Master’s degrees - stand out in your field!
With the increasing level of competition in the job market, graduates with just bachelor’s degrees sometimes experience difficulty finding employment and need a master’s qualification to stand out. Executive education and professional specialisations have become almost mandatory in the employment sector. Enrolling and successfully completing a master's degree will enhance professional opportunities at any career level, and broaden publication and research possibilities for academic professionals with an aim of entering the academic field and pursuing further study.
A master’s degree is offered in different fields such as arts, sciences, engineering, social science, humanities, commerce and business. These degrees are usually offered by universities and are highly acclaimed in the job market owing to their specialised knowledge and education.
Classifications
A master’s degree is usually classified on the basis of research work, course work and professional concentrations which have a mixture of two. Master's degrees in different countries have varying durations, but most tend to last around 1-2 academic years, with course curricula which have a mix of academic and professional courses. Usually a master’s degree is of the following types, depending on the curriculum classification:
- Postgraduate master’s degree:
MA, MS, Med, Msc, MPH, MCom - these are for those holding a bachelor’s degree
- Postgraduate master’s degree:
MRes, MARes – these are for bachelor’s degree holders with research backgrounds and publications
- Executive master’s degree:
EMBA, EMS; designed for executive professionals
- Integrated master’s degree:
MChem, MPhys, Msci; combined with bachelor’s and one year of master’s
Admission requirements for a master’s degree
Since master’s degrees are highly sought after, it gives rise to a lot of competition between universities. For these reasons, universities all over the world have some selection criteria for the incoming academics. Some of the common requirements are:
- An acclaimed and accredited bachelor’s degree
- A GPA of certain points (usually higher for acclaimed universities)
- Undergraduate coursework of usually 124 or more hours
- Appropriate course and research work for research-oriented master’s degrees
Evolving formats for master’s degrees
Most of the universities around the world are ranked on the basis of their master’s degrees and other postgraduate education. Thus, many universities have also started offering many of their master’s degrees for busy professionals in online formats. These offer individuals the flexibility to attend classes at their own convenience and study pace.
