‘Emergency masters’ at Cambridge is a thing…

[Emergencymasters]

DS is now final year of humanities degree at Cambridge. Doing well - high 2.1 and possibly a 1st. He has just announced that he wants to do an ‘emergency masters’. I had no clue what this is - apparently ‘emergency masters’ is commonplace slang at Camb for students staying on for an extra year coz they don’t want to leave (not coz they love their subject!)! All very well but we will have to fund. Happy to do this - will be a financial stretch though - as DS is living his best life at Camb but just wanted thoughts from wise MNs

How can it be an 'emergency' masters when he still has a whole academic year to go?

Some Cambridge courses have a Part iii (integrated masters) for which undergrad fees and loans apply. Is this the case for his course?

The freebie Oxford MA is not exactly automatic, you have to request it (but they won't say no). It's not a good look.

It's just a joke way of referring to staying on for another year at uni.

Honestly don't over think the name.

A number of my niece’s friends did what they referred to as ‘emergency masters’ but at the time what I understood this to mean is that they couldn’t get a job in their chosen field at the time and hoped a masters would change that.

The version I heard was that a Master's was originally a teaching qualification; the idea was that degree + life-experience made you competent to teach! (I'm currently studying a for a BD. That's a graduate qualification in 90% of universities and an undergrad degree in the other 10%. Academia is odd.)

Yes... the Cambridge "Maths Part III" is one of the toughest and best-respected qualifications in the world, but is treated as undergrad for funding.

You don’t need to fund it, postgraduate loans exist. For some fields and professions a master is necessary or at least very helpful. That doesn’t seem to be why your DS is doing one though, so I would absolutely tell him he’s got to fund it himself. I mean I’d tell him to fund it himself regardless, but even more so in this scenario.

Nobody thinks a Cambridge or Oxford MA is an actual Masters. I did (an actual) one at Oxford and it wasn't called 'MA' to distinguish it from the automatic ones.

I did mine because I was going down the academic route and I got research council funding, as I did for my DPhil. I would be thinking very carefully about funding your ds just for delaying engaging with the real world (the potential Blue isn't a strong enough reason for me to pay out thousands for an adult child's wants, sorry. It could be CV-boosting in a small number of particular fields but it's not going to be career-deciding). If there is actual thinking or a passion for the subject behind it, I would think again, but I would then expect him to have a decent chance of funding.

@PhotoDad I have an M.Phil from Cambridge. It is a "proper" Masters, I like the Oxbridge MA, which is just a courtesy

It was a tongue in cheek response to what seems to me as a piss take OP coz students have been doing this for decades, it certainly isn't new, an emergency or exclusive to 'Camb'.

Many academic students are on a well trodden path until the degree ends and then they are faced with wider life choices. The lack of automatic path causes panic and staying on to do a masters is the most simple decision.

Yep. I have an MA from one, and an M.Phil. from the other. They were chalk and cheese. I don't mention the MA if asked about academic background and I'm a little bit ashamed that I bothered to go and collect it.

Emergency masters usually are taken when they haven't secured work by June/July. If he's thinking now it's more of a planned masters!

I did a Masters. My parents gave me no money whatsoever towards it. Their funding me was over when I finished my undergrad. I worked three jobs over the summer and sold stuff to pay my way and then I lived extremely frugally for the year.

I did the Masters because something else I had lined up fell through. Without it I'm highly unlikely to have got the job I did afterwards. They're not just a waste of time and avoidance of working life if it'll improve job prospects.

An emergency masters has been a thing for years, I did one myself. It's not exclusive to Cambridge. Didn't announce it to my parents expecting them to find it though! Had to find funding myself.

Not exclusive to Cambridge at all.

I graduated in 2008 and actually wish I'd stayed on at uni as the job market was so shit.

But I wouldn't be happy with him just announcing this and expecting your funding. Different if you've offered in the past. I can see why you wouldn't be thrilled especially as he has told you it's just so he doesn't have to leave his 'best life' where he doesn't have to go to work!

Anyway, a friend of mine got a fully funded PhD at Cambridge after her undergraduate at Trinity in Dublin. I think she had to go to a different uni though. Could he not apply for funding? Especially if he's due a first (potentially)

I'd be expecting my DC to do a masters, an undergraduate degree alone really isn't enough now. Not saying I'd automatically fund it though and I'd want to know they'd thought it through properly in regards to career first.

How much is it going to cost you for him to maybe, maybe not get into a hockey team? And why will you have to fund it?

I think what you have here is a bit of slang for something that happens everywhere. I did this at Oxford 15 years ago - I wasn't ready to leave and actually wanted to stay on for PhD if I could. I felt I'd barely scratched the surface of my subject by the end of my degree. I went 50/50 with my parents funding it (my grandfather had died and left me £5k and I had a few £k saved from working holidays - it all went so I finished with no savings). I assume its a humanities subject to unlikely to get the funding?

Doing the Masters is an easy way out of needing to address the big career questions which can be extremely difficult to focus on through the intensity of a final year. It's also the last chance saloon to live student life, which at Cambridge, like Ox, is pretty excellent and hard to leave behind.

I don't think my parents or I have any regrets. I'm proud of my Masters, still in touch with people from the course 15 years on who I consider some of my closest friends, and it did help me with my foot in the door in my career - which though staggeringly low paid, all jobs wanted masters+ level knowledge. Tbh, though, it was the friendships I got, and the chance to study in more depth, that I still value most rather than the career options it opened up.

Have you looked at the cost OP (c. £26k)?

Out of interest, did your son go to an independent school and if so was it day or boarding?

Term hasn't started yet, is your DS about to start his third year? Planning a fourth year now is not an emergency masters at all. Its pretty normal for Oxbridge colleges to offer MPhil or 4th year studies as a part III in a variety of courses. Your DS should speak to his director of studies once he goes up and see what his options are. If you are prepared to fund it then great, go ahead.

Choose the course carefully though as some MPhil courses are research focused, some are taught. Maybe a 4th year of Management studies (at the Judge Business School) is also an option? That would make DS much more employable. Or if he wants to go down an academic route then apply for a research based MPhil in his current subject.

Its not a big deal either way and loads of people do it for a variety of reasons, either to delay getting a job, to switch subjects, to keep playing a sport or to stay on while friends doing 4+ year couses such as MEng or MML did their final year Trying to get a blue isn't the best reason but it wouldn't be the first time for sure. Los of my friends stayed on for similar reasons 15 years ago.

A friend's DC achieved a 2.1 in maths Cambridge and wanted to continue on to a masters, but was declined because he didn't achieve high enough marks to do so.

Maybe a 4th year of Management studies (at the Judge Business School) is also an option?

One of DDs friends did this - I assume she was able to get a 4th year of undergraduate loan - and then did a masters the year after that (no idea about funding, I assumed separate postgrad loan). 2020/2021 though, I think there were a lot of U.K. students choosing to continue with studies in those years. (Presumably fewer were able to come from overseas)

The OPs DS has a particular extra reason, the Blue, for wanting to continue to be a student at Cambridge. My dd, without this factor, has found an alternative excellent way to continue her 'best life' there - by getting a proper job in the area but now actually has more free time than when doing an MEng so she's joined both a uni and town club for her preferred sport and is on the committee of the former.

The 'fake MA' is a bit of a joke but at least it means we should get to attend a 'graduation', having been denied that in 2021!

I realise I did an "emergency masters"

I did a law degree for fun/interest a few years ago and once finished I applied for the law masters to start the next term.
Just enjoyed studying (and got an alumni discount)
I am now doing "an emergency professional qualification" lol

(Luckily I am paying myself and didn't apply for any loans, so no burden to anyone including the government)

I would be very happy to support this Master idea and fund it if I could afford it.