in search for a university...

Hi!

I am currently doing my MA by DL, Buddhist Studies, Sunderland University, UK. This is a degree by coursework, and I was just informed by my tutor that the MA thesis is 15.000 words. I thought it needs to be longer, and have written a 45.000 words piece on a Buddhist Topic. There is just no more to add though...

45.000 is not enough for a Doctorate; so I thought about handing this in for another Master's degree in Theology / Religion/ Buddhism at another university

Any advise is very appreciated!

adelheid

 

more info, please

What's the topic you're writing about?

Could you extend it into a PhD thesis by, for example,

• tracing the historical origins and influences of whatever you're analyzing on Buddhism, then following through to explain how this has flowed from Buddhism to other religions or cultures?
  
• comparing the presence of your particular topic in Buddhism with related ideas in Shintoism, Taosim, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity?

It sounds like you're most of the way towards having a written PhD thesis; an earned PhD is likely to be of greater benefit than a second masters.

G

 

I agree with Galanga there...(we do not know your topic so we might not be in a position to be precise) however...
if your thesis is kind of original, then use it all the way up towards your PhD.
But if its kind of more on literary survey side, I suggest you just cut it down to size and finish up your MA.
All the best...

(ps. if it is of any help, my thesis was on Khmer Buddhism)

 

I'd suggest that you look closely at the programs offeredf by the California Institute of Integral Psychology and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Otherwise, you need to look at a school that has a "Religious Studies" program that might be sympathetic to a Buddhist topic. Finally, I'd wonder whether Sunderland might consider you for a PhD slot. They know your work. They've got the staff to cover the area. Make a deal.
Jack

 

Hi, Adelheid.

I don't quite understand your post. Is Sunderland refusing to read it because it's too long? That's hard to imagine. So why not get the M.A. from Sunderland?

Does Sunderland grant M.Phil.s? Maybe they would be willing to give you that cooler degree on the basis of the heftier thesis.

Or perhaps you could edit the thesis to make a more modest argument and submit a truncated version at Sunderland for the masters, then use the remaining material and issues as the basis of dissertation proposal, either at Sunderland or elsewhere.

Have you talked to Peter Harvey about this? I doubt if the Sunderland people would want you to waste the work. Follow Jack's suggestion and ask them if you have any chance of being admitted to Sunderland's philosophy Ph.D. program on a DL or short-residency basis.

Another possibility: could you work up some of the extra material into some publishable papers? Publications might do you more good than a second masters degree.

 

Re: Re: in search for a university...

My understanding (guess) is that adelheid would like to reserve the 45K thesis for use elsewhere and write a new thesis to satisfy the Sunderland requirement. If I'm correct then adelheid would have to 1) find a school that would accept a Buddhist thesis (in general) and then, 2) find a supervisor that would accept the specific thesis topic in question and then, 3) accept the already written thesis without substantial modifications.
A tall order. First you've got to find a MA-thesis-only program in Religious Studies. This puts you in Australia or South Africa. That's, perhaps three or four schools total? UNISA, UNIZUL, U of New England, maybe Edith Cowan? You could look at U of Kent but if there's any residency requirement at Kent then why not go to Sunderland where you're already a known commodity? Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that the liklihood of being able to take an already written thesis to a school and, more or less, submit it for a degree is a somewhat unliklely proposition.
(unless you'd like to consider Knightsbridge ;-)
(sorry, for some reason I can't get the smilies to work for me tonight.)
Jack

 

thank you, everybody!

 

Re: Re: in search for a university...

What is the difference between a M.Phil. degree and a M.A.? Why is a M.Phil. cooler (I guess you wanted to say "better" or "more weighty" or more "valuable"?)

adelheid

 

Re: Re: Re: in search for a university...

The MA is (usually) awarded for a mixture of coursework and a dissertation of between twelve and twenty thousand words. If you do it full time, it's normally a one year (occasionally 13 month) programme, with something like six courses between September and May and once you pass your coursework exams, the dissertation is done over the summer. The dissertation should be a piece of graduate-level work, but you're not expected to make an original contribution to the field.

The MPhil (usually) takes a minimum of two years full time and is based upon substantial individual research resulting in a thesis of approximately 40-60,000 words. It doesn't necessarily have to be an original contribution, but quite a lot of the time it is.

Of course, the UK being the UK, there are plenty of exceptions, but outside Oxford, Cambridge and the older Scottish unis, the above is pretty much how it functions.

Angela