Saturday 25 September 2010

Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies - A Personal View

Earlier this year this blog got rather neglected; likewise my partner, friends and family. However there was a good reason and, hopefully, it’s all been worthwhile as today I received confirmation that I have passed the Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical Studies!

The course is part of the Genealogical Studies Postgraduate Programme provided by the University of Strathclyde which offers one of only a few qualifications in genealogy currently available in the UK. The course is delivered online (although with some opportunities to meet tutors and fellow students in person) and attracts students worldwide, although with the majority in the UK and from Scotland in particular. The Postgraduate Certificate is provided by the University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning and, despite the title, an undergraduate degree is not a requirement, although there is a formal application procedure.

My motivation to undertake the course was threefold: firstly, to increase my knowledge and improve my genealogical skills; secondly, in order to get a qualification relevant to my profession (something which I think is going to become increasingly important for professional genealogists); and finally, for personal enjoyment and satisfaction.

I’m not quite sure I knew what I was letting myself in for though, as I apparently overlooked the part of the course brochure which mentioned a requirement of 20 hours a week and it was something of a shock to hear this when attending a introductory meeting! However I kidded myself that, as I would know most of it already, I could easily get away with committing less time.

This turned out not to be the case as even simply reading the handouts and completing assignments took about 20 hours a week. As my weekdays and evenings are already filled, this pretty much meant spending every Saturday and Sunday from the time I got up until midnight on coursework, and this was without doing any additional reading (which I would have liked to have been able to do). Hence the neglect of everyone and everything else!

Nevertheless, I don’t regret my decision to do the course and would certainly recommend it to others. It definitely isn’t a course for beginners, or even for those who’ve exhausted the basic genealogical sources and want to learn a little more in order to better trace their own ancestors, but rather for those who’ve been bitten by the genealogy bug in a big way and want to undertake a serious academic study of the subject, whether with a view to turning professional or not.

I do think it’s a worthwhile course for those who already consider themselves to be quite advanced in genealogy as there is so much information given in the handouts that cannot easily be found elsewhere. I found that having some knowledge of the majority of record types discussed was an advantage as it made the background information (much of which was new to me) more relevant and easier to understand.

Any complaints I have about the course are more in the nature of small niggles: some handouts did not appear to have been spellchecked or proofread, occasionally some information was out-of-date (mainly on non-Scottish sources) and I think there was general confusion caused by a lack of clear guidelines on referencing. However, this is partly balanced out by the fact that tutors do appear to take complaints seriously and that the course is frequently adjusted in response to student feedback.

My only further comment is that it may not be clear from the course brochure how strongly Scottish-based the course is. Whilst the idea that skills learnt from researching genealogy in one country can be transferred to another country is a sound one; I would have liked to have seen greater inclusion of English and Irish records as the coverage of these at times seemed perfunctory. However, I do realise that it is not possible to include everything (certainly not in the already packed eight months during which the course runs) and that non-Scottish sources are covered in greater depth later.

Perhaps the best recommendation for the course is that following completion of the Postgraduate Certificate a large number of students, myself included, have chosen to advance to the Postgraduate Diploma. So if this blog goes a bit quiet again in a few months you’ll know why!

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations on passing Kirsty. I had to have a little chuckle at your critique, mainly on the referencing bit, as I think we had the same experience on that front in 2006/07! I would fully agree though that the certificate is a worthwhile achievement, particularly for those wishing to learn more about Scottish genealogy. Slightly surprised on your comments about the English side of things - we had Richard Baker up from the IHGS to give two superb lectures on English land records and inheritance when I did it (it was attendance based back then), though things have perhaps changed now the course is totally online. Agree on the Irish front though.

    Good luck to you and any fellow students progressing on to the diploma! A very different kettle of fish - the highlight for me was the English manorial records section, hopefully that is still part of it, as I suspect you'll have a lot of fun with that!

    Chris

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  2. Thanks Chris!

    I think previous students had found the information on referencing too complicated with the result that we were given a simple version - so naturally complained that it didn't cover enough examples and record types. I suspect there's no simple solution to that one!

    Re: English records - we were given handouts from Richard Baker's lectures which were indeed very good, but rather highlighted the lack of English coverage elsewhere. For example an assignment that was supposed to be on English Parish Record turned into another one on Civil Registration - despite the fact that the London Parish Registers on Ancestry could have usefully been used (plenty of Muddocks there after all!). But possibly it was just me that would have liked to see more English stuff as I don't think I heard that complaint from other students.

    Looking forward to the 'fun' of the Diploma!

    Kirsty

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  3. Hi Kirsty,

    After two years I still never got a satisfactory answer on how to reference a website using Harvard. For something so academic and scientific it definitely seemed open to a lot of interpretation... :) I suspect the use of Jedi mind tricks will be the only way I might ever get a definitive answer!

    Chris

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  4. Congratulations Kirsty! Enjoy your few months off before the Diploma.

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  5. Well done, Kirsty.
    As I contemplate study from the other end of the earth I find your (and Chris') comments most useful. Thankyou for sharing your thoughts on the course - it is much more useful than a course brochure.
    Best wishes for the Diploma course

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  6. Hello Kirsty:

    Congrats on your achievement, and wishing you the best on your diploma course. As for the referencing - I think that using Elizabeth Shawn Mills' Evidence Explained is a good way to use as a template for referencing sources. Mills pretty much uses the Chicago Manual of Style for her basis of referencing. She is a very stong advocate for genealogists everywhere to use this as a way of making genealogical sources uniform in referencing. It shouldn't be just for US and Canadian research, but worldwide.

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  7. Thanks to everyone for the congratulations!

    To the previous commenter: Thanks for the advice. I recently purchased the PDF version of 'Evidence Explained' from http://www.footnote.com/evidenceexplained/ but haven't had a chance to study it as yet. I agree that a uniform referencing style is a good idea and it's a shame this book isn't better known in the UK.

    Kirsty

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  8. I must admit that this course promised a lot but completely failed to deliver anything worthwhile. The response from the tutors was appalling and as for the time delay between submitting work and receiving feedback is this measured in aeons or centuries ... I did not expect the course at this level to be so centred on referencing and devoid of anything that was not already known ...

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  9. In reply to the previous comment:

    I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience of the course. I'm now studying for the Postgraduate Diploma and the length of time to receive feedback for coursework is still a big complaint among students. However, this does seem to be an issue with a lot of higher education courses.

    Each year the course is being updated and altered in response to student feedback so hopefully some of these issues will be sorted out in the future.

    Kirsty

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  10. I've been following the comments on this. Some very interesting remarks. I'm thinking of doing the PG Cert this year bit not so sure now given what Anonymous said. It's a lot of money to do this course and I don't want to waste it!

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  11. Re: Previous Comment

    The course isn't perfect but, as someone who considered themselves pretty knowledgeable about genealogy, I certainly learnt a lot and I would recommend it to others, provided you have the time (& money) to spend on it.

    I've just come to the end of the PG Dip and have decided to take a break, but a number of my fellow students who started the PG Cert with me are now going on to the MSc which is probably a good recommendation for the course.

    The main thing to decide is if the course suits you. I'd say read all the information on the Strathclyde website and then compare it with others courses such as the Dundee Genealogy course http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cais/certificate/ and the IHGS http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/

    You might also consider doing a shorter course such as through http://www.pharostutors.com/

    Good luck whatever you decide but if you want to do the Strathclyde course you may need to apply fairly soon as there are a limited number of places and these do get filled up.

    Kirsty

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  12. Thanks Kirsty. I've pretty well made up my mind and just wanted to air some thoughts. Thanks again for your comments.

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  13. I've signed up for this year's PG Cert and am looking forward to it very much. I considered the other options mentioned by Kirsty but I particularly wanted the Strathclyde course because it's been around longer, has a formal certificate and opportunities to carry on and, probably most important, my main interest is in Scottish genealogy anyway. I looked at Dundee and the modular structure was good if you just want to taste... and also considered IHGS which is on my doorstep and would've been good for face-to-face - but (for me) lacked the Scottish focus. Pharos I quite like for short, reasonably priced, specialist courses.

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