The current study sought to understand the professional goals of female students' doing a master's degree in ELT. In particular, this study aimed at exploring female students' initial expectations in the implemented ELT programme at SQU in terms of the courses' content and materials as well as their pedagogical design and implementation, and whether these expectations have been met. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female students, including four females who completed 24 credits of the coursework which is the total number of required credits in the M.Ed. ELT programme at SQU and currently working on their thesis as well as two females who graduated from the same programme. A descriptive phenomenology approach was adopted, and a thematic analysis was utilized to analyse the data obtained from semi-structured interviews. The findings suggested that all participants were highly critical of the programme as being outdated, theory-based and lacking the practical component. They came with high expectations that the syllabus would help them to overcome the contemporary challenges of ELT in Oman and expose them to the current practices in the field. Moreover, all participants were critical of the design and availability of the materials. They indicated that some materials were outdated, focused on theoretical aspects, lacked practical aspects, and encouraged rote learning. They further indicated that some courses lacked authentic materials. They additionally reported that these materials were inadequate to prepare them as researchers. Furthermore, the findings revealed that some participants seemed satisfied with formative assessment, while others were highly critical of the summative assessment adopted in some courses and which mainly focused on rote memorization. Besides, all participants believed that instructors were experts, competent, knowledgeable, and dedicated but there were complaints about their feedback and their teaching styles. It was found that lecturing was the dominant teaching method in the programme and many of the participants also reported a lack of technology use. Moreover, results indicated that instructors' feedback about students' performance was almost completely overlooked in the courses. Based on the findings, practical implications and suggestions for future improvement have been outlined