COULD YOU AFFORD £9,000 PAYABLE UP FRONT – WITH NO LOAN SUPPORT?
Is postgraduate study about to become closed off to all but the wealthiest students?
Academic experts have now warned that those hoping to sign up for postgraduate study will be next to suffer from government cuts. Slashed budgets in this area are inevitable and could be just as brutal as those to undergraduate degrees – as students are asked to stump up £9,000 for their studies. Payable in advance. Without any loan support.
That’s right – Paul Marshall, executive director at the 1994 Group of smaller research-intensive universities warned it was only a matter of time before universities are forced to break the bad news to their students, as £100m of existing government funding looks set to be erased overnight:
“Postgraduate students have so far been missing from the funding debate. While undergraduate students will be able to pay for tuition out of subsidised loans and a host of support measures, no such mechanisms are in place for those looking to study at a more advanced level.
“However, postgraduate courses are not going to be spared the impact of cuts to the teaching grant. Put bluntly, course funds are going to be chopped without any support for students whose contributions will have to replace them.”
Graduate Fog knows that in the past couple of years, postgraduate study has become an increasingly appealing option for those finishing their first degree.
Hearing horror stories about the dire state of the graduate job market, many graduates have been opting to delay joining the world of work by signing up for postgraduate courses. Some also hope that an extra qualification will shorten the length of time they’ll need to do unpaid internships.
As regular readers will know, I’ve always warned graduates to think carefully before signing up for postgraduate courses as having more qualifications won’t necessarily boost your chances of landing a better – or better paid – job when you join the world of work. Frankly, I think many postgraduate courses are a complete con – outright theft, in fact.
Going even further, I believe that many academic institutions are aware of this, but continue peddling these courses regardless, because they are an easy ‘sell’. (Yes, media postgrad-flogging institutions, I AM talking to you).
However, I admit that some postgraduate courses ARE useful – and the idea that they are about to be tugged out of reach from everyone but the wealthiest students is deeply worrying.
Taken in conjunction with unpaid internships, are we heading towards a world where poorer students are charged the same as wealthy ones for their undergraduate degrees – but only the wealthiest students can afford to do what’s necessary to actually get a graduate job?
Hi Tanya,
What can I say apart from WOW. It seems education whether we like it or not is changing. What about those who complete their masters alongside work. Will they have to pay upfront?
Aside from Media students having difficulty with getting a job and being pushed to complete postgraduate courses, the situation is equally bad for law students.
In order to become a Solicitor it is necessary to complete the LPC which at currently stands at £12,000 (in london) and is by majority run by private institutions. With this rising to £15,000 (in london) for Barrister training. These courses are necessary in order to work within law and many take out huge loans in order to pay for them. A friend of mine recently took out a loan for £20,000 in order to pay for the training and living costs in london. It seems that universities maybe following this model and charging similar prices for postgraduate courses.
Also I just wanted to say that I love your site. Its the most honest and refreshing take on graduates getting into work that I’ve seen online. Please continue with your plight against unpaid internship. We graduates need you.
@law graduate
Thanks for your kind words about Graduate Fog! If you like what you’ve seen, please help the site by spreading the word. As I don’t pay myself (!) I certainly don’t have the cash for a fancy digital marketing firm!
It’s terrifying to hear how expensive it is to start a career in Law nowadays. Those certainly seem like enormous costs to be saddled with. How do you think young people will cope with it in the coming years? It seems like a huge gamble to take… Or will it become the case that we are heading back to a world where only rich kids have access to this career path?
It seems like law and legal training will go back to being purely for the rich, which is a shame. Its certainly not why I studied law and after graduating the shock of realising this hasn’t come easy. In terms of legal training I really think the institutions should be stopped from taking on students who dont have a realistic chance of becoming solicitors or Barristers. Being private institutions they are clearly money hungry and if you have the money will happily take it and not help you get a job at the end.
I’m not sure if the same can be said for postgraduate courses. I’m just confused as to what the average student can do. For many (including myself) I aim to use my masters ( and the professional accreditation that comes with it) to give me an advantage in this competitive market.
I think it just shows how uncertain education and the job market is at the moment. Do you think more people will shop abroad for post graduate qualifications?
I think the case of law is pretty shocking. The ratio of BPTC to pupillage slots is very low, especially considering how expensive it is, I think somewhere around 3 to 1. Whilst I do think people wanting to be barristers should be smart enough to know the odds they are facing, it does feel like given that the supply of pupillage places is so inelastic and relies upon a handful of employers administered by a single body it’d make sense to stop wasting people’s time and use BPTC entry to limit intake, i.e., by capping places. I know people who did the BVC and went on to find excellent non-barrister jobs having failed to get pupillage, but I think they’d rather have not paid £8000+ when there were cheaper alternatives available.
I think the same applies to accountancy, in some respects, where a huge intake is absorbed with the expectation of a high failure rate. It’d seem fairer and more efficient to reduce intake, raise standards and offer more support to pass exams (I’ve been told by several people that you get the bare minimum).
Having said that, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who choose to take unhelpful postgrad courses and plead ignorance, I think to consider it “theft” on the part of universities is ridiculous. If you’ve made it through a degree, presumably you should have the intelligence to understand that universities profit from the courses and so will be quite enthusiastic to have people take them. It’s pretty naive to still think, under the current system, that universities serve as disinterested parties. Why do people think they advertise them, as a public awareness service? Its up to the individual to find out from the perspective of employers (not the people selling the course) whether it’ll actually be useful/a requirement for continuing that is worthy of the price. I can perhaps accept this excuse going into an undergraduate degree as the concept is pushed heavily, but not for postgrads. If people do this intelligently, demand will go down, and universities will redirect energy towards courses that employers view to be valuable.
Isn’t this exactly the wrong thing to do if this list from April still has any validity at all? http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/workingintheuk/shortageoccupationlist.pdf
Notice how many of these shortage occupations require advanced training. Will they be exempt, or will it be even harder for the NHS to find medical staff, and for the tech industries to find engineers and so on? Not all jobs are open to BSc.
Not only is this unfair, I think it is extremely shortsighted.
I have mixed feelings abotut this. I think if £9000 up front fees puts someone off from throwing away money at a useless qualification then thats a good thing. I came very close to panicking into a masters when it was just £5000 with the possibility of a loan.
However its a shame for the law and accountancy courses.
I think we really need some honest and up front discussion about the value of postgraduate education. Everyone seems to talk about how great they are, even if they don’t lead to paid work. When I was questioning whether or not I should do a masters I almost felt like it was a huge taboo to suggest that it could be nothing more than a waste of money.
My aspiration is to do a PhD in philosophy. I dont want to do this because of how much I’ll earn, but because I passionately want to write a thesis in my area of specialisation, and I feel I want to make a personal achievement that will contribute to academic scholarship.
Apparently when I tell people this, I look like an alien, like I’m admitting of something inconceivable! After finishing my MA, on the week of the dissertation submission, Lehman brothers crashed. I couldn’t get into a PhD, and now I’m not even sure if I want to. The philosophy job market in academia is impossible, and PhD places have gone so competitive I’ll have to self fund.
So now I have to consider getting a job to even get close to self-fund. Now that course fees are going up for postgrads, as well as the poor academic job market, its suffocating, and impossible.
In short, ugh, my life sucks. I should say that postgraduate qualifications aren’t always about job prospects, if anything, I agree that they won’t necessarily help. In fact, I’m perceived as overqualified in many applications, which means I’m turned down a lot of posts I can do.
Thanks for bringing this issue up. Your blog goes where no recruitment site wants to go. The uncomfortable truth.
Regards
Michael
I am currently an undergraduate at the University of York, already amassing a large student debt. From September, I have a place on the prestigious MMus Composition course at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The fees are £9500 a year, and it is a two-year course. If you factor in living costs in London, the minimum I will have to find over the two years is £40000. How do they expect one to find that sort of money?
John
Hardly shocking news. The last raise from 1k to 4k for undergraduates saw masters fees raise from 1k to 4k. So the current rise will see the fees raise once again. With fees at 4k the cost of a postgraduate course is out of reach for most students. Even outside of London you are looking at a minimum cost of 8k when including accommodation and living costs.