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September 2002, Week 3

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 19 Sep 2002 20:48:08 +0100
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I find the comments made about MA courses only really being training
grounds for doctoral research and that anyone who wants to pursue an
academic programme above undergraduate level but not as far as a PhD is
barking up the wrong tree somewhat intriguing.  Maybe there is a cultural
difference between North America and Europe here.  Of all the people on the
MA course I took, only one, to my knowledge, has gone on to a PhD so
far.  That was me, and I certainly didn't intend doing that when I started
the MA.  OK, the course I took was slightly unusual in that it was intended
to have an element of vocational training in it (I took an MA in film
archiving at the University of East Anglia).  But even people I knew who
did the concurrent film studies MA (a variant of the course which was
purely academic and did not have any vocational element) were not all
determined to head for a PhD.  Out of - I'd guess - 10 people in that year,
two were always intending to progress to a PhD and duly ended up doing
so.  Both are now lecturers.  Of the other eight, two of them ended up as
cinema managers for the same chain of arthouse/rep theatres, another two
are now journalists and another now works in arts administration.  I've
lost touch with the rest.

In my case I'd always intended to use my MA as a qualification to gain a
position in a moving image archive.  At the end of the course I found
myself unable to do so, but had become interested in a topic which I
thought could do with some serious researching.  I managed to convince both
a university and a funding body that it was, and so ended up taking a
three-year detour via a PhD programme.

I think it would be a pity if we got to the point at which no-one took MAs
other than to tick a box en route to a doctorate, because I think there's a
lot to be said for the educational value of a stand-alone, intermediate
higher degree.  Certainly many of the people I know who have taken a
'stand-alone MA' have gone on to use the skills and knowledge they've
gained to constructive, high-level use in a variety of workplaces.

Leo

Dr. Leo Enticknap
Director, Northern Region Film and Television Archive
School of Arts and Media
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough  TS1 3BA
United Kingdom
Tel. +44-(0)1642 384022
Fax. +44-(0)1642 384099
Brainfryer: +44-(0)7710 417383

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