Does academic snobbery exist within postgraduate study?

I originally planned to study a MSc in Information Security at Royal Holloway, however I did not manage to secure the funding. I would like to study a security related masters, either to help towards a career in that field or if not just for personal gain.

I have just graduated from a top 20 university with a first degree in Computer Science and I have also secured a really good job as a Software Engineer.

I have been considering the distance learning version of Royal Holloway masters, however its costs around £13k and covers 6 fairly basic modules. (I would have to get a loan and pay interest on this, so more like 16k)

The only other distance learning course I can find is at De Montfort University, the course covers 8 modules which seem to cover a wider range of subjects than the RH course. Best of all the course is only £4000, which mean I could just pay as I go. (No Loan)

My question is, at postgraduate level does it matter what institution your MSc comes from? considering I already have a good BSc. Or is the extra money a RH worth paying?

I live the look of the DMU course, but if it would have any benefits over my BSc.

THanks

Reply 1

Politics Student

If your talking about the league table then no its meaningless. You are best selecting an institution which has an excellent department for what you want to study.

Reply 2

A Mysterious Lord

Not really, most people are grown up by then.

Reply 3

expresstbh

Original post by Politics Student

If your talking about the league table then no its meaningless. You are best selecting an institution which has an excellent department for what you want to study.

I am fairly limited as i want to study distance learning, RH is the best in the UK, but not sure if its worth four times the price of the DMU course!

Reply 4

Ghost6

To some extent, yes. You feel like a million dollars when you are able to say I graduated from <insert Ivy League/Oxbridge school>. Royal Holloway while a solid university comparable to a good U.S. state school does not have this kind of cachet, though, and £16,000 seems a hefty price for a distance degree. Plus some people (including myself) do not regard the learning outcome of a distance degree as equivalent to that of campus education.

Reply 5

Zenomorph

Original post by Ghost6

Why not ? At least purely on academics

Reply 6

herbertsherbert

Original post by Ghost6

Plus some people (including myself) do not regard the learning outcome of a distance degree as equivalent to that of campus education.

Interesting comment; to clarify, do you regard the outcome of a distance learning degree subordinate to that of a campus degree ?

I hold two degrees, one gained on campus, and the other through the OU. The OU degree was not only substantially harder to achieve, but far superior at an academic level. During any career or job market consultation, the OU degree grabs attention. I'm about to embark on an MA, and having studied the details of two possible courses, I found that I've already covered the material to the same depth with the OU when undertaking an BA.

It's taken me some time to find a suitable MA course that the content of my OU degree had not already covered. It would be interesting to have some feedback from campus and distance students who studied the same course at the same institution.

Reply 7

returnmigrant

Academia isn't fixated with League Tables and all that other 'best Uni' nonsense. If that is how you are choosing 'which Uni', time to take a step back.

At Postgrad level, there are two important things to look at :
1) Does the course interest you? This is actually the point of doing it, not perceived brownie-points from the brand name of the Uni.
2) If you intend to do a PhD (or are even vaguely thinking about it), does the Dept have respected academics in your field? ie. who is writing the journal articles that interest you?

If the answer to these questions points towards a course at what you think of as a 'lesser' Uni, so what? Isn't it time to readjust your attitude to opinions that are probably based on 'I've heard' rather than fact? Check out who works in that Dept, what PhD projects are in progress, what research projects are going on there, etc etc. You'll be surprised. Then look at the University - check out important things like library provision, IT facilities and all the other things that can make far more of a difference than something as nebulous as 'image'.