English for Master’s Course = Английский для магистрантов. Учебное пособие

include work placements and independent study projects. Some may require professional experience for entry. Examples include MBA, MDiv, LLM and MSW as well as some integrated master’s degrees. The name of the degree normally includes the subject name.

The United States Department of Education classifies master’s degree as research or professional. Research master’s degrees in the US, e.g. M.A./A.M. or M.S., require the completion of taught courses and examinations in a major and one or more minor subjects, and (normally) a research thesis. Professional master’s degrees may be structured like research master’s (e.g. M.E./M.Eng.) or may concentrate on a specific discipline (e.g. M.B.A.), and often substitute a project for the thesis.

Structure

There is a range of pathways to the degree with entry based on evidence of a capacity to undertake higher level studies in a proposed field. A dissertation may or may not be required depending on the program. In general, structure and duration of a program of study leading to a master’s degree will differ by country and university.

Duration

Stand-alone master’s programs in the US are normally two years in length. In some fields/programs, work on a doctorate begins immediately after the bachelor’s degree, but a master’s may be granted along the way as an intermediate qualification if the student petitions for it.[48] Some universities offer evening options so that students can work during the day and earn a master’s degree in the evenings.

In the UK, postgraduate master’s degrees may be either “research” or “taught”, with taught degrees being further subdivided into “specialist or advanced study” or “professional or practice” (see above). Taught degrees (of both forms) typically take a full calendar year (i.e. three semesters, 12 months), although some may be completed within an academic year (i.e. two semesters, 8 months), while research degrees often take either a full calendar year or two academic years. The UK integrated master’s degree is combined with a bachelor’s degree for a four (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or five (Scotland) academic year total period – one academic year longer than a normal bachelor’s degree.

In the Overarching Framework of Qualifications for the European Higher Education Area defined as part of the Bologna process, a “second cycle” (i.e. master’s degree) programme is typically 90–120 ECTS credits, with a minimum requirement of at least 60 ECTS credits at second-cycle level. The definition of ECTS credits is that “60 ECTS credits are allocated to the learning outcomes and associated workload of a full-time academic year or its equivalent”,[65] thus European master’s degrees should last for between one calendar year and two academic years, with at least one academic year of study at master’s level.

Admission

Admission to a master’s degree normally requires successful completion of study at bachelor’s degree level either (for postgraduate degrees) as a stand-alone degree or (for integrated degrees) as part of an integrated scheme of study. In countries where the bachelor’s degree with honours is the standard undergraduate degree, this is often the normal entry qualification. In addition, students will normally have to write a personal statement and, in the arts and humanities, will often have to submit a portfolio of work.

Comparable European Degrees

Under the Bologna Process, countries in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are moving to a three cycle (bachelor’s – master’s – doctorate) system of degrees. Two thirds of EHEA countries have standardized on 120 ECTS credits for their second-cycle (master’s) degrees, but 90 ECTS credits is the main form in Cyprus, Ireland and Scotland and 60–75 credits in Montenegro, Serbia and Spain. The combined length of the first and second cycle varies from “3 + 1” years (240 ECTS credits), through “3 + 2” or “4 + 1” years (300 ECTS credits), to “4 + 2” years (360 ECTS credits). As of 2015, 31 EHEA countries have integrated programmes that combine the first and second cycle and lead to a second-cycle qualification (e.g. the UK integrated master’s degree), particularly in STEM subjects and subjects allied to medicine. These typically have a duration of 300 – 360 ECTS credits (five to six years), with the integrated master’s degrees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland being the shortest at 240 ECTS credits (four years).

Text 3. POSTGRADUATE DEGREES

Postgraduate education (or graduate education in North America) involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor’s degree is generally required. The organization and structure of postgraduate education varies in different countries, and also in different institutions within countries.

In most countries, the hierarchy of postgraduate degrees is as follows:

1.Master’s degrees. These are sometimes placed in a further hierarchy, starting with degrees such as the Master of Arts and Master of Science, then Master of Philosophy, and finally Master of Letters. Many Master’s students will perform research culminating in a paper, presentation, and defence of their research. This is called the Master’s thesis.

2.Doctorates. An academic doctorate can be awarded as a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy). In the context of academic degrees, the term philosophy does not refer solely to the field of philosophy, but is used in a broader sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning, which is love of wisdom.

Many postgraduate programmes require students to pass one or several examinations in order to demonstrate their competence as scholars. In some departments, a comprehensive examination is often required in the first year, and is designed to test a student’s background undergraduate-level knowledge. Most postgraduate students perform teaching duties.

Doctoral programmes often require students to pass more examinations. Programmes often require a Qualifying Examination, a PhD Candidacy Examination, or a General Examination, designed to students’ grasp of a broad sample of their discipline, and/or one or several Special Field Examinations which test students in their narrower selected areas of specialty within the discipline. These exams must be passed to be allowed to proceed on to the thesis.

ThecriteriaforawardofDoctoratesvarysomewhatthroughout the world, but typically require the submission of a substantial body of original research undertaken by the candidate. This may take the form of a single thesis or dissertation, and will usually be assessed by a small committee of examiners appointed by the university. Doctorates are awarded to students who have demonstrated:

•the creation and interpretation of new knowledge through original research of a quality to satisfy peer review, extend the forefront of the discipline, and merit publication;

•a systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of an academic discipline or an area of professional practice;

•the general ability to conceptualize, design and implement a project for the generation of new knowledge, applications or understanding at the forefront of the discipline;

•a detailed understanding of applicable techniques for research and advanced academic enquiry. In total, the typical Doctoral degree takes between three and eight years from entering the programme to completion, though this time varies depending upon the department, thesis topic, and many other factors.

Habilitation (lat. habilis – fit, proper, skilful) is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research Doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis/dissertation (often known as a Habilitation thesis/dissertation) based upon independent scholarship, reviewed by and defended before an academic committee in a process similar to that for the doctoral dissertation. However, the level of scholarship has to be considerably higher than that required for a research doctoral (PhD) dissertation in terms of quality and quantity, and a Habilitation dissertation must be accomplished independently, in contrast with a PhD dissertation typically directed or guided by a faculty supervisor.

Habilitation qualification (Habil. Dr.) exists in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (Doktor nauk). Those who have achieved habilitation can denote the fact by placing the abbreviation Dr hab. or Dr habil. before their names.

Many post-Soviet countries, including Russian Federation, have a two-stage research degree obtaining path, generally similar to the doctorate system in Europe. The first stage is named Kandidat nauk (literal translation means Candidate of Sciences).

According to par. 262 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) UNESCO 2011, for purposes of international educational statistics Candidate of Sciences is equivalent to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree as awarded in many English-speaking countries. It allows its holders to reach the level of the Associate Professor (Docent). The Candidate of Sciences degree requires at least (and typically more than) three, four or five years of postgraduate research which is finished by defence of a dissertation or a thesis. Additionally, a seeker of the degree has to pass three examinations (a so-called Candidate minimum): in his/her special field, in a foreign language, and in the history and philosophy of science. After additional certification by the corresponding experts, the Candidate degree may be recognized internationally as an equivalent of PhD. The second stage is Doktor nauk (Doctor of Sciences). It requires many years of research experience and writing a second dissertation. The degrees of Candidate and Doctor of Sciences are only awarded by the special governmental agency (Higher Attestation Commission). A university or a scientific institute where the thesis was defended can only recommend awarding a seeker the sought degree.

Task 1. Complete the following sentences with details from the Text:

1.Master’s degree programmes usually include ……… .

2.The degree of an academic doctorate is called ……… .

3.Examinations are required to test ……… .

4.Typically a doctorate degree takes ……… to complete.

5.……… is earned after obtaining a PhD degree.

6.The first stage research degree in Russia is ……… .

7.The second stage research degree in Russia is ……… .

Task 2. Locate the following details in the Text. Give the line numbers:

1.In which lines does the author explain the meaning of the term philosophy in the context of academic degrees?

2.Where in the Text does the author first mention the requirements for Doctoral degree programmes?

3.Where in the Text does the author discuss what doctoral students are expected to demonstrate to be awarded a PhD degree?

Text 4. 2005 STANFORD COMMENCEMENT COVERAGE

The First Story is About Connecting the Dots

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.

Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My Second Story is About Love and Loss

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My Third Story is About Death

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning

and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.