This course is intended as a first step for learners who seek to become producers of social science research. It is organized as an introduction to the design and execution of a research study. It introduces the key elements of a proposal for a research study, and explains the role of each. It reviews the major types of qualitative and quantitative data used in social science research, and then introduces some of the most important sources of existing data available freely or by application, worldwide and for China. The course offers an overview of basic principles in the design of surveys, including a brief introduction to sampling. Basic techniques for quantitative analysis are also introduced, along with a review of common challenges that arise in the interpretation of results. Professional and ethical issues that often arise in the conduct of research are also discussed. The course concludes with an introduction to the options for further study available to the interested student, and an overview of the key steps involved in selecting postgraduate programs and applying for admission. Learners who complete the course will be able to make an informed decision about whether to pursue advanced studies, and should be adequately prepared to write an application for postgraduate study that exhibits basic understanding of key aspects of social science research paradigms and methodologies. Explore the big questions in social science and learn how you can be a producer of social science research. Course Overview video: https://youtu.be/QuMOAlwhpvU Part 1 should be completed before taking this course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-science-study-chinese-society
7.2 Options for advanced study in social science
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En provenance du cours de The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 2
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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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À partir de la leçon
Where to go from here
Welcome to the last week of Part 2! By the end of this week you should be able to be aware of the options you have for further study in social science research and know the steps to move forward in the application process for advanced training.
Rencontrer les enseignants
Cameron CampbellProfessor of Social Science
Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science
[MUSIC]
Hi, in this module, I'm going to introduce the basic options for
advance study or further study in social science.
There's a variety of choices available.
For example, Taught Master's programs, which helped with a transition
to a research based program that has more academic focus.
We'll talk about what that is in just a second.
Taught Master's programs may also offer specific skills for
further training to assist with a job search, or a career transition.
Research-based Master's programs typically offer preparation for
a PhD program and may also help people prepare for
careers in government agencies, nonprofits, or research organizations.
The PhD is typically preparation for a career in academics or research.
And finally, professional degrees can lead the way to careers in business or
the nonprofit sector, or even the non-academic, or non-research sectors.
I'll talk a little bit about what they can do when I get to them later.
Now when we talk about Taught Master's programs,
the basic focus of most Taught Master's programs is classwork.
They typically don't involve writing a thesis.
Simply, students take courses and
Taught Master's programs tend to have a more applied focus.
They may be academic, especially if they're intending to lead
to a research-based program, but generally they have a more applied focus.
Most of them are one year, a few of them are two years.
They tend to have a larger intake and
because they often help students transition to new careers or
new fields of studies, they tend to accept people from a wide variety of majors.
So most taught programs tend to be opened to people whose undergraduate majors
were actually quite different and perhaps had nothing to do with social science.
So people that majored in journalism or accounting or physics or
history, who are seeking to transition to social science would probably
be able to go into a Taught Master's program with a background like that.
The pathways that the Taught Master's program offers,
as I mentioned they tend to, on the one hand, help people prepare for new careers.
So again, a taught program that has a very applied focus, they help people transition
to a different career, pursue something that perhaps is more interesting to them.
Now the taught programs that have a more academic emphasis
may help people prepare for advanced study in a research-based program.
I'll talk about a research-based program and what that is in just a second.
Finally most taught programs offer very little in the way of financial aid.
Taught programs tend to be run by universities in order to generate revenue.
They're essentially money making operations.
So they generally do not offer much in the way of financial aid also,
because of their applied emphasis, they again, don't offer much financial aid.
If you have a stronger interest in perhaps transitioning to an academic career, or
a more research-focused career,
then you'll want to look at research-based master's programs.
These typically include not just classwork like you would see in a taught program but
writing a thesis based on original research.
They're most commonly two years, but in some cases they may be as short as
one year and in a few cases may be as long as three years.
The admissions to Research-based Master programs tend to be smaller than for
top programs,
they have a smaller intake Because of the research intensive focus of such programs.
It takes a lot of energy on the part of the faculty to help
supervise students as they write a thesis.
So it's hard to admit too many people.
And typically, Research-based Master's programs will look for
students who's undergraduate majors, or possibly a top masters,
are relevant to the focus of the research-base program.
So whereas Taught based programs typically look at people from a very wide variety
of majors, because their whole point is to help people make transmissions.
Research-based Master's programs will be much more focused on whether or
not the applicants have a relevant background and at least some
prior training that's relevant to the goals of the research program.
Now the pathways for the Research-based Master's program,
typically include a transition to a PhD program.
So the research-based emphasis will prepare people for again,
research-based PhD program.
I'll talk about that in just a moment.
Although in some cases a Research-based Master's program may help people
transition to a research-based career in government or the nonprofit sector.
Typically Research-based Master's programs will have some kind of financial aid.
They are typically not run as revenue generating programs for
the university or school.
Rather they do have an academic emphasis which is to prepare people and
train them in research.
So typically some kind of financial support will be available and
I would discourage you or at least encourage you to think carefully before
using your own funds to pay the tuition at a Research-based Master's program.
Now that the further along we have PhD programs.
So PhD programs typically involve a mixture of class work and
of course more important a thesis, a PhD dissertation.
Now a PhD will typically take anywhere between three and six years.
Back in the old days, universities tended to be pretty loose and sometimes,
people would take five, six, seven, eight, even ten years to finish their PhD.
That's become a lot less common now, and most universities try to get people to
finish up in a fairly timely fashion, so hopefully four or five years.
Now in North America, most PhD programs expect that
people coming into them have a Research-based Master's degree and
indeed many programs in North America only admit people into the PhD if
they actually came through that program's, Research-based Master's program.
So in other words, admission to the Research-based Master's program and
the PhD is linked with people being admitted into the research-based program
in the expectation that if all goes well they'll stay on and
go directly to the PhD program.
Now, outside of North America it's more common for students to be admitted
directly into PhD programs that is they may have a Research-based Master or
in some cases they may just have a Taught Master.
And they apply directly to the PhD program and then go in directly.
But again there's a big difference between North America And
the rest of the world on this.
Now a PhD is typically and almost solely a preparation for
a research career or a career in academics.
I'll be honest with you, a PhD doesn't have much in the way of monetary value.
You'll probably end up losing money if you spend your own money
to pay the tuition for a PhD program.
It's not going to lead to fame and fortune.
It may lead to fame, probably not fortune.
So most of the time PhD programs will offer some kind of financial aid,
perhaps in the way of scholarships or fellowships or
some kinds of research and teaching assistantships.
Again I would strongly discourage you from completing your PhD at your own expense.
It's not likely again,
to lead to fortune although it may lead to fame if you are very lucky.
Now there are also professional programs.
So the mode for a professional program's typically classwork.
It's very uncommon for a professional program to include a thesis.
The time is typically two years.
Although there are some programs out there that are just one year,
some of them are three.
Typically, professional programs will look for
people whose undergraduate majors were somehow relevant in some sense.
So for example, in the old days law programs used to admit people
often from history or English.
Because in law of people who do a lot of writing.
And in the old days, history and
English were majors where people did a lot of writing.
And they learned a lot about history and context and so forth.
More recently,
law programs have been looking at people from political science and even sociology.
So the fields from which professional programs will recruit people
evolve over time.
But again, they tend to look for people with some kind of relevant background as
an undergraduate, and it may be necessary depending on the circumstances.
To first go to a taught program if your undergraduate major was really different
from whatever the professional program is that you're applying to.
So the pathways are fairly straightforward.
Professional programs lead to a career in one of the professions.
So we have MBA programs for people that want to go into business,
especially management.
Law for people that want to become lawyers.
Social work for people that want to become social workers.
Medicine for people that want to become doctors.
In public policy for people who want to go into government or
the nonprofit or research sector.
And typically, it's unlikely for a professional program to
offer much in the way of financial aid or financial support.
Professional programs mostly are preparing people for a job, a career,
and so the expectation is that people will come up with money on their own for
their tuition.
Here is a summary on overall of everything that we just talked about.
Nothing new here.
But we've tried to arrange the different options for
you in a way that helps you compare them, the Taught programs,
the Research-based Master's degrees, the PhD programs and the Professional degrees.
So hopefully you now have some sense of
which of these different options is the best fit for your interest?
If you're looking for something that might help you transition to a new career, then
you're probably going to want to look at taught programs, or professional programs.
If you're looking to transition to an academic career, or
a more research focused career, you may want to be looking at
Research-based Master's programs, and then eventually the PhD.
And depending on what your undergraduate major was, you may need to prepare for
that by enrolling or taking a Taught Master's degree first.
So I wish your luck as you look at these different options, and
think about what might be the best for you.
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