Understanding why graduates choose to pursue postgraduate study and how they find courses could help institutions to promote their courses effectively and provide students with relevant information
Why do graduates do taught Masters courses?
Career progression is the main incentive for graduates to pursue a taught Masters course (58%), according to the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES). Other motivational factors were:
- to improve employment prospects (54%)
- personal interest (46%)
- to progress to higher level qualification (33%)
- to change current career (21%)
- as a requirement to enter a particular profession (21%)
- to meet the requirements of current job (9%)
These results highlight the potential importance of a taught Masters qualification in enhancing a graduate's career prospects.
The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education data for 2016 showed that 59.1% of taught Masters graduates in work six months after graduation stated that their qualification was a formal requirement or an advantage when getting their job.
What do graduates consider when doing a Masters?
Prospects' NORAS survey 2017 asked undergraduate and gap year students what factors were important to them when they considered doing a postgraduate degree.
The results from 2,260 respondents showed that funding availability (67%) and course reputation (67%) were the most important aspects considered. Other factors included:
- institutional reputation (61%)
- location of institution (50%)
- flexible study options (41%)
- supervisor has good reputation (28%)
- studied there for undergraduate degree (14%)
- other (5%)
How a course is funded is clearly important to graduates, yet a lack of information regarding the costs of postgraduate study was a recurrent response to the question, 'Is there any information you have struggled to find about postgraduate study?'.
Institutions making information about their courses and funding available throughout the year would enable students to make more informed decisions about further study.
How do different student groups differ?
How a course is delivered is more important to different student demographics. For example, flexibility is more important to part-time students (44%) and distance learners (46%) than full-time students (9%) and face-to-face learners (14%).
What methods are used to find postgraduate courses?
Understanding what methods graduates use to find information about courses could ensure that universities are effectively advertising their courses to future students. The NORAS survey found that the most popular resources used were:
- university websites – 75%
- prospectuses – 49%
- teachers / staff at undergrad institution I attend– 48%
- open days – 48%
- careers service – 46%
- university comparison websites – 46%
- university fairs – 39%
- social media sites – 23%
It appears that graduates target individual institution websites, alongside a number of other resources to find information on postgraduate courses. Written information seems to be the most valuable, although a number of graduates also benefit from discussing their options at open days and with their careers service.
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