University placement year and masters

Hey!
You need to complete your bachelors degree first before you can begin a masters. I would recommend that during your second year you start looking for what masters you would like to do and apply for it in your final year.

Regarding placement years, they’re typically a separate course. For instance, if you applied to study a subject, the regular course is 3 years long. However, if you were to apply for a subject with a placement year it would be a 4 years course. Depending on the university, you might be able to transfer from one course to another (same subject) to complete the placement year but you would have to email your head of department to see if it would be possible. Depending on the subject you have chosen, there may be a module you can choose in your second or third year for work placement and that is just as good as doing the placement year in my opinion. However, you would be working alongside your studies whereas the placement year you are expected to take up work full time during that year and don’t attend uni.

Hope this helps a bit

Hello,

I have applied for 2020 entry. I have noticed that some courses contain a placement year or postgraduate study such as masters. I picked the normal bachelors degree but was wondering whether it would be possible to enter into a placement year or the masters during my 3 years at university? When would such a choice be presented to me?

Thank you for your reply. That cleared it up for me.

The above post is a little incomplete. Some courses are an integrated master's rather than separate undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. In addition, some departments offer transfer to the integrated master's if a student is doing well, and likewise "relegation" to the bachelor's degree if a certain level is not achieved.

Which degree have you chosen and where?

Cleared it up, but may be wrong in your situation.

Some degrees, particularly engineering, but sometimes chemistry etc offer two options, BSc or MSc track. The first is 3 years, or 4 with a placement year, the second in 4 years or 5 with a placement. It is usual, because it's easier and more certain, to elect to do the MSc track and then drop back to a BSc if you want to. It's harder, because you need there to be a space on the course, to go from the BSc track, to the MSc track, or to add in a placement year.

If you are on a course that has both tracks, and you are on the BSc track, you will have to ask your course staff how and if you can move to the MSc track. They will usually require you to have a decent 2.1 by the end of the third year.

If you haven't started yet, and know already that you'd prefer to do the integrated Masters, speak to the Uni now and see if they will change your offer. Don't wait until August, because courses will fill then.

Universities can run placements how they want, so again, you have to ask your course staff how to get on the placement year track.

Most Masters degrees, other than in the sciences, are not integrated, and you make a separate application to wherever you want, which can include your undergrad uni, to do a standalone Masters, which operates under a different funding regime, if you are a UK student.

Bioscience at Warwick

Hello,

I have applied for 2020 entry. I have noticed that some courses contain a placement year or postgraduate study such as masters. I picked the normal bachelors degree but was wondering whether it would be possible to enter into a placement year or the masters during my 3 years at university? When would such a choice be presented to me?

The Life Sciences undergraduate brochure states "if you are a BSc
student and achieve 2:1 or above in your second year,
you can apply for a transfer on to the related Masters course". Therefore you don't have to make a decision about the integrated master's yet.

See https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/19978k_-_uow_life_sciences_ug_brochure_2020.pdf

It depends on your course-lots of science courses offer a four year alternative with an integrated Masters (MSci as opposed to MSc) and often these have a higher ask at a level. However what we discovered is that even if you get on to the Masters course at application time it will all depend on your results at the end of your first year at uni as to whether you stay on it or whether you get moved back to the three-year bachelors course This also happens in reverse. Therefore my suggestion would be to apply for the three-year course with a lower offer and then if you do well in your first year ask to switch (normally they will automatically offer it to you anyhow) to the masters. You can always ask this at a post offer day or by email to the Department before you make your final choices in UCAS.
Placement years also vary by university. A few of them will not allow you to change from a three-year straight through course to a four year placement course once you are there. However my experience is that most universities are quite happy for you to change whilst you’re there. You just have to remember to make the relevant change to student finance.

Hello, thanks for the reply. Would it be better to do an integrated masters or a bachelor's and then a postgraduate masters?