Postgraduate Courses in German
The World-Cup year 2006 has given Germany an extraordinarily high visibility internationally, and for all the right reasons: not only is Germany the economic powerhouse of the EU, but its cities have now been shown to be exciting, vibrant places, its people friendly and welcoming, and its culture the ultimate in cool. If you already have an undergraduate degree in German these things will not be news to you but it may make you wish to deepen your knowledge of this culture which has been so much in the spotlight by studying a postgraduate course in German. This will give you further insight into a country which is the world’s largest exporter, and into a language which is the second most commonly used scientific language, a major internet language, as well as the language of. Mozart, Marx, Freud and Einstein. You may wish to speacialise your postgraduate course in German in rich literary and film culture of German-speaking Europe, or the history and politics of those countries. Or you may want to raise your linguistic skills to an even higher level. Needless to say, in studying a postgraduate course in German, you will also increase your employability, whether you are contemplating an academic career, a career in teaching, or a career in business, publishing or finance.
The normal entry requirement for an MA in German is a 2i BA degree in German (Single or Joint Honours). MAs are normally one-year taught courses which range from vocational to academic, while the pursuit of a PhD takes three years and requires a high degree of independent study. An example of a vocational MA is the the MA in Translation with Language Techology here at Swansea. This scheme teaches students how to do translation to professional standards with optimal use of computational support tools and produces graduates who are highly employable. Less practical and more geared towards German culture are for example our MAs in literary translation and in German Studies, where postgraduates can engage in debate with tutors about their cutting edge research on, for example, contemporary German women writers such as Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, the modern German novel from Goethe via Kafka to Grass, post-unification writing, or Turkish-German writing. Such studies lead frequently to a PhD, where students work closely with staff to produce an original piece of research at a very high level, some of which are published and qualify the author to apply for work in university teaching.
With increasing demand in industry and commerce for employees with a high level of fluency in one or more foreign languages, career prospects for modern linguists are extremely good indeed. German graduates have one of the lowest unemployment rates of any subject, and a postgraduate qualification can only enhance your employablity. Recent Swansea graduates have, for example, taken up a variety of job offers from SAP AG, Fidelity Investment Ltd., Price Waterhouse Coopers, Clerical Medical Investment Group Ltd., National Assembly for Wales, Reuters, Deutsche Telekom, and KPMG.
Even if you don’t choose to use your linguistic skills in employment, studying a postgraduate course in German is enormous fun, it deepens your awareness of a fantastically interesting culture and enables to you feel at home in large parts of Europe. Don't delay, apply now for your postgraduate course in German and increase your career prospects.
Brigid Haines
Head of German
University of Wales Swansea
http://www.swan.ac.uk/languages/
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