 So I'll introduce myself first. My name is Zoe Marriage and I'm the incoming head of department of the Department of Development Studies. I'm currently also the convener of the violence, conflict and development program. So if anyone has specific questions about that program I'm very happy to answer them or you can email me later or you can be in touch with the conveners of your program. So today I'm going to do quite a general overview because we've invited everybody who is interested in hearing about the courses within the development studies department. So this is not program specific but master's level specific and we have the chats button at the side. So if you have any questions please you can put them there and if it seems right to answer them as I go along if it's a little question I can do that. If it's bigger questions I can wait until the end of the presentation and then answer your questions altogether. So let's get started. Welcome to Zoe's, welcome to the Zoe's webinar. Let me just work out how to summary from slide to slide. Yes I've got it. So we have a number of master's degrees in this department. We have the Department Studies master's degree. This is the largest and longest-running master's degree that we offer. It's a general degree. It has elements of sociology and political economy in it. We also have a newer environmental politics and development degree, globalization and development degree, labour social movements and development. Somebody's having difficulties hearing and some people can't hear anything and yet I think that might be your end because other people seem to be able to hear okay. Migration, mobility and development, research in international development and violence conflict and development. So this is the range of degrees that we have and I hope that everybody has had a chance to look at the website. The website has an awful lot of information on the structure of the content of the degrees. We've done some videos, there are some preliminary reading lists there as well. So make sure that you're on the program that is right for you. Do feel free to get in contact if there's more details that you'd like to know. The structure in general is that there are two core modules. Many of the, all of the specialized degrees have one dedicated core module to that degree. So the violence conflict and development has a core module that all violence conflict and development students take and then they get given a choice of what will be their second core module and that is basically the structure that goes across the other specialist degrees. Then each person takes four elective modules, two in the first term and two in the second term and then the dual in the crown which is the dissertation independent research module that takes place from May onwards. There is in so as a very large range of modules available and one of the best preparations you can do for your program is to have a look through all of the things that are available for your program. And this is, this has been specifically developed in the last couple of years to give the broadest possible array of choices to people so they can really tailor their master's degrees exactly to what they need to know for their academic development and their professional development. So if you're interested in health have a look at that. If you're interested in gender have a look at that. If you want to know about social movements, if you want to know about languages, music, whatever it is you want to know but have a look at the different kinds of modules that are available for your program and make sure you get exactly the right combination of modules for you. One way of orienting your choice of modules is to think about your dissertation, what are your longer term research aims from the master's program and to use the modules to acquire the skills and content, the case study is necessary in order to support the research that you want to do for your dissertation. That said, I know a lot of people won't know exactly what they want to research for their dissertation when they are. That's also perfectly fine. There'll be a lot of chance when you get here to decide what it is you want to research to have a discussion with your advisor, to have a discussion with your program convener, your colleagues and to see what direction you want your research to take. But do you see this structure as essentially supporting your academic progress through the master's program and towards the research that you'll be doing for your dissertation? The schedule, so this goes for the one year course, the one year program is what is available particularly to international students. Home and EU students have the possibility of studying part time either over two years or over three years. I'm just going to shut the window because there's a lot of noise there. I'll give you the basic one year program structure and there are variations in the way that this can be played out over two or three years if you're interested in part time study. The first term runs from October to December. This is a 10 week teaching term with one week reading week in the middle which allows you to catch up on any readings that have kind of fallen by the wayside to start preparing your assignments and just to catch your breath because it's a very intense program study. The second term runs from January to March and during those two terms there are a number of assignments that you need to complete which then go towards the final grade of your master's program. And then the summer is dedicated essentially to writing the dissertation. There are one or two modules that have exams but they're actually quite rare at master's level so the majority of the time from March onwards is finishing up assignments, making sure all of those are completed and then embarking on the process of research for the dissertation. Those people who are interested in part time study I think it can be very helpful particularly if you have work commitments or caring commitments. If you're not able to commit to full-time studying think about going part time. Those students who do come part time tend to have a more relaxed experience of study. They're able to absorb more, they're able to go to more non-assessed elements and are able to also to audit some modules. So if that's available to you, if you're a home or eager student have a think about whether it will be beneficial to go for part time study. Who comes to our master program? This is the cohort. There's no fixed profile that we're looking for. In fact it's actually the opposite. What we hope for is a very diverse cohort. We see diversity as a positive element that enriches the debates, enriches the discussions that we have within our tutorial groups and within our open seminars and lectures as well. But there are nonetheless some kind of more obvious than other career paths that lead people to the master's program. One is that people come straight from their BA degree. Most of these people will have studied something relevant to the degree at BA. So that might be economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, these sorts of degrees that lead quite easily and straightforwardly into a master's degree in development studies. Another kind of large minority of people will come after two to five years of professional experience. Many of these working overseas, they've gained some experience maybe as field officers, logisticians and are looking to use the master's program as a step up in their career to move them more policy work or central office work. Another group of people are those who are changing careers. So maybe they've been working as a lawyer, working as a doctor, working as something that may have a social base to it or may not. And they're wanting to move into development work. And they're using the master's degree as a way of retooling in order to engage in a new moment of their career. And then we also nearly always have some people who are coming a little bit later in life. They've maybe the kids have left home, maybe they've finished the first phase of their career and they want to do something mainly out of interest, but also with a chance of sort of dabbling in development issues at a later stage in their life. In terms of where people come from, we also again, about greatly value diversity, we want to have people from across the world and we do have people from across the world. This is one of the great things about Saras and also one of the great things about London. That said, there are areas of the world that we tend to get more students from and I put them there pretty much in terms of where people come from. We have about 10% of our students think come from North America, North South America. Another 10 or 20% come from Europe, including the UK. We have quite a few students from India, Pakistan, China, some from Japan as well. And also always welcome students from Africa, although that is a cohort that we would encourage to come even more. And finally, I think destinations, so where do people go after their degree? And I think it's worth saying, you know, this is all part of a journey, all of us are doing all of us a different moments of our journey. But clearly, there are some destinations towards which degrees and development studies and related special specialisms are leading. So many of our alumni go on to work for NGOs, for the United Nations, the government departments, either in the UK or abroad, civil society groups, we have many journalists who come and they may go on to international journalism or specialized journalism such as War Corresponders. Lots of people go to think tanks. We have a whole range of think tanks in London and I think most of them are populated by students from SARS at some stage. And also many people go on to further study to PhD research. And I think that's pretty much all in terms of the kind of general overview of our programs. But please do feel free to be in touch. On the website, you'll find who is the convener of the program that you applied to. And each of those conveners will be very happy to hear if you have kind of specific questions in terms of content. Or and or anything else that's that you're interested to know more about. I've now got a few questions that have come up in the chat box. I'm going to talk through those. Okay, so should I read all of the recommended pre readings for having classes? So the recommended readings are not required readings at all. It's just that a lot of people do ask how they should prepare for coming to a master's program. And I think there are various ways of preparing. One is to read, obviously. And I think the reason that we recommend those books is for two reasons. One is to get you back into the habit of reading, particularly if you've been outside of academia for for a few years, having spent an awful lot of time thinking about intellectual discussions, maybe are not completely up to date on where debates are on issues of violence, migration, development, whatever it is that you're going to be studying. So do you have a look at those readings that we've recommended? It's also to get you used to the way that we think here. So as there's a reason that you've chosen so as we have an identity, intellectual identity, and many of the books that we put there have been written by colleagues here in the department. So you get a real flavor of how it is that we think how we teach what kinds of things influence us, what our disciplinary backgrounds are, and how we make arguments. And I think that's good preparation as well for coming here for understanding how things work. Certainly it's not required. There's not going to be any test of whether you've done the pre-reading. Somebody did complain a couple of years ago that people who had done the pre-reading had an advantage when they got here, which I thought was was a great thing to say really, because that's that's why we recommend the pre-reading. But don't stick to that only. I mean, use that as a base, but you can also engage with the debates in so many other ways by thinking through, even just thinking through items on the news, what counts as development, what counts as violence, how is my, how, how debates about migration change and reflecting on your, your life, the influences that you see from a perspective from a more theoretical and intellectually engaged perspective. And can I tell us about research projects and academic activities offered by the department? So, yeah, the there is, I mean, I'm sure you've all had a chance to look at the department website and there is a lot of information that's maybe not the most user friendly forms of information, but all of us within the department are research active. We all have projects that are ongoing. One of the ways of kind of drilling down into what people are doing specifically is to go to their profile and look at their publications page. And some of those publications will be hyperlinked, which means that you can go through to the the e repository, which is where the publications are kept. So you can actually access quite a few articles, and free of charge from that from that page. And that gives you quite a good idea of what people are doing. I'm not going to have the time obviously to go through the entire department to say what each member is doing. But I would say there are some research clusters. And those research clusters tend to be aligned to the the masters programs. So I, for example, am in the research cluster for violence, peace and development. So there's a few of us, me, Christopher Kramer, Johnson Goodhan, Tanya Kaiser, or Hammond, who are involved in work that pertains to elements of violence and conflict. And then there's other, there's other research clusters, one around migration, one about one around labor. So the various research clusters also listed on the site. And you can click through to those to see what some of the research is that is some see what what some of the research is that is being done. And class sizes in general. So the masters programs vary from program to program in terms of the size, but we have a kind of set piece in terms of how those classes are split up and dealt with. So the largest program cohort is development studies, which tends to have around 100 people in it. BCD is the next down with maybe 65. Then there's globalization development, migration and development around 40 to 50. Mark and some of the others are smaller than that. So the way that teaching is done in general is that there's a lecture followed by a seminar and those seminar groups are limited to 14 people each. So while the lecture can be quite a large cohort, people each of the seminar groups involves a discussion with with 10 to 12 people. This is where it's possible to go to the concepts of the lecture, the readings to discuss things to explore ideas with your colleagues and to make presentations as well. So there's a there's kind of a bigger picture, which is the cohort size, and then the smaller picture, which is the discussions that take place in the seminar. And one of the things I think is is really brilliant about a master's program is the is the contacts that you make amongst your cohort of colleagues. And that the resource that is available when you walk into the lecture theater is actually extraordinary. All of those people are going to be working in the kinds of areas that you are interested in. That's how you've all managed to be in the same lecture theater together. So to having a large cohort, I think is a very positive experience as a master's student that you can make contacts with people all over the world, all sorts of different organizations, and then maintain those contexts as well. After you've left our answer, and you are working in development or in immigration, or in violence conflict, issues of violence and conflict, and you will definitely carry on meeting those colleagues, at least for the next 10 or 20 years. So do invest in your cohort and in your in your experience as a member of that cohort. Is it possible to do internships in order to strengthen what we learned during the master's? So the it is possible to do internships in London. There's a lot of opportunities for doing internships, particularly in the summer, I would say during the teaching term, it's practically impossible to do anything aside from your studying. It's a very intensive full time course. And a lot of people come with the intention to to do internships and to do other things. And then they find out that actually, they're basically having a very intense period of study. But come the summer term as it were, or the summer in general, it's perfectly possible to do internships. And I think there's a very positive kind of a working dynamic that can exist between your studies and the internship in exactly the way that you are suggesting that, which is to say that's what you're learning in so I will be able to inform the work you do in an internship and what you're doing in the internship will also inform your discussions and your studies here. I think there's a very positive thing to be able to do, particularly if you can relate it to the subject of your dissertation. And that will give you some some angles, some also contacts that you can interview or gain data from and ways of presenting that data as well. So I think that's a very positive thing to be able to do. It's not something that we organise as part of the programme. It's not something that's assessed, but it is something that it's perfectly viable to do at the same time as studying. What kinds of supporting activities do you provide for the students in order for them to get jobs like seminars, job forms? So we have a careers centre here and we have a careers tutor. And so we are aware that the Master's programme is one step in your journey. And so this is something that we support throughout. I mean, it's not only through the contact with the careers, but I'll talk about that in a minute. But we see that the programme itself has processes of professional development. So all of the assessment is also preparing for the job market within the area of development. So we have essays which are akin in some ways to report writing. We have presentations, we have video presentation, PowerPoint presentations, blog pieces, which are all part of the assessment process. And we've diversified massively the way that we assess work on the basis that people require these different kinds of skills in order to prepare themselves fully for professional work in development and development related areas. So we have those activities that take place as part of the Master's development of presentation skills, whether presenting ideas in a written form or in oral presentations. We have seminars as well. I mean, there's a weekly seminar, which I think, in some ways, is a kind of professional development, particularly in terms of making contacts or seeing what sorts of organisations are operating and how those operating organisations present themselves when colleagues come in and give talks to the department. We have careers fair, we have strong links with the careers office. So it's part of what we would expect you to be doing during your time on the Master's programme would be to making those links with the careers office and seeing what kinds of opportunities are available. Contact hours per week. As I said, the kind of standard way of thinking about each module is that it's a lecture followed by a seminar, the seminar being the smaller group with 10 or 12 people in it. And at any one time, you have four modules on the go because you have the two core modules that run over two terms. And then in the first term, there are two optional modules and second term to option modules. So at any stage, any given teaching week, there will be four modules that you're doing. One lecture followed by one tutorial. So that's the kind of shape of your week. And what happens, of course, is that people have reading groups and other discussion points. So you imagine that each module basically has a day. You do a day on each module in a week and then have a day that's wrapping up the most urgent of the assignment requirements or whatever it is that you need to carry on with that stage. How many students on the programme on average? Yeah, that one I've tried to understand. So the question is how many students on the programme each year? It depends very much which programme you're talking about. So the larger ones have 100 on it, the development centre has 100, labour and social movements is a very small programme, has maybe 10 people on it and everybody else is kind of between 10 and 100 depending on the year but also depending on the programme and the cohort. Does others have any development related internship programmes aboard or can help students find internships aboard in, for example, South America? So we don't have anything that's structured in terms of internships aboard and as I said with regard to the previous question of internships during study, it's not something that makes up part of the programme of study. So that having been said, we of course have a vast network of alumni who we maintain contact with and when it comes around, for example, to dissertations and people who want to do primary research or if people want to do internships somewhere else and then conduct their primary research on the side of that, of course we have a network of people who it's possible to put people in touch with in order to, in order to kind of get the best perspective on that part of the world. So it's not a formal mechanism of internships but it is a vast network of ex-students who are able to help out with particularly contacts in the global south. Well and will we have to choose which courses we would like to follow? Will we be assisting the process based on career? We are willing to pursue our degree. So this is a great question about module choice. We are trying to give that choice as early as possible and I would recommend having a look at the modules now and kind of making your own pattern of what you would like to do in your degree and you have the opportunity to sign up for modules. I think from the beginning of September turns a little bit on the technology which led to this down a little bit last year but we're hoping that that will be available to make your module choice as well in advance. That's not to say you can't change them you will be able to change them particularly in registration week when you come if you come and you meet with with a lecture or you get more information that requires you to change your modules that's perfectly possible in registration week but it's something that you need to kind of consider in the longer term. You can also get assistance as you say from your personal advisor each person has your student has a personal advisor academic advisor and we encourage you to go and talk through your module for choices with that academic advisor who will be able to tell you a little bit about what is on each of the modules we have so many modules that it's impossible for everyone to be experts in the details of each one but we'll also be able to help you these questions or combinations what sorts of things would you like to put together in order to get a degree that's really tailored to your academic and professional needs and as I say there's two ways of preparing those sorts of decisions one is to think forward to the dissertation what is it you want to study for your dissertation what do you want to research do you need a gender lens for that do you need to know more about Southeast Asia what is it you need to know in order to complete the dissertation that you want to carry out and the other is as you say the professional element of it if you want to work with child soldiers after you leave so as make sure you get the right kinds of combinations of modules that will lead you that will prepare you in the best possible way to have those those skills that will that you can put on your CV but more significantly that you will be able to use when you when you apply and start working in that field and is it possible to do a specific pathway even though we have is it possible not to do a specific pathway even though we apply it since I got my professor decided I'd rather have a non- specific approach that's perfectly possible the pathways are a kind of very minor detail very minor tuning on the fine-tuning on the program so I think you know either put in a an email just quickly put in an email to the admissions admissions tutor now and probably that will just be sorted out kind of immediately or wait until you come and that sort of stuff is extremely routine even even moving between programs is relatively simple and the earlier you make any changes the better because that means that you're kind of up and running and ready to go at the beginning of term so if you are having second thoughts about which program you'd like to do or if you are wanting to do a pathway or come up for pathway just have another little think about it you know maybe talk to some friends um or email the convener the pathway I think does give you a specialism that's um that can be helpful for a you know if you're wanting to work in a particular regional a particular geographic region then it can can be helpful but also it's not it's neither a massive help nor a massive compromise so the most significant thing is what do you want to study and how is that going to um enrich you as a as an academic and as a a professional person so have a think what's right for you what's right for your study and if you need to make a change just to say make it as soon as possible just because that makes the start of term a little bit smoother for you um during the master's will we have some possibilities to know better what we want to do for example meet some organizations or the United Nations so yeah I mean this is basically a careers question again and as I say we are in contact constant contact with the careers office the careers advisor will come to our welcome meeting at the beginning of term everybody will find out about her she will she will tell you how to get in contact with her and we also have a careers tutor within the department and she's increasingly doing doing work to prepare people for for these kind of careers pairs and and the rest of it we have a lot of visiting seminar leaders let's say so we have people coming in for you you gave the example of the United Nations we have we had Mark Locot came in a couple of years ago last year he's the head of auction and he gave a he just was passing through London he came in he gave a an evening session for the bcd students and that was absolutely brilliant because everybody who wants to know about auction about their vision about what it's like to work with them he was able to answer those questions and also gives something of a flavor of of what his experience of what you was like what strengths and weaknesses or whatever so yes we absolutely have people coming in all the time who can give you an idea of what those different organizations are like and and how it is to work with them where can I find the reading list I was referring to so all of the programs have have a web have a web page and and if you kind of goes through I'm not exactly sure where it is I think it might be under structural preparation from the course each of the programs lists four or five books that we recommend recommend as kind of starting reading materials so that's where you find that on them on the main development studies web page can you provide a bit more information about the schedule for part-time students so yeah sure as I say part-time study is only only possible for for her many EU students that's not a so as rule that's a kind of UK law so unfortunately that's not something that we're able to to negotiate on but the the classic way of doing part-time study is to do your core modules in the first year and your elective modules in the second year and then you go into the dissertation kind of in them in the March of your second year and then finish up at the end of two years it is also possible to do sorry to to give an explanation of that structure so that you get the kind of theoretical material core theoretical material kind of down and understood in the first year and then you can compliment that with your optional choices which will then goes towards your kind of for the intellectual development and towards your dissertation as well it is possible to to to run over three years which is basically a recipe of your own design and if you were to study sort of over three years that would be because of particular things particular commitments that you're trying to work your study around and in that case you would go to your your program convener or your academic advisor and work out exactly when it's better for you to do which of your modules in order to get the housing completed amongst around the constraints that you have as I said earlier there's no there's no kind of right or wrong way of doing full-time or part-time it's different for different people there's the fantastic thing about full-time study is that you get totally immersed in your in your master's program you get to know all of your colleagues so as 24-7 kind of an experience it's absolutely kind of fulfilling and engaging and you think of nothing else for a whole year the great that's the great thing about full-time study the great thing about part-time study is that you don't have that intensity that you're able to absorb more that you're able to read around the subject more you get to know us a little bit more as well because you're around so ask for a little bit longer as I say there's there's a whole load of test seminars that take place as a development studies department seminar that takes place every week there's a migration seminar that has another that takes place on a different day there's a agrarian change seminar that takes place on a different day so there's loads and loads of different other seminars that take place outside of the assessed modules and obviously for a part-time student you're going to get a bit more kind of breathing space to make more take more advantage of those kinds of opportunities what level of support is there for students doing in-country primary research to dissertation particularly for students who haven't done any ethnographic research before okay great so the dissertation is a major piece of work and I think that's you know this kind of question is that is already kind of helpful enthusiastic start to that so just at the moment students are kind of finishing up their assignments for the last year you know they're coming to see me every day saying I've just finished my last year so I've just finished my last that there's been a couple exams those are now finishing up as well so basically the students have from now where we are kind of mid-May through to mid-September to write their dissertation which is a really lengthy period of time and and it's the time to do some really amazing research and people really do I mean it's fantastic to see the sorts of research projects that people engage in and the detail with which they do them and the kind of professionalism in terms of methodology and ethics and security and these these sorts of things that we that are part of the the program as well so the answer is that we we don't assume that you've done any ethnographic or any kind of primary research before and that you will get guided through that in two ways one is that there is a kind of set of dissertation sessions workshops in which you are led through the kind of basics of of what it is to do a dissertation what kind of ethical considerations you have to take into consideration what kind of security issues and this particularly for the students who are doing violence conflict and development but of course can affect other students as well are you going to be putting yourself into any danger and go into the places that you think you're going to are you going to put other people into danger and how are you going to make sure that you don't basically so there's there's that training that goes on around and the approach to the dissertation but you also of course have your individual dissertation advisor and that person will be able to guide you through whatever the methodological approach is that you are want to say or even guide you about which methodological approaches would be reasonable to consider doing so if you haven't done any ethnographic research before that's completely fine you can learn how to do that through your discussions with your with your dissertation supervisor if you are sort of even more interested in doing ethnographic research and issues of methodology you could also take a module in in methodology in order to compare to find out what sorts of different methodologies are available and particularly if you're thinking of doing doctoral research as well this is of course a module that's that's particularly popular with people who want to go on to do research either as doctoral study or within a think term or in a policy institution for a government or whatever else so yeah methodological research training is part of what we would provide in terms of the preparation for the dissertation when is registration week the exact dates will be online it's it's usually kind of the end of September it'll be whatever Monday is kind of close to the 24th 23rd or something of September so registration week is the week before the lecture start it's a really it's a great week I mean it's a really kind of full on enthusiastic energetic week where you can you come to so as you see everything that's available we have a little welcome session you meet your your your cohort your colleagues you meet you meet us we will meet you everybody meets each other and and you also find your way around so as find your way around the buildings how the library works you know where where the bar is those sorts of things and that means there's a week dedicated to those kinds of activities and that means that by the time we get around to the Monday morning everybody's set to go and it can all be smooth is there enough time during the week to be able to have a part-time job that's not something I'm able to answer on a public webinar the answer is of course that lots of people do have part-time jobs that's a fact of studying in London that fact of studying in the UK we appreciate that people have all sorts of financial constraints and that they need to get by it is certainly quite difficult to do a part-time job at the same time but it is also a reality that lots of people do just because they're human beings and this is life good luck with it to many international students non-EU secure jobs in London after the program I don't think I really know the answers to that question I think it certainly takes you to a level of capacity that you would be eligible for a tier four visa if that's the nature of the question that is to say that if you have a master's level if you're looking for a master's level kind of a job then most organisations or companies would be willing to sort out your visa application for you in London I mean undoubtedly people do stay I'm bumping to people all the time who kind of settled here by one means or another so I mean we would expect some people always to stay here and other people to go find jobs elsewhere could you describe how is the approach used at Sirius about development studies different from others yeah that's a nice question so I think all universities have their own identity and Sirius Sirius is very keen on his identity Sirius is a very small and a very specialised institution that having been said our department is actually quite big in comparison to the size of our university but even in comparison to other universities development studies departments so how is it different I think it's different in various ways one is the kind of that is critical angle it's very famous for having its critical angle that is to say that we teach the mainstream of development but we also very aware that there are a lot of kind of structural issues ongoing structural issues with the world which are need to be unpicked in order for us to understand the actual processes of development and explain why it is that the mainstream of development is not leading to necessarily the form to development that are part of its part of its vision that is to say why is it that we can have development taking place for 60 years and still have poverty still have families still have wars still have environmental catastrophe all the things that are facing us now are as much failures of development as they are processes of development so there's that kind of critical way that we teach both the mainstream and also how to critique the mainstream and we hope also to put forward some alternatives as well so we're not just sort of stuck in a critique of what is going on but also saying where these things to be different if we take these sorts of decisions if we mobilise in these sorts of different ways if we have this different attitude to politics then we will get to different sort of form of development I think there are other things also that makes us unique for its development studies approach and that is the diversity of the development studies degrees so having a large cohort of people studying violence conflict and development having a kind of medium cohort of people studying migration I mean migration very much is an issue within development this is violence and migration we don't see these as being separate to or against processes of development and being absolutely part of them as this type of development goes forward it's through processes of violence conflict war that migration is part of how development is taking place in Africa in the Middle East in Europe this is shaping the way that we think about development so I think there's there's two things one is the kind of critical angle and the other is by involving these other elements into the processes of development rather than thinking of them as counter to the processes of development to find really writers that we're coming from and I'm aware that I'm not giving the same way to each of these questions does the program for PhD oh yes it certainly does that is certainly one of the things that we hope that some of our students will go on to PhDs aren't for everyone but they are an amazing experience for those people who decide to do them and are able to to pursue them so they they prepare I think in two maybe three four I don't know how many ways one is that they prepare you kind of academically through the process of learning through the process postgraduate study discussion seminars presentations you get to be academically prepared for the PhD path and the the basic cut-offs that we suggest and it's it's get sort of getting a bit more formal is that you need to get 65 in your master's degree in order to be considered to be prepared to go to PhD study so that's a kind of high merit 65 in the British University is is pretty good grade it also helps you in terms of finding the kinds of subjects you may be interested in researching when you do a PhD so in Asia for example by the time you finish your master's we may be able to hone down to a particular element of of life or development in Asia or or particular part of Asia or whatever else so that the master's degree should help you to to focus in on what kind of question you'd like to to write your PhD on it also gives you an understanding of how the British University system works some people like a lot of people obviously are are not British that is to say even the kind of home EU students find the British university system different in in ways from from Italian, French, German whatever universities as well so it kind of gets you used to the the British way of working and I think those are the those are the functions that are played by the master's program in preparing you for PhD study every year we have some people who are going on to PhDs and that's great and and also we have people who finish up their master's program then go away for a couple of years and then I get this email hi Zoe can you write me a reference I'm going to go for a PhD program like two or three years after graduating from the master's and that also is great you know that people have kind of combined the master's program with some part of professional experience as well what is the schedule for the pathway classes is it often of course two compulsory and then four elective modules no the pathway classes is actually the same schedule it's just that some of your elective modules are constrained in the ones that you can take so that you have so that you develop a specialism in in the Middle East or Palestine or whatever it is that your pathway is dealing with so it's not it's not additional work it's just more finely specialized work that you take with part of your elective modules could you tell us when students usually receive an answer for the master's scholarship request okay so that depends on what scholarships you've you've applied for I'd say all scholarships are a little bit slow in being turned around just because of the sheer volume of applications that we get and they need to go through an academic committee and then they go through a administrative committee as well and then people are contacted and and sometimes people reject scholarships for various reasons and not able to take them up and then it goes the second choice and whatever else so it can be quite along a lengthy process and it depends which one you've applied for but you should be able to get information on that from the scholarships office so whoever has been in touch with you about the scholarship should be able to give you some indication as to when the results will be announced on the fourth slide you mentioned the schedule for the fourth term how long is summer I love that question there's that fantastic film Endless Summer that's not what the dissertation is about so the summer is the summer starts basically now in May and the dissertation is during in the middle of September so in May, June so you have four months basically in order to write your dissertation and that that is a different rhythm from the rest of the program as well so in the two teaching terms it is as I've mentioned a very intense teaching experience that the the schedule is quite hectic in terms of lectures tutorials and getting your assignments written up and handed in and the dissertation is a very different kind of a rhythm to that we accept that during this summer which it'll define summer people are doing other things people are getting jobs they're applying for jobs some of them are doing internships some of them are moving you know they're moving out of London or on moving to to a different after-student accommodation some people can get married other people have babies all sorts of life events happen during that summer and that's all fine and it can all take place around the dissertation schedule so the dissertation has has four months in which you know you can certainly work flat out for four months and write a beautiful dissertation you can also do other things and still get round to writing a beautiful dissertation so so that that period then is is a lot more kind of flexible in terms of your own time management great thanks are there any other questions I've suddenly spoken quite a lot and as I say each each of the programs has a a dedication for being there so feel free to get in touch with that person we're all very happy to hear from you and ask and answer any questions that you have for us okay I'd like to say thank you as well to all of those people who've asked questions I thought those were you know great questions and and I hope that that's hearing the answers to other people's questions has also enables you to know a bit more about the programs