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Weekend Reading: Who can actually afford a Master’s – and what can we all do about it?

  • 19 October 2024
  • By Ewan Fairweather

This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Ewan Fairweather, Postgraduate Student Recruitment Manager at The University of Edinburgh.

As we welcome our 2024-25 cohort of Master’s students and open applications for those looking to start in autumn 2025, one thing is patently clear: studying for a Master’s in the UK is expensive. For many, it has already become prohibitively so. And while typically the costs for overseas students are the ones to hit the headlines, it is also vitally important to put the affordability of Master’s study for UK Postgraduate Taught (UKPGT) students under the microscope. 

Post-pandemic erosion of domestic enrolments

Across the sector we have seen considerable growth in PGT enrolments over the past decade, driven in no small part by the introduction of UK Master’s loans and further bolstered by a post-Covid surge in domestic enrolments. 

But a more recent UKPGT downturn has led to much soul-searching across the sector, leading many to ask fundamental questions about the purpose, benefits and value of postgraduate education.  And beyond these questions, how do we deliver it to best meet student needs but within the familiar institutional constraints of capacity and resource? How do we price it? And consequently, who wants to ‘buy’ it, how can they pay and will they be able to afford it? 

The preserve of those with the deepest pockets? 

At Edinburgh, we’ve carried out an analysis of the UK Postgraduate Taught (UKPGT) market to help us identify what may be behind this stagnation and understand potential levers of future growth. PGT Home students are important to us, particularly from the point of view of the diversity of our intake which, as articulated in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, 2023 helps provide a high-quality student experience for all.

Data gathered by FindAUniversity in their longitudinal Pulse survey shows that while interest in Master’s study among a domestic audience remains high, these prospective Master’s students are becoming increasingly concerned about the cost of study. These findings chime with us at Edinburgh. Our internal measurements and student surveys show that the underlying domestic interest in Master’s study is healthy, but prospective domestic students are crunching the numbers and increasingly finding that affordability is a real obstacle to applying and enrolling. 

Introducing some new scholarships and freezing our fees in recent years has certainly helped us maintain healthier UKPGT numbers. But are we just papering over the cracks? Will future cohorts at Edinburgh or elsewhere be willing to pay? More to the point, will they be able to pay? 

Calculating affordability

Which brings us to the key questions: how do UKPGT students believe they will be able to afford a Master’s? And how do they actually pay for one? Yes, more could be done overall to address UKPGT student finance and particularly funding in relation to fees, but that cannot be fixed overnight, or by a single institution. I will respectfully leave it to the experts more equipped than I to comment on that.

Let’s focus on what we can control locally; the information we publish for prospective students. There is much work to be done to help prospective students navigate the complexities of PG funding so they can make informed and timely decisions about the affordability of Master’s study.  

Most of our Master’s students at Edinburgh take out a government funding agency loan to help fund their studies. However, some, familiar with the loan funding arrangements at undergraduate level, are surprised to learn that government funding agency loans across the four UK nations (with their widely different eligibility criteria) typically do not cover our tuition fees. Never mind the not insubstantial living costs. Sometimes they discover this on the threshold of enrolment – and that’s a problem.

‘Controlling the controllables’

The truth is out there, it is simply obscured by layers of complexity. And typically that is because things are complicated. But we can and must do better, to make things clearer for prospective students. At Edinburgh, we are going to take decisive action to communicate transparently, internally and externally, about the true state of postgraduate funding and the financial realities for those intrepid individuals determined to pursue a Master’s degree.

We will up our game by delivering clear, practical, and honest information regarding costs, affordability, and available funding options. This will be done with a balance of compassion, authority, and empathy.

We will be more candid about postgraduate scholarships, acknowledging that while they exist and definitely help, competition for these is intense, availability is limited and even those who are successful in securing a scholarship will often find that scholarships will not cover the full extent of tuition fees, never mind living costs.

Our aim is to demonstrate a genuine understanding of the financial challenges and sacrifices prospective postgraduates face. By offering them the accurate and comprehensive information they deserve, we empower them to make well-informed decisions about their academic and professional futures. What’s more, laying out the facts clearly, demonstrating integrity and being sincere about the costs, affordability and benefits of a Master’s education can also be good for business, if the conversations I have had with prospective students are anything to go by.

But as a first step, and in response to the pleas of Wonkhe’s Jim Dickinson to better communicate the financial realities of affording student life, we simply need to start telling the truth better. It is the least we can all do.

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1 comment

  1. Ros Lucas says:

    Students already with high debts will surely think twice about doing a Masters – they can no longer stay on ir move to another provider without financial support.
    When Oxbridge students are ‘given’ their MA without spending further time studying, is it time for other Universities to do the same?

    The why, what for and the benefits, then need to be considered.
    Completing an MA in Education was enjoyable but did nothing to benefit me financially after paying my fees and being told there was no support or time given so did it after school, evenings and weekends…

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