It’s one thing to allow access to postgraduate courses and scholarships, which we think we do here quite well at PostgradAustralia, but it’s another to understand what people think of them. We’ve interviewed current and past postgraduate students to get a sense of their thoughts. Here are some answers to just some of the questions we asked. We hope you’ll be able to draw some inspiration from their stories and consider embarking on your own postgrad journey too.
Padam Rao, a graduate from UTS, wanted to up his game with a Master of Information Technology. He now works as a technical consultant in northern Sydney.
“I was developing android applications back home after completing my Bachelor of Information Technology. With time I realised the importance of studying more subjects related to information systems and software development. As technologies are rapidly evolving I wanted to learn more about every aspect of software development and information systems.”
Emily Thorne from Curtin University wanted to supplement her psychology background, as well as explore her interests. She’s now a provisional psychologist working with the Department of Communities.
“I wanted to learn more! I felt that my undergraduate degree gave me an excellent foundation of knowledge and skills, but I wanted to grow this and develop more knowledge in the diverse world that is psychology. I studied a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Western Australia in 2017, which allowed me to see the useful overlap of psychological intervention and schooling. The Autism course I completed in 2018 provided me with clinical and practical skills that I was not exposed to in my employment, but that I was highly interested in.”
Anam Mahmud wanted to stand out in the competition by supplementing her LLB with an LLM.
“There was a lot of competition in the area of my expertise (Human Rights Law) in Pakistan. So, for me to secure a government or an international organisation job I had to have an impressive CV. In order to do so, I had to have an additional qualification from a prestigious university such as the Australian National University.”
There are clearly several reasons to pursue postgraduate study, but from the interviews we’ve conducted, it seems to be both personally and professionally rewarding in general.
Gabe Mayer gave an honest account of his time studying the Master of Engineering at USQ. Although it wasn’t his favourite degree, he’s gotten some great experience working in software engineering out of it.
“There was not much of what I really liked. Compared to my German study I really enjoyed that the university had a bigger budget for student equipment. All lectures were always recorded and were accessible online. This helped me to study on my own because I could see lectures four times speed or pause on difficult parts.”
Hey, we’ve all done it.
Laura Brooke-Smith had a more positive time. She finished her MBA in 2008 at the AIM and has been operating her own management consulting practice ever since.
“The people and the facilitators were as important and a big plus over even the content. Being able to learn and grow from others is a huge benefit of an MBA. I wonder now with a lot of online courses if that may lack? There’s also the fact I could have a qualification in 12 months.”
Rest assured, Laura. Online courses are alive and well!
Dominic Bossie from Griffith University is working through his Master of Criminal Justice/ Master of Criminology. His experiences have been of great benefit.
“Some of the subjects can be really interesting and brain stimulating. An example is the course Offender Profiling which allowed us to review police case notes and create a profile of an offender(s). Also looking at real world cases that use the theory we have learnt in class makes it seem worth it.”
And worth it is! We’ll be publishing more unique insights from students soon, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. For the latest in postgraduate advice, courses and scholarships, sign up for free here on PostgradAustralia.