Talk:Postgraduate education

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In Australia and the UK, this term is normally not used. Postgraduate study is considered part of tertiary education." >> Then where is it used? Not frequently in the US, either.

I'm in the UK and i've never heard of this quaternary education. I've heard of post graduate edcuation tho, which I think the article's trying to get at (Barry m 02:26, 29 December 2005 (UTC))

In the UK, Postgraduate study IS quaternary education. Insofar that year 1-6 = primary education, 7-11= secondary education, 12-13 (college - known often as tertiary colleges), and undergraduate degree (also tertiary, although historically considered quaternary), and postgradute - quaternary. It's a logical, and common classification in the UK and I'm sure elsewhere, not in the public domain, but in literature, such as policy reports, etc. Helzagood 22:46, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I've been in higher education as undergraduate, graduate, and lecturer, since 1980, and I don't recall ever hearing or seeing graduate education described or referred to as quaternary (a word common in palaeology, however). The comments below indicate its frequency on Google. The claim that undergraduate degrees were "historically considered quaternary" is particularly odd.

In any case, in so far as this is all "not in the public domain", then it shouldn't be in Wikipedia. Before adding this claim to the article, reputable citations are needed. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:31, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Fine. I too have been in higher education for a similar amount of time, but I shall let it lie. I know what I have stated to be true, because I have seen and heard the term used countless times, but we shall leave the article as you wish it to be, because your knowledge is clearly superior. Helzagood 11:41, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

No, that's not what I said; it's worrying that you read what you want to read, and not what's there. The question concerns citations, as I've explained here and on your Talk page. If you want to add something, you should give a citation. If you don't then any editor is entitled to delete it if they have doubts about it. I've given reasons for my doubts, and now all you have to do is provide a citation. That's how Wikipedia works. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:11, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

The references provided to show that "quaternary" is used where one from a speech in which the term was not explained, and seemed to refer to a specific type of postgraduate education (though it wasn't clear), and a Swedish site, which doesn't help much with English-language usage. Together with the explanation and statistics in the following section, I don't see any ground for keeping this term in the article. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 08:48, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Is the purpose of Wikipedia to provide all relevant information? What use is an encylopaedia without all the facts?Helzagood 22:45, 6 April 2006 (UTC) Additionally, the article doesn't just refer to the English usage, it actually refered to (even prior to my editing) information about US, British and European Postgraduate study..

I'm not sure what the focus of this comment is. I'm engaged in building up the article, slowly, trying to make it both accurate and readable. There's no point in trying to give all the facts — no encyclopædia can do or tries to do that. Does the Britannica contain all the facts about anthropology, for example, that are contained in the five-volume SAGE specialist encyclopædia? Does it contain every fact relevant to anthropology? As has been discussed at Talk:Graduate school, and elsewhere, the number of different degrees available, the different and conbtradictory uses of the same degree names, etc., all make such an enterprise impossible (and largely pointless). --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 07:54, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal: move to Postgraduate education

Google search: "Quaternary education" -wikipedia --> 580 results (-wikipedia means excluding pages that have the word wikipedia in them, ie removing this site and its mirrors)

"postgraduate education" OR "post-graduate education" -wikipedia --> over a million.

Anyone seriously object to this move? pfctdayelise 10:40, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Due to overwhelming feedback, I've just made this move, and fixed all the double RDRs. pfctdayelise 04:01, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

This article should really be merged with Graduate school. Exploding Boy 04:33, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

"Gradute school" is a largely North Amrican notion, and is inappropriate for most other countries' systems. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:58, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

In the US, the term "postgraduate" can be confusing because of a second possible interpretation - it could refer to studies undertaken after graduate school, such as a post-doc. Overwhelmingly, what is called "postgraduate" education in the UK is known as "graduate" education in the US. {Bubbha 02:41, 29 October 2006 (UTC)}