Postgraduate certificate

[username299]

I'm looking to do a post graduate course but don't want to do a full Masters. Does such a thing exist? Is it a pre PhD?

Perhaps a six month or year course. I'm not particularly interested in a qualification.

I'm either looking at a refresher course or perhaps focusing on a particular area.

My Post Graduate certificate is over twenty years old now, so things may well have changed. I originally signed up for a masters, and completed the taught modules part time over the course of a year. Then my circumstances changed and I was unable to commit to completing a dissertation, so converted the taught modules in to a post graduate certificate.

That's an idea. Ty

A Masters is 180 credits, a PG Diploma, very common, is 120 (often same course as the Masters, but without the dissertation element), a PG Cert is 60 credits - less common, but often offered as an exit award for students that don't finish their Masters or PGDips. Loans are only available for Masters courses.

(PG Cert is also the qualification for teaching if that's what you want to do - loan funding is available.)

Not sure if it's the same in every degree, but my MBA clearly shows on the brochure how many credits needed for the full MBA vs a post-grad certificate.

My masters I didn't need to do a dissertation module? I did 180 credits of taught classes (one of which was a 7500 word essay but I could have avoided that if I wanted to and had all exams)

Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education does lots of courses. You can filter by in-person, remote or online, and level of study.

What is it you want to do?

A postgraduate certificate is typically an exit route from a masters as PP said. Do you need something as rigorous (and expensive!) as MSc level study? Would a professional course be a better fit?

If you gave a bit more info I bet someone on here would have useful advice.

I did a PG cert in relation to child development with the OU about 20 years ago so it definitely was a thing you could do.

Thank you everyone. This has been very useful.

@DearestItIsSnowing Great idea. I searched but they don't do my subject.

I'm not worried about a loan and am not going into teaching.

I'm looking for a refresher course, not as in depth as a Masters, or to focus on something specific. I'm not sure it's possible.

I don't know if I can be bothered doing another Masters🙄

I've looked at OU and don't believe they do my subject but will look again as they would be perfect.