Getting the most out of a Postgraduate Open Day-Kayleigh Clark, MA History

Attending a postgraduate open day at Cardiff University was one of the most useful things I did to prepare myself for postgraduate studies. It allowed me to finally choose between an MA taught and an MA Research. I realised throughout the day that the taught modules available at Cardiff University would help develop my skills further, so if I choose to do a PHD after my course, I would be in a better posision. As well as this, the content of the optional modules appealed to my historical interests.

It also gave me the opportunity to have one-to-one conversations with my lecturers and ask questions that I found were of personal interest and overlooked in the prospectus. For me, the conversation was focussed around the lecturer’s thoughts about the amount of hours a student could work part-time without their course suffering. This was particularly important for me, as I was worried about funding my course without student finance. The Open Day also hosted finance talks, which gave students information about scholarships and the Cardiff Student Job Scheme.

In addition to this, I had the opportunity to ask questions about Cardiff’s university library facilities such as; their loan policy, and access to online resources. However, what I found most useful was the Language for All stand at the Open day. Here, I learnt that Cardiff University was supplying free language courses for all students, which was particularly useful for me, as it would give me the opportunity to learn German which would help me for my German History. The Language for all programme, along with the German for Historians, which was a module on my history course, were collectively the deciding factors for me choosing to study at Cardiff University, and thus attending the Postgraduate Open Day was extremely beneficial for me.