Four reasons for postgraduate study in 2024

Four reasons you should be in postgraduate education by 2024

Is postgraduate study on your ‘one-day’ list, but you’re not sure when the best time might be to jump in and get started?

Postgraduate education can work for you whether you’re just finishing undergrad studies or are well-established in a career.

We’re here to encourage you to consider postgraduate study sooner rather than later. To move it from your ‘one-day’ list to being underway by 2024. Why? There are four great reasons and we reckon at least one will ring true for you.

Ready?

1. Change your career

Postgraduate study is a good career move when you’re wanting to … well … move careers!

With the experience of study as an undergraduate (or relevant work experience) behind you, fast-tracking a career change is a real possibility via postgraduate study.

Perhaps you want to move into a new field that aligns with your values, or one that will bring the salary you deserve. Or you might be looking for a new career that fits ideally with the rest of your life (perhaps through the parenting years or working less as you age).

With postgraduate study, you won’t be starting at square one in a class full of fresh-faced high-school graduates (though we love them too!). Instead, you’ll be learning at a level and pace that suits someone with maturity and a clear-eyed view of their future.

And, as you’ll be learning from high-quality lecturers and mentors who are also experts in their field, you’re getting the best of in-classroom knowledge and real-life application.

2. Up your skills

If you’ve found your happy place within your career and have no interest in changing fields, postgraduate study can be an assured and focused way to upskill.

There are many specific reasons to upskill within your current profession, but, in essence, they boil down to two categories:

• Internal: Excel in your field. Postgraduate study is an ideal way to keep up to date with new developments and learn new approaches or theories. Focused study helps you understand both current research and future directions within your chosen field. And, perhaps best of all, it helps you deepen your knowledge so you become a more critical thinker and practitioner.

• External: Get that promotion. Perhaps you want to move into a more senior version of the role you’re doing now or into a managerial role instead of being at the coalface. Either way, even signing up for postgraduate study is a clear indication to your employer that you’re serious about your future. And completing one puts you in a solid position to move up the workplace ladder.

3. Increase your pay

Australians tend to be a bit shy when it comes to discussing our income, including a desire to increase our take-home pay. Yet, at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), this is a topic we’re happy to talk about loudly and clearly!

That’s because we can let the facts stand for themselves. The 2024 Good Universities Guide (which awarded us 5-stars for overall educational experience – and yes, that’s out of 5!) includes the following median figures:

As you can see from the table, the average salaries of postgraduates in the same field earned between $17,000 and nearly $50,000 extra per year compared with their undergraduate colleagues.

That’s money worth talking about. And planning for.

4. Expand your networks

When it comes to work, there’s what you know and then there’s who you know.

We don’t believe the latter should trump the former (after all, you need to be qualified and capable within any role you take on). But we also know that networking in your field is a powerful way of building professional relationships, understanding your industry and opening up possibilities for growth and opportunity.

By studying at a postgraduate level, you’ll be networking in two directions. You’ll be taught by highly-qualified and leading academics and professionals. And you’ll be connecting with peers, who will be future colleagues and collaborators out there alongside you in your chosen field.

How about some details?

Of those four reasons for considering postgraduate study by 2024, which one (or maybe two or three) hit home for you? Are you looking to change careers or excel in the one you have now?

At UniSQ, we offer postgraduate study at all levels (from postgraduate certificates to Masters and PhDs) in the fields of:

• Business & Management
  • Including the option of a 12-month MBA
• Education & Teaching
  • Including early childhood and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
• Engineering
  • Including all aspects from environmental to electrical engineering
• Information & Communications Technology
  • Including cyber security and data science
• Law & Criminology
  • Including the option of a 2-year Juris Doctor
• Media & Communications
  • Including Australia’s only online Master of Editing and Publishing
• Nursing & Allied Health
  • Including public health, mental health and sports science
• Psychology & Human Service
  • Including counselling and clinical fields
• Sciences
  • With specialisations as broad as agriculture and astrophysics
• Surveying & Built Environment
  • Including geographic information systems
• Higher degrees by research
  • Including our flagship fields of agriculture, space, health and regional development.

We’ve got three beautiful campuses:

• Toowoomba – just 90 minutes west of Brisbane, our OG (original) campus with all the facilities you’ll need.
• Springfield – 35 minutes from Brisbane and 50 minutes from the Gold Coast, our digital hub, including a flight-simulator and state-of-the-art engineering hub.
• Ipswich – 45 minutes from Brisbane, our heritage-style campus with a focus on health and law.

But it’s okay if you never step a single foot on the grounds. You see, over 85 per cent of our postgraduate students study online, and at UniSQ, we’ve been doing distance-style learning not just since 2020 but for over 40 years.

Where to now?

It’s time for a ‘choose your own adventure’ for your next step in exploring your postgraduate study options:

a. Concerned about time, cost or other barriers? Read our overview of potential barriers to postgraduate study, including potential solutions.

b. Keen to hear what postgraduate study is really like? Read our real-life insights into the look and feel of postgraduate study at UniSQ.

c. Need some career planning advice? Book a one-on-one session with a qualified UniSQ Career Practitioner via your choice of in-person, phone, video, live chat or email.

d. Ready to roll? Jump onto our postgraduate study website, where you can search for specific courses, find out about fees and scholarships, ask a question, or get right to the heart of the matter by applying now!