Postgraduate Prospectus

Like many people, commencing study on an MA in Linguistics was for me part and parcel of a career change. I had worked in TV news for over ten years and decided that I wanted a complete change. I had a long standing interest in language, and so teaching English overseas seemed the obvious escape route. However, while teaching at a private language school may offer the opportunity to change course, it doesn’t generally offer much in the way of long terms career prospects. If you are looking for a meaningful career, you need more than just a CELTA qualification.

I am now approaching completion of the MA and have recently started teaching English at a Japanese university, but my choice of modules on the MA has not been directly related to teaching. I think that this is one of the strengths of the Nottingham English programme, in that you don’t have to decide before you begin what kind of degree you want to end up with. Nottingham offers an impressive array of modules, from medieval literature to cutting edge research technologies such as corpus analysis, and this gives you a great deal of freedom and means you can either specialize or chose modules from a variety of subject areas – you can pretty much make your degree whatever you want it to be.

Studying by distance presents its own particular challenges, the greatest of which for me is the inability to discuss ideas and concerns with fellow students, although the recent emergence of an online community of distance learners may go some way towards alleviating this. But while distance learning comes with its own difficulties, it also brings its own rewards in that it forces you to develop independent research skills – skills that will be invaluable to anyone wishing to go on to study for a PhD. But perhaps more importantly in my own case, distance learning offered an opportunity to undertake postgraduate study that simply would not have been available to me otherwise. 

I completed my first degree at Nottingham. I thoroughly enjoyed the research-intensive literature modules and established a good working relationship with my dissertation tutor, so I knew that I wanted to continue my postgraduate studies here with her. The positive and supportive ethos of the University’s research community also appealed to me.

During the first semester, and in collaboration with the Graduate School, the School of English Studies provided me with first-rate training in research management, IT and a host of transferable skills. By the time I embarked on my research, I was confident in my competence as a researcher and am thoroughly enjoying the independent nature of my studies. It’s excellent grounding for my PhD and chosen career within academia.

Nottingham is a great place to live. It’s big enough not to get bored, but not so big that you feel lost. The cultural scene is busy, the sporting facilities and shopping are great – and they’re all set in a city built around some beautiful green spaces. It’s simple to get from A to B, both locally and nationally; popping down to the British Library and attending conferences is easy.

Staying at Nottingham was a natural choice. The University and city give me everything I need – I didn’t even consider going anywhere else.

Top tip:

Get involved in all things interdisciplinary: talk to researchers in your school, across the University and internationally. Attend events like conferences: they help you to make the most of your postgraduate studies, and presenting papers equips you with the skills to share complex ideas with specialist and non-specialist audiences.