Cost of a master's in the UK can now be as high as £42k (approx £10k 10 years ago)

MindMax2000

Does anyone have a full rationale or know most of the reasons to why the cost has increased by roughly 2-4x what it was about 10 years ago despite the degree being more or less the same?

I appreciate that universities have costs, rising cost of living, and that inflation has been rough recently, but there is no clear indication of anything that would drastically push tuition to 2-4x what it used to be.

Most master's degrees are useful as a means of getting into academia, i.e. a profession that pays little. There are only a handful that are useful in the workplace, but these tend to be required by law for the promotion. Even then, most of these other professions don't pay particularly well, and definitely not to salaries as high as £40k to warrant the cost of the master's.

My current speculations are:
1) Reduced number of students enrolling on postgrad courses
2) Restriction of enrolling international students

Does anyone else have any other thoughts?

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

10 years ago there was no postgraduate loans available and the government subsidy for pgt students was higher.

There were premium courses 10 years ago though charging £20-30k to home students. Outside the premium courses fees were far lower (as is still the case today- the majority of masters courses charge less than £10k).