Frequently Asked Question |
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I have been asked many questions by individuals considering whether or not to study for the MSc EMP degree by Open Learning.
Many of these questions share similar generic bases, and so I am putting some answers together in the form of a FAQ document. This document is likely to expand sharply is size over the next few months.
I hope you find this information helps you in your choices.
Roger Perman
Programme Director
- What are the Programme Fees?
- Can I pay by instalments?
- What is the fee in local currency (as applicable)?
- What is the fee per credit or per hour of study?
- Course Descriptions
- Assessment
- What is the total duration of study time?
- What are the rankings of Strathclyde University, the Economics Department and this degree?
- If I have done little economics before, or am not confident that I remember my previous economics, what advance preparation should I do?
- What are the Programme Fees?
From September 2009 onwards, these are £8000 for
the whole masters programme, with a breakdown
for individual stages as shown on the web
page http://www.mscemp.org/fees.
Note that
you can elect to stop at the Certificate stage or Diploma stage should you wish (or should your circumstances change) and only pay the fee for that component. Hence, we are not asking you to make irrevocable commitments.
Those who enrol at the time this set of fees
is in place will be protected against any subsequent
rise in fees, provided that they progress through
the programme to completion within three years.
- Can I pay by instalments?
Details are available from the University
Finance Office web pages.
- What is the fee in local currency (as applicable)?
I hope you understand that it would not be useful, or efficient, for me to do these calculations until we live in a world of fixed exchange rates or a single currency. (whether that would be a good kind of world – in economic terms at least – is one kind of question that you should be able to answer when you have completed this degree!)
- What is the fee per credit or per hour of study?
I have not made these calculations. The first is easy to calculate should you wish as each module does have a credit weighting (and the MSc as a whole amounts to 180 credits). But this is not likely to be useful information. I have not calculated the latter measure, as it is very difficult to be precise about what constitutes an hour of study on an Open Learning programme.
- Course Descriptions
Until you become an enrolled student, you will not be able to log in to the Interactive part of our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) system. However, it is possible to read, and download if you wish, all course descriptions from our MSc EMP full/part time study web site at http://www.economics.strath.ac.uk/pg. Many can be found via the “Programme” menu item, some take a little bit of exploration around the site! Bear in mind that course content (although not delivery and study/learning methods) is identical for the OL and FT/PT modes of study. Our degree is of one uniform high standard however you study for it.
- Assessment
As far as assessment is concerned, the current position (for the FT/PT modes) is shown in Table 1. This shows the weighting as between coursework and examinations class by class. That weighting will be true for the OL degree, subject to the qualifications listed below.
However, as we shall be using a great deal more coursework with the OL mode of learning, I am exploring the possibility of substituting coursework for examinations where ever appropriate. Note that much coursework is not assessed - it is the way you learn the materials and skills. Much of this will be directly interactive with tutors and with fellow OL students via our web forums. What is shown in the Table is just the formal assessment items.
We will have some classes where replacing
examinations is not possible. In those cases,
I shall arrange for you to be able to sit the
exam at a location near your home or place
of work. This will be arranged on a person-by-person
basis. I cannot supply details right now, as
this is a matter that is arranged on a person-specific
basis. But we do take it as our responsibility
to facilitate taking exams - where those are
deemed necessary - in a manner that is both
flexible and convenient for our OL students.
- What is the total duration of study time?
As a rough rule of thumb, we have planned for a study programme in which, on average, 6 credits are taken per month. The full MSc programme involves 180 credits, and so 30 months is a “standard” study period for the MSc award. It is, possible, however, to complete the Programme in 2 years if you wish to do so. You can, of course, take longer than 30 months if that best fits with your circumstances.
How much of your time will be required for studying the programme? This varies from person to person but another rule of thumb is that 6 credits involves approximately 30 hours of work. This implies that you should plan for a total commitment of 30 hours per month.
Please note that this figure is a total one, and includes reading materials, communicating with staff and fellow students via the virtual Learning Environment (or other channels), preparation of coursework, revision for examinations etc.
The Programme is sufficiently flexible for you to arrange the high and low time loadings of your study to suit your personal, recreational and business needs.
- What are the rankings of Strathclyde University, the Economics Department and this degree?
These are very difficult questions to answer, and you might expect that any individual course director will tend to give a somewhat partial answer. So whatever I write here, it is very important that you research these questions yourself.
As far as Strathclyde University is concerned, there are no “official” rankings of UK universities as a whole. Official performance indicators do not exist at that institutional level. There are many unofficial rakings, of course, such as those undertaken by the UK quality newspapers (such as Times, Financial Times, Guardian and so on.) League table positions are volatile, and very sensitive to weightings used for individual criteria. Overall, Strathclyde University comes out as a mid-ranked “old” British University. The Strathclyde Business School faculty, though – of which the Economics Department is part – is highly rated, and has a strong national and international reputation. (See http://www.strath.ac.uk/business.)
There are “Official” ratings/evaluations of Teaching and of Research Quality at the Department level. The Economics Department has the highest possible Teaching Quality rating and a very good (4 star) Research rating. See our teaching quality as rated in 2005.
In general, the case for studying "at" Strathclyde is made here. But note that this page is targeted mainly at students studying in attendance.
- If I have done little economics before, or am not confident that I remember my previous economics, what advance preparation should I do?
A good preparation for studying this degree would be to work your way through a good standard economics textbook in the three months or so before the time at which you start the degree. A good text for this purpose is:
- Principles of Economics by N Gregory Mankiw (ISBN 0 324 20309 8).
If you want a slightly more advanced set of preparatory readings you might instead try one good "micro" and one good "macro" text. A great pair is:
- Macroeconomics by N Gregory Mankiw
- Principles of Microeconomics by N Gregory Mankiw
It is NOT important to get the latest edition: any reasonably recent one is fine, and much cheaper on Amazon, for example!
A good alternative macro text is:
- Macroeconomics by Oliver Blanchard
Whichever of these texts you read, if any, do not worry about reading them in great depth or detail. It is important to get a general feel for their content, rather than trying to learn them in great detail. All of our classes on the MSc EMP OL programme are self-contained, but would benefit from prior economics knowledge.
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