Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Scouse Mouse]

In the UK a standard BA is 3 years and an MA is 1 year. Does this make the standard of education inferior? I doubt it.

In the UK, we finish school at 16. We then have 2 years of aditional study which is specialised. People will usually take 3 or 4 A' Levels which relate to the study they will do in University and drop all other subjects. By the time they are at University level, students already have a sound understanding of the basics in the course that they will study.

Couple this with the fact that university degrees in the UK are much more specialised than the major/minor system that is in place in other countries, and the 3 year degree offered in the UK is much more 'specialised' than those offered over 4 years in other countries. I know many US citizens whose degree courses included the most bizarre combinations, whilst UK degrees only contain courses that are relevent to the chosen 'major'.

I would argue that both degrees are equally valid. A 4 year degree will often indicate a broader knowlege base, whilst a 3 year degree will indicate greater specialisation in the chosen subject.

[tzechuk]

I have a 3 year BA in Business and a 1 year MSc in Business. Both from the UK and both are internationally recognised qualifications.

[aarontendo]

Ah good information. I had no idea about how the U.K degrees were. It's neat that they are a bit more specialized. It sounds like it comes down to a difference in the educational philosophy in both countries. Back home I think the idea is that a 4 year degree should hold both a greater all around knowledge than a high school graduate (which would explain why we do indeed have a huge smattering of non major related courses) along with a specialized area of knowledge (our major).

I know for my own degree, within the school of business we did about 100 credit hours (quarter). That means that the other 80 were our general studies.

In the U.K it's more specific and tied into the the major area. It might very well be then that a business major from a U.K institution would have more business knowledge than one from the U.S.

Good information all around. I'm glad to have peeked into this thread. =)

[blueatjustc]

I agree with those comments of Scouse mouse. I have a Bsc and Msc from UK. You can't just look at how long it takes to get the qualification, my course was very specialized compared to those across the pond. I know some people who did double degrees (pre med and history for example) this wouldnt be possible in uk.
I think stuff like department reputation and results are far more important (not that i agree they should be).
Would you rather a 3 yr degree from Cambridge or a 4 yr degree from an average state uni? also would you prefer a 1yr degree from harvard or a 5 yr degree from chelmsford.
I can understand people feel others are getting off lightly but it's different systems with equal quality.

[oldfatfarang]

An interesting discussion. I wouldn't expect Korean employers (or K. uni's for that matter) to know the difference between levels of Western degrees or even TEFL teaching certificates.

In my country:
(1) BA degree is 3 years (smart students take 2 majors).

(2) Honors Degree (1 year after BA). Smart students get first class honors.

(3) Masters degree takes 2 years (1 year of papers & a 1 year thesis or a smaller dissertation). Smart students complete an award winning (or an award winning Ph. D scholarship) thesis.

Smart students are accepted into highly competitive masters programs at highly ranked universities and they usuallycomplete the larger thesis and / or are awarded first class honors.

Some masters programs are multi-diciplinary and are very rigorous.

(4) Ph. D. degree takes 3 years (but experiments/field work/life means it's usually much longer).

I think the standard LLB degree (Law) is 4 years. Although I don't know why as some masters students take 3rd year law papers and get B's).

How could a Korean employer understand the levels of complexity I've highlighted. They don't recognise differences in rigor between courses/degrees and universitys' rankings (although they know Harvard, Yale, Oxford etc). In most cases, K employers just simply see grade point averages or the degree - a 'handsome' willing face -experience (or not) and hire them.

[GreenlightmeansGO]

I did a 3-year degree in South Africa. There was a helluva lot of reading, but I have 3 majors. To have read EVERYTHING would have meant no social life.

South African universities (all of them, I think) have a 4th year honours system, followed by a year or two for masters.

I've been looking for a masters course (as short as possible...but 2 years sounds good), because I want to cut out that honours year if I can. Everything seems so expensive, though. My tuition for 3 years came to around...$9500 (R65 000...total guess at the conversion).

Suggestions for cost-effective masters? In Media, TESOL, English Lit kinda fields.

(sorry if I hijacked the thread with my questions:) )

[Mr. Pink]

In Ontario, Canada the only difference between a 3yr degree and 4yr degree is a couple credits of 4th year work...which is essentially a bigger essay/reading load.

All MA programs I've looked into have been 1 full-year...though you are expected to work your arse off. I inquired into the thesis versus research paper topic. Many universities are laying off the thesis route as a lot of people who want to get an MA aren't interested in research or pursuing a doctorate.

What is better? Well I think it totally depends on your grades. If you got a 3 year degree and had a solid A average, yet due to finances or time constraints decided to just move on, that is better than a guy with a 4 yr and a B average.

As for a masters, if you are a B.Ed holder getting an MA to boost your salary and marketability, why bother with a thesis? IF you want to do a doctorate, thesis is definitely needed.

For teaching in Korea...90% of the situations, what is the difference? I go back to quality of student versus time spent studying.

[bassexpander]

[Draz]

[Mr. Pink]

[blueatjustc]

I used the names purely to show the example. Your right there are few people here from Harvard or Cambridge. However alot of people come from the top 25 uni's in the world.

On your point is average 3+1 uni equal to average 4-2 uni. Then i'd still say yes. ( i accept i may be biased). My thinking is because the way the courses are structured. ( i don't know in terms of hours worked) the 3-1 system tends to be more specialised which is more beneficial in some industries.


The 1 yr V 2 yrs for an MA. My course was full 12 months of solid work rather than 2 sets of 8 months. I wouldnt consider them any different. depends on course and uni more than the length of time.

Maybe i'm off base here. I have friends that have done 1 and 2 yr MA at top US univ and they don't consider there to be a real difference.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[jellobean]

I know that a smart student working year round at even top universities in the US can finish in 3 years (4 years of credit) sometimes even faster if they had AP credit.

As for the MA, it is possible to finish a 30 credit program in one year if the sequence can be changed a little... There are quite a few one year (year round) MA Education programs... The program I just finished could be easily completed in one year if someone were smart and spent all their free time doing it... Personally, I dragged it out as long as possible to keep my massive student loans deferred... Time to find a new program... Maybe an MBA next... I certainly don't want to make regular payments on my student loans...

[bassexpander]

[Justin Hale]