Where Can an Online Masters Degree Take You?

This blog has been sponsored by the University of Birmingham, University of Bath and University of Glasgow.

Whether you’re interested in postgraduate study because you want to dive deeper into a subject, work in academia or are hoping for a promotion at work, no one can argue that a Masters won’t positively affect your career prospects. Whether you study online or in-person, you’ll benefit from everything a Masters offers, and that includes the boost in your career.

We caught up with three online Masters graduates to find out how their programmes helped them and the changes it’s made to their careers.

Learning on the job

The great thing about doing a Masters (online or on campus) is that it allows you to explore a subject in more depth than at undergraduate, and for Sophia Withers, it led to a complete career change.

It was during the University of Birmingham's part-time online MSc in International Business programme that she realised her passion for blockchain and emerging technology. She left her coordinator role at the KPMG audit division and became a freelance strategy consultant.

“The Online MSc provided me with a holistic, executive-level set of skills and knowledge to succeed in my career. Frequent group work enhanced my communication skills, and factual case study work has enhanced my ability to put theory into practice to solve real-world problems.”

Although Lyubomir Hristonev remained at Vivacom during (and after) his studies, he went from International Sales Representative at the largest telecom operator in Bulgaria to being promoted to Head of International Sales halfway through his studies. The online MSc Entrepreneurship Management and Innovation programme at The University of Bath helped prepare him for the new challenge.

“I learnt a lot about discipline, leadership and how to apply the things that I’ve learnt into real-life business environments. The theoretical part is important, but the things that you can apply, these are the things that stay in your mind afterwards.”

As Assistant Registrar at Vancouver Community College in British Columbia, Canada, Dawn Cunningham Hall used her learnings from the online MSc Education at the University of Glasgow to sharpen her critical thinking skills on education theory and policy in a business environment.

“The programme helped to sharpen my ability to think critically about educational theory, policy, and practice. This is essential in my role, as I collaborate with departments across the institution to affect positive change for our students.”

Putting theory into practice

One of the biggest positives about doing an online Masters is that you don’t have to give up your job to study. This has the added benefit of giving you the opportunity to put what you learn during the course straight into practice.

“The subject of my dissertation was related to my career specifically” Lyubomir says, “With my current role as a manager of the team, I was able to explore how to implement new services to new markets, whether it was feasible and what the resource requirements would be.”

It was the research side of the online programme that most helped Dawn. “It gave me a lens through which to evaluate processes and procedures and make data-informed decisions. I have recently been accepted to the Research Ethics Board at my institution, where I will have opportunities to apply this knowledge and influence institutional research initiatives.”

Dawn even won the BERA Masters Dissertation Award for her dissertation “Indigenous Perspectives on Academic Integrity in Post-Secondary Institutions in British Columbia”.

Setting you up for success

Getting your online Masters in your subject of interest is achievement enough but it also gives your confidence a boost too! It equips you with not only the knowledge that you need, but an understanding of how to move forward with your career aspirations. That’s something Sophia knows a lot about.

“Being a freelance consultant and co-founder, challenges consist of entering into unchartered territory such as new markets and being faced with unprecedented change. Therefore, an understanding of international business theory and being able to apply such knowledge in a practical sense is pivotal for thriving. My dissertation also taught me how to properly research, plan, and orchestrate a large project autonomously.”

As well as being a freelance consultant and co-founder, Sophia also added an executive assistant role for sports technology firm Catapult Sports to her impressive CV.

It was the Entrepreneurial acceleration unit in particular that really made a difference to Lyubomir. “It taught me how to grow my business and formulate the perfect execution plan. Scaling up is most probably the hardest part of running a small business, therefore this unit is one of the most important ones in the programme.”

For Dawn, the programme offered exactly what she was looking for, and has given her the confidence to make changes in the adult education sector.

“Professionally, this programme taught me valuable skills in policy and theory analysis that have expanded my understanding of education. Personally, this programme gave me increased confidence in my ability to understand complex problems and advocate for systemic change.”

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