Why move to a new field for postgraduate study? Perhaps a topic caught your eye during your undergraduate studies and you always wanted to pursue it further. Perhaps you're confident in your understanding of the essential facts of your field and feel that it's time for a change. Perhaps you want to broaden your skills and gain some variety to your studies. In any case, postgraduate study allows you to delve deeper into topics and to learn more independent research skills. If you're thinking of making a change, read on for advice on how to set yourself up in a new discipline for your postgraduate study.

For a student faced with the daunting decision of which university to attend, paying a visit to a university fair can be a great way to get your thoughts in order and discover some of the programs and institutions on offer. These fairs can vary in size from the small to large-scale (such as UniFair in the UK), and can be quite confusing.

Instead of relaxing by the pool, engaging in night long barbecues or taking long awaited beach vacations, do you find yourself smoldering in the summer heat at your local library, or at your very own disheveled desk, mustering what little willpower you have left to write your thesis? As a current graduate student at the American University in Cairo I share your woes, and perhaps sleep depriving fears, but believe me when I say there is light, and the promise of a blissful graduation, at the end of that slightly terrifying thesis tunnel. Whether or not you’ve established a sizeable outline or built a praiseworthy bibliography, you will need to keep writing, and not succumb to the dastardly clutches of summertime procrastination, to ultimately reach your deadline. The key to thesis writing during this scorching summer is to stay motivated, even if it takes pitchers of iced coffee and copious amount of frozen yogurt to get you through! Take a look at my top ten tips on how to stay motivated while writing your thesis this sunny season.

We know how difficult it can be to choose a Master’s program, particularly as the number of programs around the globe continues to grow. While many students take their time in finding a specific focus during their Bachelor’s studies, you’re expected to have narrowed the scope by the time you’re ready for graduate school.

As another season of graduate school applications comes to a close, we wanted to offer a few diverse perspectives on the matter for any of you still on the fence, or for those of you planning ahead for next year. Although deadlines for this coming fall have already passed for most schools in North America, potential PhD candidates looking at European, Asian, African or Latin American schools may still have some time to send in an application.

The literature research students need to rely on throughout all of their thesis writing is diverse. Broadly categorized there are three types of literature useful for PhD students: research/topic literature, methods literature, and ‘how to do your PhD’ literature. A somewhat similar classification of PhD materials can, for example, be found in Chris Hart’s Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences (2010, Sage, p.2), which I recommend immensely.

After finishing high school many students think of applying for university and getting at least a Bachelor’s degree. After 3 to 5 years of studying some choose to take their first degree and join the job market, while others decide to continue in university to complete a Masters Degree or even a PhD through additional academic and/or applied research. If you are thinking about taking this final step and doing your PhD, but you are still not sure whether it is right for you, check out the links below to see what you can expect from a PhD program.

A PhD was something I always dreamed of doing. On the one hand, it was a natural continuation of my, it now seems, life-long learning curve after my Master’s degree. But, more importantly, it was also a faraway dream on the horizon that seemed worth pursuing just for its own sake. I probably knew my love of research should last me the entire doctoral spell but no one will ever be able to fully explain to you what it is like to undertake a PhD until you have finally let yourself fall into its subtle embrace.

Source: National Science Foundation, NSF/NIH/USED/USDA/NEH/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates

With English being considered the “must-have language”, is there a need for economists to learn a foreign language, or does it concern only those who work or want to work in the business field in a non-English speaking country?

What happens to economics students once they complete their first degree? Here is a snapshot of economics graduates’ activities detailing their occupation six months after graduation.

In between the common subdisciplines of economics like international or financial economics, lie many much smaller specializations, for example the economics of language. The term “economics of language“ is defined by François Grin, to be “the paradigm of mainstream theoretical economics and uses the concepts and tools of economics in the study of relationships featuring linguistic variables, it focuses principally, but non exclusively, on those relationships in which economic variables also play a part”.

The move from high school to university or college can be a daunting one, often made more difficult by the question ‘what am I going to study.’ This is naturally influenced by personal interests, past experiences, parents, friends, and teachers, but when it comes down to it, it is the student that has to decide what is interesting for them. I have taken a troll around the Internet to see what people have to say in favour of studying economics and come up with some interesting answer.