Why I did an MA and should You?!

So recently and during the time I was undertaking my MA, I've had a lot of people ask me, friends of friends, family friends, colleagues, recruitment agents etc. why exactly it was I undertook my MA and would I recommend it and in short the answer is because I wanted to and YES because in my eyes you can never stop improving yourself through education.

My MA seems more like a distant memory now than something that I lived, breathed and had many nervous breakdowns over and minus all the wishing it was over with already and the too often statements of "I can't wait to not have to do this ever again!" I honestly miss it pretty much every week, especially when it comes around to Wednesday, as that used to be one of the two days I could actually immerse myself in everything fashion, creative and MA relevant instead of balancing it with my work and social life!

But anyway, regarding my MA and why I did it, I undertook a one year, full-time Masters post-graduate course in Fashion and Textile Practices at the University of Huddersfield, where I also studied and completed my BA Hons Sandwich Degree in Fashion Design with Marketing and Production, starting in September 2017, the academic year straight after I graduated from my undergrad degree.

UOH wasn't the only place I applied to study my MA, I also applied to De Montfort in Leicester, as it was around the same commuting distance/time as Huddersfield was for me from my home in Nottingham, where I moved back to due to financial reasons after finishing my final year of my BA, and got an unconditional offer, however, after looking around the campus at De Montfort, it just didn't feel like home, like Huddersfield did and I decided to stick to what I knew!

But before I decided where I was going to go to study my Ma, the reason why I decided to continue to further my studies and do a Master's was down to a few factors.....

One, being the typical student response in that I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do in terms of my career after finishing my BA, yes I knew I wanted to go into the fashion industry and yes, I had undertaken a placement year between my second and third year to try and narrow this down but I was still unsure. I could have gone straight out into the industry and got a design job, after months and months of applying, (which I'm finding out now) and many of my Uni friends did, but I just wasn't ready I don't think!

Two, I'd always known that I eventually wanted to go into teaching, even from a very young age, to the point where when I had to write my personal statement to apply for university, despite going around all my university choices looking at fashion courses, I wrote two personal statements, one for Primary Ed and one for Fashion...it's safe to say I made the right choice and I knew this within the first fashion lecture I had at UOH in first year, but maybe I'd be in a better job now if I had stuck to Primary ED! Anyway, during my placement year I decided when I settled down and had a family, and didn't want to travel anymore (unlikely I know!,  I wanted to be a part time designer for a company, and a part time lecturer, alike a lot of my final year tutors were and now a days to be a lecturer you have to have at least an MA, so it was sort of a no brainer to me!

Three, I didn't feel like I'd finished giving everything I could in terms of creativity within my final major project of my final year and therefore wanted to continue to question key matters within the fashion industry before I tied myself down to a company where I basically had to do everything they stated I needed to in terms of design! After all, when it comes to design degrees, university is the only place where you can truly be your one true, designer self, with no one to answer to and the world as your oyster in terms of creativity and boundaries you can stretch.

So they were my reasons as to why I stayed on and continued my studies and to be honest, I think a lot of people who tend to stay on to undertake post grad degrees have at least one of the same reasons as the three I've stated above.

In terms of what an MA includes, it literally can be ANYTHING, regarding the subject field you're studying. For my MA, which I'm going to touch on more within another blogpost in a few weeks time, I looked into the sizing issues which lie heavily within the fashion industry and how if you were below or above "average" size in regards to underwear and the underwear as outerwear trend, then you weren't catered for, which ultimately lead me to designing and creating my own underwear as outerwear collection which ranged from a size 6- 26 clothing size and a 32AA to a 38G bra cup size, along with a lot of research, sampling and analysis to back it all up!

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Final Design Work - Copyright Protected

Regarding whether or not I would recommend under taking an MA, I think it's different for every individual and if you feel like you've had enough of education by the time it comes to the end of the three/fours years of your BA, but for me and my industry, I couldn't recommend it enough and it stands you in good stead for your career after university life in terms of how to approach solo projects and time management. Plus in a world where more a more people have BA degrees, it highlights your dedication to your industry further by going that one step further and gaining an MA degree.

Thanks for reading once again and I hope this helps some of the many people who have asked me about my MA degree and if it's all worth it!

Jess xo