Education Market Research: Students Skeptical About Postgraduate Study

Education Market Research: Students Skeptical About Postgraduate Study: An education market research survey of more than 1,100 UK students has found that undergraduate students in particular are skeptical of postgraduate study. The findings suggest that only just over a third (35%) of respondents in their second, third or fourth year at university studying for an undergraduate degree, said that they agreed that obtaining a postgraduate degree would give them good value for money. The survey considered the views of 779 undergraduate students, 225 masters students and 51 PhD students. One respondent described studying at postgraduate level as an ‘unaffordable luxury’.

Students Skeptical About Postgraduate Study

Students Skeptical About Postgraduate Study

The figures for undergraduates are particularly low when compared to three in five (59%) Masters students and over three quarters (77%) of PhD students who felt their further study had been worth the additional cost. However, despite not feeling it was worth the money, the research suggested that 57% of undergraduates feel that postgraduate study would improve their job prospects. Indeed, one graduate stated that:

“Postgraduate degrees are very beneficial and worth the cost. However I do think the cost should be lowered to enable more people to have the opportunity to do it.”

Other figures have shown that there was a six per cent drop in the number of postgraduate students in 2011-12. In addition, research has also suggested that those with Masters and PhD qualifications have higher salary expectations – with 18 and 41 per cent respectively feeling that they would earn a starting salary of £31,000 or above. To add perspective, this figure was only one in twenty (5%) among bachelor’s degree students – and 70% of undergraduates expected to be on a wage of less than £22,000.

Rachel Wenstone, the vice-President of the NUS, felt that currently post-graduate study was confined to those who were rich, fortunate or willing to gamble:

“It is often only the very rich, the very lucky or those who are willing to gamble with high levels of debt that have access to master’s level education.

The value of postgraduate qualifications to individuals is clear in an increasingly competitive jobs market and there are wider economic benefits in terms of skills uplift in the economy and reductions in unemployment.”

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