subject: Perspectives: What Does a Postgraduate Education Involves? [print this page] Postgraduate studies involve obtaining degrees and different qualifications. However, in order to enter a postgraduate institution, students should first receive a Bachelor degree. In some countries, postgraduate education is accepted as a part of higher education. The structure and organization is also different in various countries and educational establishments. In addition, there exists a wide range of programs with postgraduate inclination. History of postgraduate education: 1. The roots of higher education go back to ancient China, Greece, Africa, and India where the paradigm of postgraduate education is closely connected with the awarding degrees' system with regard to different levels of studies. The traces of ancient education can be noticed in European educational institutions in the medieval period. In this period, a Bachelor degree could be obtained in 6 years of study. The same was needed to receive a Master's and doctorate degree. In the course of the first 6 years, students were to study liberal arts which would include astronomy, geometrics, arithmetic, music theory, grammar, and rhetoric. The second half of the academic period was devoted to the study of three disciples (law, theology, or medicine) at students' choice. 2. It should be also noted there used to be a great difference between Master's and doctoral degree. In particular, there was a distinction between the above-mentioned faculties. Hence, a person who had a Master's degree attended the faculty of Law whereas a person with a doctoral degree received knowledge on Theology. Judging upon the above, the latter was the most sophisticated and highly appraised discipline. The main merit of taking postgraduate studies lies in an emerging opportunity to teach others and to share your knowledge with other people. As it can be seen, postgraduate studies grant students a lot of privileges that can be purposefully used by students.
Perspectives: What Does a Postgraduate Education Involves?