Postgraduate Study Without a Degree?

If you’re thinking about taking your career to the next level with postgraduate study, but haven’t completed a Bachelor degree, all is not lost. You still have the opportunity to earn a Masters if you meet the appropriate entry requirements. And with the added benefit of studying online, you can apply what you learn to your workplace – immediately.

Most of us would assume that to get into a postgraduate course, you would have had to complete an undergraduate. Although this is usually a prerequisite, there are other ways to earn that Masters qualification you’ve been dreaming about. Postgraduate study gives you the chance to take your career to new heights, to really boost your earning potential and develop the knowledge and skills to grow professionally within a chosen industry. Tertiary institutions like Southern Cross University Online offer complete Masters courses online, in a range of disciplines. These courses have requirements that not only consider previous study but relevant work experience too. Here’s how to get your Masters without a previous undergraduate degree.

The experience you gain in the workplace is golden. You can use this professional experience to do an online postgraduate study without having completed a Bachelor degree. If you have relevant work experience of five years, you could be eligible to complete postgraduate study without an undergraduate degree. Other suitable requirements would be having a qualification that is deemed to be equivalent to a Bachelor degree, as well as extensive experience in another field. For example, if you’ve had seven and more years of work experience, you could receive credit or ‘Advanced Standing’ towards achieving a qualification.

If you’ve been thinking about using a Bachelor degree as a pathway into your Master’s degree, it’s important to also consider the value of a Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma. Both a Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma are higher levels of study than that of a Bachelor degree. The Australian Qualification Framework places Bachelor degrees at Level 7, while Graduate Certificates or Graduate Diplomas are Level 8. They also take less time to complete. So for a Certificate, you’ll do four units of study and for a Diploma, you’ll do eight – all of which can be nested in a Masters course

If you do in fact have an undergraduate degree, but not in the field you are currently working in, you can still pursue postgraduate study. For instance, you could enrol into a Master of Business Administration or a Graduate Diploma in Accounting without the equivalent undergraduate business or accounting degree. Your work experience can act as transferable knowledge and can be equivalent to that gained in a similar Bachelor degree. You could, for instance, use some of the skills and knowledge learnt in a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Applied Science in your application for an MBA.

It’s also encouraged that you build on transferrable skills in order to further your career potential. Enrolling in a postgraduate course is a great way to do this, but it does depend on your level of workplace experience and the discipline of any undergraduate study.

If you are considering doing a Masters degree, online study is a great option. Not only are these types of online courses flexible and convenient, but they also provide you with the same skills you would learn on-campus – in an environment that works for you. Whether you’re at home, at the local library or in your office, the online learning environment or ‘virtual classroom’ can be accessed wherever you are, at any time. The entry requirements consider your level of relevant work experience as well as any previous study, meaning you don’t necessarily need to have a Bachelor degree to complete your Masters of choice.

Find out more about studying a postgraduate course online with Southern Cross University Online.