Is a masters really becoming the norm?

[Terracotta57]

DC who is at Oxbridge, and about to go into final year, feels that many are planning to do masters (and this is in humanities / social science fields not stem, so not funded). I know that the job market may be pushing many to do masters (and of course many others will choose to purely from love of their subject), but I'm also surprised it seems so common given the increasing weight of student loans and exorbitant cost (especially at the top unis where fees alone can be over £20k). Is it really becoming the new norm and does that mean that even an oxbridge degree isn't able to compete if there isn't a masters attached to it?

When I did grad recruitment, the masters students were often at an advantage. Now I don’t think that necessarily means it’s worth the hefty investment but what I found was:

1. lots of them gained additional skills by doing a dissertation.

2. They were doing genuinely useful masters for my sector so had additional subject knowledge and could talk with more conviction about their understanding.

3. The extra year seemed to help re maturity. Lots had extra jobs or had used the summer between undergrad and the masters wisely. They seemed to just work a bit harder for their masters compared to undergrad.

I don’t think that’s quite the same and is a quirk of the Scottish system. 4 year Scottish MAs are level 6 qualifications whereas an integrated STEM masters (4 yrs in England) is a level 7 qualification, the same as a standalone masters degree.

There are three year degrees as well.

DD did a four year integrated Master’s (MBiol) which is becoming the norm for biology. DS (humanities) is taking a part time Master’s degree that is sponsored by his employer as part of their grad program.
A couple of their non STEM friends have taken standalone Master’s degrees but most have gone straight into grad jobs that offer acturial/legal/financial professional training.

@Bunnycat101 That csn be great for a specific career, usually in sciences, but for degrees like history and MFLs it’s not so clear cut. MFL grads have already done 4 years for example so what extra maturity and work ethic are you getting with a 5th year? Many 3 year degrees have a dissertation already. My DDs did useful work and work experiences from y1 vacations. They didn’t just wake up to that in y4/masters year. Maybe that’s why they were employable and definitely more mature than some!

That's great. That's not typically the norm for Imperial, UCL, KCL, LSE.

Parents who were able to fund the full accommodation costs for undergraduate degrees and now a masters degree are very privileged or have long since paid off their mortgages!

Ah yes, I did this myself. It was not easy. You're right. It takes over your life for a few years.

I had an eye twitch at certain points I was so tired and stressed 😂. But worth it.

Due to English loan system parents don’t have to be very privileged for dc to only get min loan. I doubt parents earning £33,000 a year consider themselves wealthy high earners but if parents earn that their dc is on min loan and parents required to contribute £6000 a year undergraduate. If you’ve done it for 3 years some will do for 4.

Maybe it was less because it's a specialised branch of London University and only offers post-graduate studies? It's at least on a par with all those universities, however, in terms of reputation for this particular field of study.

Yes - but there's no maintenance loan for post-grad. So parents would have to fund the whole of it, rent and living costs. I'm well aware that many parents have to top up their child's rent when at university because they don't receive enough maintenance loan. I think a lot of parents can't top up to the full £10000 and rely on their young person working or using savings from 6th form jobs.

My son's was 25k at Imperial 10 years ago.

Hang on. There's no maintenance loan for masters??????

😮

No the English masters loan is just over £13,000 to cover fees and maintenance.

Oh. Heck. I better start readjusting the expectations of both of my sons. I honestly had no idea :( :( And both plan on Masters. (Eldest as he wants an academic career, second in order to specialise after Bachelors)

Yes I suppose it depends on fees, some unis offer percentage discount for their undergraduate students too.
Out of interest I’ve looked at masters cost where I studied and it’s £11,600 and you get 20% alumni discount so £9280. It’s in an affordable area accommodation wise so £13,000 plus £6000 from parents would be very comfortable. I appreciate not all masters fees are this low especially at very prestigious universities.

Lots will work for a year or two before masters to save. Or gap year before they go to uni.

Make sure they also know they have to pay the masters loan back in parallel with their undergrad loan too, and start paying it sooner because the threshold is lower - it doesn't just add to their grand total of undergraduate debt to (possibly never) be repaid.

For various reasons, a gap year isn't the right thing for either of them. Son 1 wants to do a masters as he wants to work in academia. He's applying for combined masters, so my understanding is that will be fine. Second wants to do one to specialise but isn't STEM so no combined masters. The masters is what he wants to do and the bachelors is the way to get there! (He's year 11 though so loads of time to change his mind)

^^
Yes - this. A lot of people don't realise. I think if you have just done a 3 years undergrad degree, you should be able to get another year's student finance to add to your loan if you need to do a masters degree. After all, some are getting an extra year's funding for a foundation year or integrated masters.

Financial Technology MSc at UCL is £52,600. The sand as the overseas fee for some reason! There’s nothing below £16,000.

Postgraduate taught courses are UCL's biggest revenue stream. It is one of the relatively few UK universities that is not in debt, though their overall margin is only around 5%, so they're not exactly rolling in it.

Needless to say, their operating costs are enormous, and with all those academic egos to pander to they are unfortunately not able to operate very efficiently. (I've worked there).

Even doing a civil engineering masters is circa £22,000 which is double the final year of an integrated masters Civil engineering degree. Students do need to be savvy.

More and more Masters degrees do not differentiate between home and overseas fees.