MSc - completed!

Back in November 2020 I started studying for an MSc.

And, yesterday, I got this...

All done!

I've got to say, it has been... an experience. I've relentlessly blogged about the process. The academic content was pretty good, but the administration by QA.com was nothing short of atrocious.

Missed deadlines, unhelpful staff, incompetent tutors, and admin staff who clearly didn't care about the student experience.

Here's an excellent example of the failure of student experience. After arguing (successfully) that they had to stick to their promised timescales for performing my End Point Assessment, I waited to find out if I had passed. I waited. And waited.

Then, one morning, I got an email from the university careers service letting me know I was eligible for their graduation services! That's how I found out that I had passed.

A few days later, QA sent my my apprenticeship completion certificate. Where they had got the name of my course wrong!

Bah!

I am so glad to be done with QA. I'm trying not to be bitter, but it seemed like they went out of their way to make the educational experience as stressful and annoying as possible.

But, now I'm done, I'm not going to dwell on them any further.

I was aiming to pass the MSc and am chuffed to bits that I got a distinction. I couldn't have managed that without the support of my loving wife. I'm also grateful to my employers - Cabinet Office. They funded this MSc, and gave me the time and space to study.

In the next few weeks, I'll publish my dissertation. It's a thrilling tale of what happens when you stick Civil Servants in the Metaverse and ask them to interact with giant datasets. Well, I found it interesting!

Right, time for a celebratory pint or two.