News

The University of Otago has seen an increase in the number of coursework Masters programmes on offer, and recent changes to admissions criteria have made some postgraduate qualifications more accessible than ever before.

There are now five coursework Masters programmes on offer in the Division of Humanities: the Master of Higher Education, the Master of Planning, the Master of Indigenous Studies, the newly-reconfigured Master of International Studies (MInSt) and the newly-established Master of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS). According to Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Alex Trapeznik, a Master of Development Studies is also in the pipeline.

In terms of the MInSt and MPACS programmes, recent changes to admissions criteria mean students can now attain a Masters qualification in four years rather than five, as a Bachelor of Arts endorsed with Honours is now no longer a prerequisite. Instead, both programmes simply require prospective students to have a B+ average across all their 300-level papers, regardless of discipline.

The competitive-entry MInSt and MPACS programmes are both unique within New Zealand and require 180 points to be completed over a minimum 12-month period. The MInSt programme has been running for 13 years and is a multidisciplinary course, incorporating economics, law, politics and peace and conflict studies, the latter of which replaced history in 2012. Along with completing four 30-point papers, students are also required to produce a 60-point dissertation of approximately 20,000 words in length.

Sarah Macindoe, a current MInSt student, saw a Masters by coursework as preferable to a straight thesis Masters for various reasons. She says it is “a far more social experience than a Masters by thesis – it’s a fun and tightknit group that gets along really well together, and we’re also in contact with lecturers from other University departments and graduates who have been offered jobs or linked in to jobs by other graduates before them. You end up with a network of people you can mine, which is something you’re not really offered in a thesis programme.”

For Macindoe, the class discussions and interactions integral to a coursework Masters are also invaluable. “We’re still getting experience with research and extended writing, but we spend a lot of time presenting, debating and defending ideas, presenting information in a way that someone can understand clearly. These are important, practical skills that you can’t really exercise in a thesis Masters.”

The major advantage of the coursework Masters, however, appears to be their interdisciplinary capacity. Macindoe explains that it “reflects more closely the realities of the kind of workplace I want to work in. Just doing a straight pols degree or a research Masters (where you remain entirely within the pols framework) means you might be good at that skill set, but it’s limited and not representative of the kind of job you’ll end up doing. Having had practical and academic experience in subjects like law and economics, I now have a far better grasp of the complex issues I’ll be dealing with, especially if I end up working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) … or in policy formation – typical avenues MInst graduates go down.” Indeed, the MInSt programme has seen its graduates secure jobs at MFAT every year since 2007.

The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, offering its MPACS programme from February 2014, has taken the vocational opportunities posed by a coursework Masters one step further, and is offering students the chance to complete a practicum paper instead of a research dissertation. Such students will take on overseas internships in the peace building, development and humanitarian fields, giving them invaluable on-the-ground experience. The Centre will be in a position to contribute financially to students’ travel expenses, having recently secured a large donation from an anonymous donor specifically for this purpose.

Associate Professor Philip Nel, director of the MInSt programme, is enthusiastic about the opportunities a coursework Masters presents for students. Echoing Macindoe, Nel says the programme gives students a “broad exposure at a very advanced level to a number of subjects, and close interaction with other students, some of whom have been practitioners in the fields which you are studying.” Indeed, he adds that, if he were hiring for a position at MFAT, he would likely choose a candidate with a coursework background over a thesis.

The changes to the degree structure come as part of a government-backed shift designed to align New Zealand’s university curricula with the internationally favoured Bologna system, in which a three-year Bachelors degree (incorporating an Honours-style dissertation) is followed by a one-year Masters, whether coursework or thesis. Along with the temporal, financial and vocational benefits for domestic students, it is hoped that the new Masters programmes will also be more familiar and therefore more attractive to international students, who represent a significant source of revenue for the University.

Whilst Trapeznik says that coursework Masters “will not replace thesis Masters or PhDs,” he does say that, “these new programmes will make you a more marketable commodity in the workplace because [you’re] achieving at a certain academic level that is recognised worldwide.” This is in contrast to Honours or postgraduate diplomas, which enjoy little recognition outside of the New Zealand context. In any case, the inflation of advanced degrees internationally has seen a Masters qualification become an entry-level prerequisite for both paid positions and many unpaid internships.

However, there are some who are experiencing disquiet about the admission reforms. Nel sees the changes as signalling “the death knell for Honours in the long term,” as completing the extra Honours year will only make sense for those wanting to do a Masters by thesis and/ or pursue a career in academia. There is also a feeling among some students that the new, and apparently less rigorous, entry requirements have somehow lessened the programmes’ worth.

Indeed, Nel acknowledges that Masters by coursework has in the past been considered a less challenging alternative to Masters by thesis – in fact, the postgraduate common room in the Politics Department used to deny entry to coursework students. The bias is also reflected in scholarships – thesis students can receive up to $13,000 in tax-free grants and have their fees waived, whereas coursework students can receive only $10,000 and still have to pay the fees.

Whilst it could be argued this is due to the fact that, as a one-year qualification following a three-year degree, the coursework Masters falls within the temporal ambit of the Government’s student loan scheme, according to Nel the present system of scholarship allocation gives the impression that coursework Masters are somehow “not a full Masters, which isn’t true.”