Transcript Issues - do Economics Masters at EU Uni?

[BobtheFrog]

My eldest has had a horrendous time with her (Top 10) UK undergrad uni, they have treated her really badly (probably shouldn't say too much about it because its still part of an ongoing formal complaint)

Anyhow, she wants to work in Economics and was working to a high First, but because of process issues at the Uni an academic failed one of her modules. She still expects a First but her Transcript isn't squeaky clean anymore

Economics is such a competitive job market and she is worried that she wont be short listed for good roles. Internships have been a struggle with no success at all (we dont know if the transcript had any impact there, but suspect so)

As a fall back I have been encouraging her to look at a Masters, to enhance her employability (move past the big red mark on her Transcript) and rebuild her confidence in her abilities.

The cost of a good Masters from good uni in UK is okay (£15k) (though best unis are £30k+) but costs can be much lower in Europe.

Would welcome thoughts from the mumsnet community . . .

Is she at the start of final year OP?

What type of role / industry is she aiming at? At what stage was she turned down for internships? Is she looking to work in UK or potentially in Europe / abroad?

I have worked for 20 years or so in economics roles and never been asked for grades in degree other than having to put overall one on CV / application form and then the requirement is generally 2:1 or higher so 1 bad mark and over a 2:1 would not be an issue. Its far more about whether they feel you could do the job than exact mark in your degree. For some jobs Masters degrees are preferred, best way to tell is look at job adverts and see what it says. International jobs can have more requirements for Masters and PhDs than UK ones and fluency in multiple languages is not uncommon in banking roles. Internships can be much harder to get than jobs so I would not be concerned about that.

One thing I would caution on is saying anything negative about her university, however justified or appearing to be struggling with one failing grade, if she is applying to banking roles especially its best to appear relatively emotionally tough and able to deal with failure and learn from it. If she's in her final year I would just apply for jobs and maybe apply for Masters as well and see what she gets offered. I think she will be fine either way and sometimes the jobs which are less competitive / well paid can be a route into the other ones if there's economics / policy in them.

When my DS did his masters in economics at a RG uni he met many people who are from the EU and who did their undergrad in the EU and the consensus was that a UK uni has more "value add"

My DS did not enjoy his masters at all and found the maths way too much. He got a good grade overall but he was extremely unhappy. I encouraged him to do one and now I feel i shouldn't have. He's not used it at all in his job.

As an academic I essentially agree with this. I would be surprised if one bad mark has an impact on your DD’s future. Maintaining a professional stance in all dealings with prospective employers is crucial.

I agree the Masters question is largely about the roles DD wants. As @Nyan27 says, an MSc in Economics will likely be Maths heavy; an MA perhaps much less so.

Best wishes to DD

What sort of Masters would she want to do? Economics is a broad subject. Something technical/mathsy? Or in a niche area? Both might increase her employability to specific employers.

Otherwise I would take a step back and consider how a Masters might improve her CV given she already has a first from a good University.

Going overseas and perfecting a language might help. Or "trading up" to a top ranked course like Oxford. But in general it is all very competitive and not getting an internship does not mean much. (That said it might be worth reviewing where she might be going wrong, and putting in some help with CV writing, job search or interview technique.)

Otherwise she might be as well off redoubling and widening her search for a job, and saving her money for a future MBA.

I think that's mainly language. I had friends from top unies in central European country here on Erasmus before Brexit and they all agreed they were bit ahead with topics and repeated few here.

OP's DD should compare curriculum. Imho lots of the benefits of UK uni is simply the fluency in English which is worldwide benefit. She already has that

Just going on to a masters in the EU isn’t a bad idea. My DD is doing that rn. Unfortunately, U.K. postgraduate student loans are only for study in the U.K. Brexit also means the Erasmus program is now inaccessible. Their new Turin? Program is shite. And also the tuition charged is not home student because we have left the EU but super high. A student visa is often needed which can mean more hoops to jump through- my DD had to have savings of £13k to prove she could afford to live there without needing to work. Each country has a different set of rules. The Unis do have international student offices who should be really helpful.

That said, some EU Unis do have bursaries/scholarships for international students based on academic achievement or nationality. So it is worth checking things out.

Some excellent schools in the EU. If your DD is even thinking about a possible PhD and career in academia it is an advantage to go abroad for the masters as they like to see success in more than one country and it is an advantage when competing for PhD funding all through going from Uni lecturer to Professor status & tenure. It also gives you connections to the larger community of scholars in your chosen area.

The ‘value add’ is the general consensus that for pursuing PhD and possible career as an academic, the ideal is to study abroad at the masters level. So for EU & US/AUS/Canadian students, masters in the U.K. is ‘value add’ , and for U.K. students a masters in the EU/US/AUS/Canada is ‘value add’- so long as the Unis are all in the same global ranking tier.