Cost of masters degrees increasing?

[fortyfifty]

Has anyone else noticed? London University masters degrees are already out of reach cost-wise for DD1. She had her eye on two local universities, not top tier, for masters degrees and they have put their fees up by £2000 and £3000 from the 2024 start date to the 2025 start date.

For those interested in post grad law people may be able to find a law firm to sponsor that year paying fees and allowance, but there is a lot of competition for that. The masters student loan is about £12k I think in terms of the amount available to all English home students for a masters of any kind.

Given the financial pressures that universities are facing, plus home undergrad tuition fees being set, and only marginally changed over a decade, it’s unfortunately not that surprising. Though whether the home demand and / or affordability to pay more for a masters is there will be interesting to see.

was doing a masters at her undergrad degree Uni an option for your DD. Certainly for one of my DC their undergrad Uni offered a hefty discount for those with a 1st staying on for a masters. Granted I don’t know how widespread that approach is, or indeed if they still currently offer it.

Some unis offer percentage discounts for undergraduates if they study at same institution.
Does she need a masters to progress now or is it something that could be employer funded down the line?

My ds is doing a Masters and gets a 10% discount. It's still pretty eye watering though!

My DD did a Masters at a world-famous (in her field) specialist part of London university.

The Masters loan covered the tuition fees with a tiny amount left over. She funded living expenses through that, work before and after (not during, the course was too intense for that), savings from work during her undergrad course and begging from her parents! 😀

She muddled through, just about.

Agree about masters costs.

Masters in 2025 is plan Z for my DD (if she can't get a job in her field). Quite a range in fees for courses that look similar. How have others been assessing value for money? Its difficult to see specific employment outcomes for particular courses.

I'm assuming they are now using the masters degrees fees to bring in more money. Postgraduate fees all sat around the same cost for years and now they differ hugely across universities. I wonder how many remain under the postgraduate loan amount.

Her current University is far away so she's not keen to stay there another year

She'd hoped to avoid taking out the postgraduate loan. Am I right that you have to pay back the postgrad loan concurrently with the undergrad loan, two repayments at once? She's had a paid placement year and saved as much as she's been able to but she was paying rent in a very expensive city. She'll have next summer to earn a bit more.

She will be applying for jobs first and foremost hoping to get a job with an employer who will fund a masters. She probably does need a masters as she's studying a biosciences degree and wanting to work in a specific field and most likely competing with plenty of international students who will have a masters and more.

How have others been assessing value for money? Its difficult to see specific employment outcomes for particular courses

We haven't. It's purely an expensive holding stage while he works out what he wants to do and the employment situation (both for graduate and other roles) hopefully improves. I can't say I think it's the best idea, but I also did a Masters to fill in a year (and I'd already done a four year degree as well). The difference was I managed to get finance for mine, a pipe dream now, and didn't have to pay fees.

Hey ho.

It might be worth looking for a funded phd if that would be useful in the long run...

Don't you need to already have a Master's to be eligible to apply for this sort of course / position?

STEM degrees increasingly have integrated masters either at undergrad or at PhD level.

You can borrow £12,471 for 24/25, but there is no separate maintenance loan element. You fo need to repay it alongside your undergrad loan. Unfortunately universities like UCL, KCL, Oxford & Cambridge charge far more for a taught masters than the loan available. It does make a 4 year integrated masters seem more attractive, but they are usually only available for STEM.

International students have subsidised universities and particularly PG for years. Now the government has cut off that supply of funding. Quality is going down and fees are going up over the new few years unless new government makes a change.

I did mention that to her but her current preference is to get on with working life and get a grad job as soon as possible. But she should be more enlightened on possible routes by her current university's faculty and careers service when she is back for final year.

If a student has an EU passport, they can still do very cheap masters degrees in Europe. I looked at the equivalent for DD in Netherlands and the cost is below 3000 euros for EU students. For others it was around 11000 euros. (Not that she wants to study abroad but if she had EU status, at that price, might have been persuaded!)

I don't doubt DD will find her way and we will help her where we can.

DD who I mentioned in previous post has/had a similar profile @fortyfifty, did biomed for first degree then moved universities for her Masters as she also had a specific field of study in mind, plus she wanted the experience of studying at a different place and had done well enough to have her pick of options.

Where she studied for her Masters is at least on a par with those universities mentioned by @Dearover for her field of study and the Masters loan covered the fees (this was only 2 years ago). That said, I don't know any of her cohort who didn't take out a loan for tuition fees, I'm sorry to say.

No EU passport for us either (wish my mum had claimed her Irish passport). Mine is keen to get into work. Doing a 4 year degree and a placement year on top so will be 23 when she graduates next summer.

Keen to work in civil service but aware of chances very low (for her speciality around 2.5% success rate). She'll cast her net wider but trying to work out whether doing a masters and reapplying or just taking any job and reapplying makes better sense (or even giving up on current degree area if not successful next year and doing a conversion masters in a health field where there are lots of jobs).

Would be interested in hearing others experiences with civil service (not just fast sream) particularly those who didn't get in immediately after undergraduate degree (as realistically that is the likely outcome).

DD is doing an expensive masters at a Uni who specialise in her humanities field. She could have stayed where she was, with a 20% (!), reduction in fees but had had enough of that town, and wanted a different environment.

The only way she can afford it is with savings, some inheritance, the loan, and we will continue to sub living expenses. It's a stretch for us, as retired now, but goodness knows how others less fortunate fund it.

My eldest is considering a masters as a back up plan if he doesn’t get a grad job - although many in the field he’s interested in do go down the masters route to specialise.

His current uni doesn’t have a suitable masters (they’d give him 20% discount) but our local uni, which is also a good one, does a masters he’s interested in so he may well move back home to do it - the funding is less than the course cost so it wouldn’t be a bad thing. But let’s see what happens!

"That said, I don't know any of her cohort who didn't take out a loan for tuition fees, I'm sorry to say"

Yes, of course, I realise that. This post is more about the goal posts moving rapidly.

@fortyfifty

Is Birkbeck an option for her, OP?

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate

Integrated Master’s degree courses are much cheaper than standalone courses. DD did a four years STEM integrated Master’s degree and was able to apply for the same jobs as those with standalone Master’s degrees from the same university.

Another option is an employer funded course. DS graduated last summer, joined a grad scheme and starts a part time employer funded Master’s degree at Warwick Business School in September.