Suspicious of someone's qualifications.

Totally possible to not cover the Cold War. For example they may have looked at political economics rather than 20th century political history, or may have specialised in a particular region or focus. Much as you can do a masters in theatre and not read any Shakespeare.

So you went to the degree ceremony, watched him get his degree and in a follow-up post acknowledge that you know he has a degree? Yet you are still suspicious and questioning his qualifications. Why? What's the back story?

If you want to know about the content of a masters in politics and economics you could easily look up the course on the university's website and see what topics are covered. I looked up a couple of random courses just now and it's all there. And no, cold war wasn't mentioned.

Not really sure why you are bothered about what he studied but yes absolutely! I did a degree in history and politics and a masters in global politics - I never once in four years touched on the Cold War, WW1 or WW2… you choose what modules you take, and with those degree choices there are a lot more interesting subjects so he probably didn’t fancy it! Some universities wouldn’t even have it as a module if they don’t have any academics or professors that specialize in it either.

Same except mine was pure history. Still couldn’t tell you a thing about the Cold War.

I specialised in Spanish and Russian revolutionary history.

My undergraduate degree was over 30 years ago and my MSc 28....I don't work in the field anymore and haven't for years. I also remember nothing from either!

Yes it is. The cold War gets covered in school, university don't cover the same things. He can get into university without having to have sat the subject that covers the cold War at school.

I've a degree in Geography. I get asked questions like....what's the longest river in Japan or what's what's capital of ...... just because we have a degree doesn't mean we know every single thing and university isn't there to teach this either, university teaches us to think differently and how to research.

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Yes it is.

Also sometimes when somebody is a subject expert they can get a bit fatigued by chat about it, especially if it’s with someone that has a different knowledge base. For example, my sister has a first class economics degree, phd etc but hated talking about Brexit because people were coming at it from a media perspective rather than an academic one, so she just found it quite tiresome explaining stuff I think.

I have a chemistry degree and struggle to help my DD with her Chem gcse homework without reading the textbook and doing some research myself first. I have forgotten everything.

DD has started doubting that I even went to uni!

You attended his graduation. Is this a troll post? I have a masters in history and didn't cover absolutely everything that's ever happened (certainly didn't cover the cold War!)

Why are you interrogating him and investigating?. What is to you?

Isn't that higher education. You learn more and more detail about less and less stuff.

Hi OP you seem like a really lovely poster who has listened to others and changed opinion, I wish more mumsnetters were like you! It sounds like something deeper is going on here, I'd trust yourself and your doubts even if the Masters thing is a red herring... if he's making you uncomfortable or is pushing boundaries then perhaps that is the thing that needs your attention, please put yourself first in this relationship x

My degree was business and management and I could't tell you much that I learnt from it except what I have since expanded upon over thr past 20 years of work. Alsonwe did a whole three year module on entrepreneaurship which did not include how to set up a company, which is why i took the module then didnt learn anything I wanted to find out about. His degree may not have covered the cold war and for masters and phd you really specialise in a couple of things only

Eh? What’s this thread about then?

I studied politics and history! And I remember very little of it! I remember the stuff I was really interested in but there was so much information and reading, I memorised it at the time and then forgot all of it.

My DH has gone back to uni now and studying international relations and one of his modules was on political theories, which I obviously studied in depth. I shamefully remember almost zero!

It's very possible, as everyone's said, you study in great detail a very few topics/events/theories. These kind of qualifications give you the skills of analysis, writing, developing an argument, interpreting data, understanding criticism, how to apply theories etc. You're not meant to come out knowing broad facts about the whole subject, you come out knowing how to study it. I think it's a common misunderstanding that universities teach huge swathes of general information, that you then come out knowing every king and queen of england in history or the plot of every famous novel if you're studying English literature. You don't, you come out understanding how to study tiny sections in great depth.

I have a master’s in economics and politics and didn’t study the cold war.

The Cold War is a huge subject. You could study an entire degree about it and still only skim the surface. That’s why it’s not typically covered in masters degrees.

I have a Ph.D in Computer Science. It didn't cover 99.9% of Computer Science topics but I did cover that remaining 0.1% sub-topic in extreme detail becoming the world expert on it (no one else should have done what you are doing in your Ph.D). It's the same with a Masters - you probably only cover 5% of the possible topics but that detail is deeper than an undergrad.

One thing I will note is that when you reach that level of education, you are very cautious who you discuss your learning with - it's exhausting having to explain the basics just so you can have a reasonable conversation. That's why academics seek out other academics to be friends with. Unfortunately, you don't get to be that selective with family (as superbly demonstrated in the OP).

My son in law did a degree in Maths, a Masters in computer science and a PhD in computational linguistics (or something like that). If your cousin did not want to study the cold War in depth he would choose different modules. I did a law degree and know nothing about Patent law for example but I used to know rather a lot about Revenue law.

But you actually saw him collect the degree?

Studying a subject to masters level isn’t like studying it at school or even normal degree level. It’s not a matter of it ‘covering’ all topics and stuff being ‘taught’. Students will normally choose a specialism. University learning is kind of more about HOW you learn- research, applying critical thinking and analysis to literature, building a growth mindset- than teaching information as such.

I have a PhD in a related field and I couldn’t really tell you much of anything about the Cold War other than name the major players. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It doesn’t interest me.

Actually I wouldn't count on that !