undergrad I really liked research and I thought I suited the place quite well here at BCU. So my dissertation was really good at undergrad, I got an award for it and I really wanted to pursue the avenue of going into research as well. Speaker 1 Wonderful. Speaker 4 For me, what made me want to do a Masters was, as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a physio, because I have a background in sport and football and whatever, but when I did my undergrad, that was in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, so I said, 'ok, I know that, I still want to be a physio, so I now need to do a Master's so that I can make sure I get there', and on top of that, the Master's gives me a deeper understanding in terms of my job role in the future, so yeah, that's what brought me here. Speaker 1 Nice, great. Well for me personally, it was kind of a natural progression on from my undergraduate, so me and Josh did the same thing. So we did a Sport and Exercise Nutrition degree and personally I just loved the nutrition side of things and it just felt like the natural next step to become a dietitian because it's just something I'm very passionate about. So also what really helped me make that decision as well was the facilities that we've got here at BCU. I knew that they've got excellent places to do all the mock ward stuff as if you're actually in a hospital. Did you guys feel the same? Is there anything that drew you to BCU? Speaker 3 When you do something like fashion, it's really important to get used to industrial professional style machines and technology and some of the technology such as the CLO 3D, which is a 3D software, it's just quite expensive and unachievable to do yourself at home, but as we have access to that software and Gerber software in the university, staying just made a lot more sense for me. Speaker 2 I think as you said earlier, doing the same undergrad, the facilities we had at the old building at the Seacole, now moving to the Alex, using the heat chamber, the RMR machine, loads of different technology that's been moved over, it's allowed me to think I want to be retained within BCU, I really enjoy it here. Speaker 4 I feel like the facilities is definitely something I looked into. So I did my undergrad, as you guys know, elsewhere. So when looking around at different unis, I was looking at what they have and also what support they have as well. So me, myself, I'm in the process of getting diagnosed with ADHD. Speaker 1 Hey same! Speaker 4 The uni, they really helped and they were really supportive with going through that. So now they've done stuff like put things into place to get support. Speaker 1 That's wonderful. Speaker 4 And also they had loads of good things that they would practise ward. Speaker 3 The support is really good at BCU, I've been here since my undergrad and I've had ongoing health issues and I've had to have multiple surgeries where they've been cancelled and rearranged so getting extensions and things, it can be really stressful. And so with BCU and with my tutors in particular, they were really helpful at just making sure I remained calm and that they trusted me. Speaker 4 I feel like the common misconception... Oh were you about to say? Speaker 1 You go! Speaker 4 I feel like the common misconception between, amongst people is studying a Master's is that you're by yourself and I've been here for a while now and I don't actually feel by myself, if that makes sense. I've got the support of my classmates, your lecturers are still there even though it's a self-guided way of studying. Speaker 1 I felt exactly the same. During my undergrad I had my first child and the support that I got from my lecturers was just unmatched. So I fully get what you guys are saying. So for anyone who's watching this, who is maybe undecided about where they want to go to university or what course they want to take and what they want to specialise in, how do you think that they could best make that decision? Speaker 1 For me, as a returning student to BCU, the main draw was that returning students have a 20% discount from the fee they have to pay and that made a really big difference for me because fashion is a subject where there's a lot of material costs, so I had to think long term about what the cost of my course would be. Speaker 4 I mean, I wasn't a returning student, so I was doing research about different unis and looking at course content, the breakdown facilities they had, that kind of thing, like them kind of things because I feel like if you don't research all that beforehand, then you're in for a massive shock. Speaker 1 Did you go to, I know you weren't a student here before, did you go to any Open Days? Speaker 4 I went to everything. Speaker 1 Oh, did you? Speaker 4 I went to everything, I went to the Open Day, I went to some like, some fair that they were running and I just wanted to just get a feel and sometimes it's not always about course content and breakdown, sometimes you have to go there and see and think can I see myself actually being here. Speaker 2 If you go to an Open Day and you see a lecturer and think I'm going to click with this person, obviously at face value it's going to help you a lot. Speaker 1 Yeah, having that one to one time with the actual lecturers and course leads that you might be associated with I think makes a huge difference, doesn't it. Speaker 4 I met one of my lecturers on the Open Day and his name was Greg and honestly it was from that moment I met Greg I said, yeah. I said, I know. Because if you can click with your lecturers, these are the people that you're going to spend a lot of your time with. So if you know from a moment, 'ok, I'm going to click with him', then you know down the line, ok this is going to be a good fit for me. Speaker 3 I think it's important to come to the Open Days as well, if you're not from Birmingham specifically. I'm someone who was, like yourself, born and raised here, so I think I take for granted how central and connected to the rest of the UK Birmingham is, especially some of the more central campuses. We're by New Street Station, which is one of the biggest train stations in the UK, it can connect you to pretty much anywhere. And then it's also, we're not too far from smaller, more green areas and towns rather than just the big city, it's quite a diverse area, really. Speaker 1 Great, so for more information on postgraduate study, go to the BCU website.