The Student Room Group

Is it possible to do a PGCE and a Masters Degree at the same time?

The title says it all really!

I am a year away from doing this if it is possible, about to be heading into the 3rd year of Law LLB studies, so hopefully someone will be able to help me out with this situation!

I am hoping to become a Law lecturer, preferably at a university but would take the route to lecturing in a college initially. But being an old fogie at 25 and incredibly impatient, I'm hoping this is a possibility!

Any information on this would be veeerryyyy much appreciated!
Moved to Education and Teaching, where you're more likely to get an answer :smile:

(Altho I think I know that the answer will be no I'm afraid - for one thing, you will either be at university or school for your PGCE so won't be able to attend any law lectures)
I'm a newbie myself (NQT here) but I'm fairly confident the more experienced will back me up. No, you cannot hope to do a Masters and a PGCE at the same time. I doubt any PGCE admissions criteria would allow it. In fact, I believe you would be insane to attempt to do so.

I spent the last academic year embroiled in the organised madness that is a PGCE. Yeah, it has some less pressured points (on my course the first 4 weeks or so were fairly chill) but the majority of the course is spent juggling the demands of placements which are in effect like doing a full-time job (yes you teach a reduced timetable, but you need extra time to plan and mark effectively as you learn this 'on the job') with the more academic demands of essays. You are being observed regularly, you are under pressure, you are impacting the lives of your students for good or ill, your personal/social life may suffer, there is never enough time for everything you need to do.

In my younger days I did part of an MA course (dropped out as it wasn't for me) and although it is less 'intense' than a PGCE it is most definitely not something to take lightly, especially writing your dissertation.

And finally - old at 25?? I took my PGCE at the grand age of 32 and I was far from the oldest. Many on the course were late 20s, 30s, even - gasp - 40s and beyond. Slow down. It's not a race!
Reply 3
No, it is not possible.
Most masters degree only leave a window of opportunity open to work up to sixteen hours in a part time job.

There just aren't enough hours in the week to take on two full time commitments, especially big ones like a masters and pgce.

Enjoy studying. Ain't a race :smile:
It's not impossible, but you will first of all need to hide the fact that you're trying to do both at the same time, then you'll need to do a part-time master's instead of a full-time one, and if you really want to do this you will probably need to do a long-distance part-time master's without telling them you're also doing a PGCE. But if you do a part-time one you take double the time anyway so it's not really helping.
With a part time, distance learning (such as with the Open University) option and if you don't like sleep, then I imagine it would be possible. However, how good an idea it would be is debatable.
Even if you did manage to get on both and do both (which is highly unlikely). You would probably be so tired that performing well would be difficult. You've also just got to think what you want to do.

Teaching at unis would often require a PhD, the qts/qtls isn't a requirement. The college route that you describe of teaching at a college, then a uni isn't q way of doing it that I've ever heard of. Most people just go on to do PhDs/get extensive industry experience in some fields, then work in a university. Working in a college wouldn't allow you to gain the research experience/publish sufficiently to work at a lot of universities. If you did do a PhD, though, you would probably start teaching fairly early on, if you are really keen to sink your teeth into some teaching.

If you are unsure, I would either do the masters or take a year out (not an option by the sound of it). During that year get some experience of colleges/fe and throw yourself into the stuff you are doing at uni. Fe and unis are quite different places to work at in a lot of cases
Original post by bownessie
Even if you did manage to get on both and do both (which is highly unlikely). You would probably be so tired that performing well would be difficult. You've also just got to think what you want to do.

Teaching at unis would often require a PhD, the qts/qtls isn't a requirement. The college route that you describe of teaching at a college, then a uni isn't q way of doing it that I've ever heard of. Most people just go on to do PhDs/get extensive industry experience in some fields, then work in a university. Working in a college wouldn't allow you to gain the research experience/publish sufficiently to work at a lot of universities. If you did do a PhD, though, you would probably start teaching fairly early on, if you are really keen to sink your teeth into some teaching.

If you are unsure, I would either do the masters or take a year out (not an option by the sound of it). During that year get some experience of colleges/fe and throw yourself into the stuff you are doing at uni. Fe and unis are quite different places to work at in a lot of cases


Actually this depends on the field. In the field of law, just like with other professional fields, many lecturers teach based on professional experience, and many law professors and even deans don't have a doctorate.
Original post by Little Toy Gun
Actually this depends on the field. In the field of law, just like with other professional fields, many lecturers teach based on professional experience, and many law professors and even deans don't have a doctorate.


I'm aware, hence the sentence about getting a PhD/getting extensive experience. In either case, working in a college wouldn't facilitate the op teaching at universities.
Reply 10
I looked into this. I was thinking of doing a post-16 PGCE to teach in FE/HE (I have 19 years in the NHS). I already have a Masters but I noticed that a lot of job adverts (for uni level) required a PhD. A few colleagues teach as senior lecturers part time and they don't have a PhD (but many years of professional experience).
You can do a post-16 PGCE part time. The one I looked at was for 2 years with 4 hours a week in lectures plus so many hours teaching (that could be done in the same day). My Masters was distance learning and I didn't spend too much time on it. It is possible if you do the post-16 PGCE (with the HE module) full time and a DL Masters, Check first though.

Quick Reply

Latest