Suspicious of someone's qualifications.

You posted on a public forum. People gave their opinions. telling people to get a life on a post you asked for help on. Lovely.

Good luck.

A Masters only takes a year.

I have an MA in Politics and didn't study the Cold War.

It sounds to me like he's had to suffer far too many ridiculous conversations where people take the piss about him not knowing absolutely everything about global politics (or possibly simply not agreeing with their view on something) as the behaviour/response you describe suggests to me that his guard is up.

Yes - you might be unreasonable. Academic study does get deeper but also narrower.

The old joke is that you learn more and more about less and less... until you know everything about nothing :)

My dd’s history A level teacher gave her his very own notes from him masters to encourage her, it was medieval history

Please get a life. Not any of your business. Even IF he was lying maybe it’s from a place of insecurity….back off!

I'm MLit. I managed to achieve this without having read any of Jane Austen and most of Charles Dickens. People assume I'll be a whizz at Literature in pub quizzes. Well, maybe. If it's on the five books I wrote about for my Master's thesis 😂. Even I was surprised how few books I read. It was mostly papers about books.

I have an MA in Victorian History, another MA in the History of London and a PhD in history specialising in an incredibly obscure aspect of—you guessed it—the history of Victorian London. I never covered the Cold War either.

Some years ago I started looking at LinkedIn for potential job candidates and my then staff. What a load of tosh. One interviewee claimed he had years of database design experience ; Although he knew the words he struggled with some fairly basic questions and I terminated the interview after 20 minutes. The claims of many of my staff were pure fantasy. One got a job at a competitor on the strength of his claimed experience. He was sacked after six weeks. Sadly LinkedIn is no more reliable than Google reviews. I was once offered money to write good/bad reviews about some restaurants I had never been to. No way could I do it - my parents would have turned in their grave!

I remember a lot from my degree/post-graduate days but then I worked in the area whereas my contemporaries drifted into project and rental property management.

I have had a couple of close friends who have top jobs- both lied about qualifications, They told me, which I was surprised about.
it doesn’t affect my life or my friendship with them both.

Of course. I have an economics degree. Ask me to tell you about game theory beyond it’s something about 1s and 2s.

Why are you trying so hard to catch him out?

Be careful you’re not projecting something.

You’re not my mother and using ‘he’ as a cover are you? 😂
This could almost be me. PPE, masters in economics, abandoned phd, parents attended both graduation ceremonies and yet the other month when I referenced my degree she looked blankly and denied me ever doing one. She’s totally with it so I assume she got confused and thought I was referring specifically to the phd attempt.
Just to second, third, fourth what others have said - I know a lot about my specific field but there are vast areas of economics I know almost nothing about.

I have a PhD in English Literature. There are a million books I haven't read!

My daughter told me she was studying volcanoes and I got all excited because I studied them as part of my degree. She looked at me expectantly waiting for some fascinating facts and then I realised that all I can remember is that they are mountains that erupt

I remember sitting my finals and thinking that my brain was like a super busy commuter train and the knowledge was the passengers. After each stop (exam) I visualised all the passengers getting off and all the new ones getting on and refilling the train.

Once those passengers disembarked, they were gone for good!

😂I swear it all literally goes out the ear the minute you get your piece of paper! Full disclosure I "only" have a lowly degree

Oh my god this with bells on... Jesus wept! Who cares who may or may not have qualifications if it does not directly affect your life?

😂 seriously why do you think the cold war must be covers in a masters in polisci and economics? Its not a masters in history.

Is it even possible to achieve a masters degree in this subject without covering the cold war?

Of course it is. I have a masters in politics and didn't cover the Cold War.

I specialised in other area. Politics is a very wide subject.

I must say having worked in the political environment I am used to some people trying to provoke me into heated discussion about my areas of former campaigning. I can spot it and hopefully gently sway the conversation sideways to avoid the attempted provocation.

If I engaged every time I'd be exhausted. Maybe OP your relative utilises a similar approach.

I did a Law degree which was 15 years ago. I remember very random case law which has zero relevance and nothing which would be useful and beneficial in anyway - like conveyancing law for when I bought my property, as my solicitor was useless.

Maybe she got her degree and memory from the same university as me….