As an international student who came to study an Msc in Digital Marketing, I was worried about the structure and delivery of the course, as I didn’t have the opportunity to visit the University before I embarked on my Master’s degree. So, in this blog I will be discussing my experience as an international student studying a postgraduate course at the University of Chester.
If your course starts in October, you will likely have an induction a couple of weeks before then; it is an excellent opportunity to connect with other students from your cohort, as well as your professors. The induction is very useful and helps you gain an understanding of how the course is structured, the assignment details and information about how you will be graded. Even if you havent reached the UK yet, make sure you attend the induction online; it will give you all the information you need to know, so you can be prepared before your lectures begin.
Most subjects are delivered one module at a time, and you will be required to submit an assignment at the end of each module. The classes are usually spread over three weeks and you get the next week or two to work on your assignment and attend assessment workshops. These assessment workshops are a great opportunity to ask your lecturers any questions that you might have regarding the assessment face-to-face.
Each module is delivered differently depending upon the subject and the lecturer. But all of them are structured in a way that keeps the entire class engaged. There are usually a lot of group activities, which not only give you a chance to get to know your peers a little better but also to work together to find unique solutions to problems.
There are a lot of resources that the University provides for postgraduate students that help with finding information for your assessments and research projects; some of them include the online library, IBISWorld and more. All of them are accessible on the Moodle site, which you will be given access to. You will also have access to Draft Coach, which provides feedback on citation issues and will help in identifying the plagiarism levels of your assignments.
As a postgraduate student, you will be assigned a Personal Academic Tutor (PAT); you can contact them with any concerns you have regarding your academic studies or if you need guidance with anything else. The University also has a Careers and Employability service, to help you refine/strengthen your CV, prepare you for job interviews and help you plan/take charge of your future career. Reaching out to the Careers and Employability team regularly has helped me to prepare my CV, gain interview training and to figure out which direction I would like to go in after my course.
Overall, the University has all the resources you need and provides you with the right guidance to enable you to get through your course successfully. All you have to do is reach out and make good use of everything that the University has to offer, so that you not only do well in your studies but also have the skills to help you succeed in whatever career you decide to pursue.
