Choosing a course

1. Postgraduate degrees are compulsory for some occupations and for others show commitment; they tend to involve more research than at undergraduate level. They can be a route to a PhD. Some masters degrees require a 2.1, work experience or GMAT. You careers service, undergraduate university or professional body may be able to advise on the benefit of a postgraduate degree.

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2. Fees range typically from £3,500 to £18,000 a year; but at postgraduate level in England you are usually looking at £11,000-£34,000, while most one year taught masters in England cost about £13,000 depending on reputation. But you could save thousands by heading to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. For example, for MBAs the cheapest range from £6,600 to £9,900. So with visa, travel and NHS fees (which you have to pay to get an IHS number to enter on your tier 4 application) you could end up doing an MBA for as little as £8,000 plus living expenses. If you are happy with any other masters then you can pick up a postgrad course for as little as £4,000 and some of these have exceptionally good ratings from students and are only cheap because they used to be polytechnics. Other colleges with cheap deals, perhaps for undergraduate courses, exist.

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3. Be aware that some MBAs require 3-5 years management or professional experience so a MSM (Masters of Science in Management) might be possible instead.

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4. If you care about reputation you could consider looking for accreditation from EFMD Equis or Epas, AMBA, AACSB, or QAA UK Quality Assured status, or look at World University Rankings, and for MBAs you can consider the Economist and Financial Times rankings. You might also consider employer links, where graduates end up working and credentials of tutors. There are other reviews in The Times, Guardian and Good University Guide, or by Unistats, QS World Universities, Leidenranking.com, Umultirank.com, Shanghairanking.com or People & Planet. Some degrees are professionally accredited so come with an extra certificate from a professional body.

 

5. The choice of college has halved since 2011 due to dodgy colleges and colleges for other reasons losing their sponsor licence. There are still about 1,200 with licences.

 

6. International students are spread surprisingly evenly across the UK so you don’t have to stick to London or South East, although most non-EU international students head for London. Although the statistics usually only count India instead of Sri Lanka, we know that about 16,000 Indian students live in the UK.

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7. It is worth checking out if the college, government or charities offer scholarships (eg Chevening Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship (funded by Uk DiFID, typically needs 2.1 and plan how your masters will improve your country, contact Additional Secretary (Development) Ministry of Higher Education) or British Council), bursaries, fee waivers, grants, studentships or government loans. Sometimes discounts are available anyway and some colleges have hardship funds if you run low during your course. There is also StudentFunder. Many colleges are aware they need to make it viable for students paying in rupees with falling value. Some have secret discounts and some discounts are automatic, as they apply if you have a 2.2 or 2.1 which are the entry criteria anyway.

 

8. One consideration might be how multicultural you want your classroom as some colleges are diverse and others dominated by one nationality, often Chinese, and this might be relevant to international careers in terms of understanding and networking. The main non-EU nationalities are Chinese, USA, Malaysian, India, Nigeria, Saudi, Singapore, Thailand and Canada. Of less relevance to taught postgrad courses are the main EU nationalities of German, French, Italian, Irish, Greek, Cypriot, Spanish, Romanian, Polish and Bulgarian.

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9. You might have a preference for extra curricular activities or for the campus not being spread across town. Disability support might also be a factor. Colleges should be able to put you in touch with alumni or run an open day. We can advise when a relevant study fair is held in case you want to visit the UK first to meet some colleges. You might want to consider whether their careers service or library is important to you.

 

10. You might want to consider what proportion of study is lectures, seminars, tutorials, practicals, workplace or independent study, and what sort of exams and assessments. You should decide if you want exams or continuous assessment, whether you want a work placement and what flexibility you want on passing each module. You will also need to decide where you are prepared to study such as London or which country within the UK.

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11. Unless you need a special degree for your career our advice is to keep your options open by studying business, which also happens to be the biggest subject for international students so gives you the biggest potential network of friends. We also advise to avoid expensive courses or locations not justified by reputation. Most Sri Lankan students just want to get some degrees under their belt as cheaply as possible so need to look at discounted courses in the regions. VisitBritain provide guides to the regions.

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12. To apply you may need to register with UCAS. We advise you to copy us in on your profile so we can use it to help broke a deal for you. You need to prepare a personal statement, referees and funding. Your personal statement links your relevant study and work to the course and should refer to how something unique about the college or course fits your plans. Also mention what research and reading you have done on the subject matter. You then await any interview and hopefully an offer. We advise to apply six months in advance. UK NARIC provide international equivalence certifications with translations for your qualification for £96 in case you need it.

 

13. You need to decide what level you will study at. By doing this is in the right order you can maximise your stay. A masters gives you 180 CATS credits whereas a diploma only gives you 120 and a certificate 60. A masters can usually be MEng, MPhil, MRes, MSM, MAD, MFA, MSc MA, Mim, MSD, LLM or MBA. Colleges often offer help with study skills for the more intense postgraduate level. After your masters you might be able to do a doctorate such as an MD, DPhil or PhD. Lower levels options are the HNC, HND, BA, BSc, Grad Cert, Grad Dip, PG Cert and PG Dip or an undergraduate degree if you want to go sideways and down then up for career reasons.

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14. Note that tier 4 visa requires you to start on a minimum level of RQF6, which is a bachelors degree, if you are full time, otherwise a minimum level of RQF 3, which is equivalent to an A level, for at least 15 hours a week, or RQF4 for a probationary sponsor licence college, which is equivalent to an HNC. But you are generally capped at a maximum of two years studying below degree level, whereas the cap on degree level study is generally five years. There are also rules allowing certain pre sessional courses and CEFR B2 English courses before starting your subjects. Whatever course you start with, remember that if you plan to do further courses they need to relate to the first one or be at a higher level to show academic progression.

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15. If doing a postgraduate degree you need to decide whether to go for a taught course instead of research, the vast majority go for taught as it is only one year to pay for. For a tier 4 visa you usually study full time, hence most full timers are international, even though most postgrad students are part-time.

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16. Were you to decide on a business course you could specialise in management, administration, business studies, IT, banking, charity, own business, trade, industry, investment, corporate, sales, analysis, social, government, professional, management, finance, accounting, tourism, HR or marketing etc.

 

17. You can apply for up to ten courses through ACAS Postgraduate online but many courses are not on there. ACAS handle applications for Dundee, Edge Hill, London South bank, Oxford Brookes, Richmond, University of Westminster and Winchester.

 

18. There are postgrad fairs, but these are often only for one college so it can be better to just use the online virtual fair, for example Target do a business fair in February. Findamasters do regional fairs.

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19. To prepare for UK study there are many free FutureLearn online courses.

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20. You are also recommended to look at the Prepareforsuccess website.