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Thousands of students are applying to study “panic master’s” courses after getting no response to their job applications in the shrinking pool of graduate roles.
Universities including UCL, Cambridge and Edinburgh, told the Observer they were seeing substantial increases, ranging between 10 and 20%, in the number of UK students applying to study for postgraduate degrees in the autumn.
Mary Curnock Cook, an admissions expert who is chairing an independent commission on students, said the rise is due to “a collapse in confidence in the graduate employment market”. There is a backlog of applications from graduates who struggled to secure roles last year or whose placements were cancelled, she said.
“That’s what’s causing this idea of the panic master’s,” she said. “A lot of what I’m hearing is people getting stressed about making tons of applications and not even getting acknowledgement. It’s a stain on employers that they’re not treating their applicants with common courtesy.”
Curnock Cook added that while master’s degrees are usually worthwhile investments since they are favoured by many employers and result in higher average salaries, she advised against “making decisions in a rush for the wrong reasons”, particularly since loans available for postgraduate study does not cover living expenses.
Dan Barcroft, head of admissions at Sheffield University, said postgrad study has been especially popular among undergraduates planning to remain at the university, with application numbers rising by 35%. “People are choosing to stay in education at a time of economic turbulence,” he said.
Lily Patrick, a student union rep at Leicester University who has been running focus groups with finalists for the commission, said students were worried that they had been unable to develop necessary soft skills such as communication and teamwork during the pandemic.
“There’s a lack of career readiness and confidence. It’s not just about doing a master’s to gain skills but also to get the opportunity to do extracurricular [activities],” she said. “There was also a perception that employers are expecting students to have these transferable skills before they enter the workplace.”
One focus group participant said: “I know so many people who because of the stress, lack of communication and doing double the work of normal have just applied for a master’s to take some of the pressure off.”
Last year top graduate employers cut vacancies by nearly a half, although some jobs have been reinstated this year. There are particular shortages of entry-level roles in the industries that have been worst affected by the pandemic, including travel, hospitality and retail.
A recent survey of more than 2,000 students by advice service Prospects showed that over a third of university finalists are changing their career plans due to the pandemic, while two-thirds who are planning postgraduate study are choosing to do so to switch career path.
Nearly half of university students said they felt unprepared for the job market, citing a lack of experience, vacancies and their skills as the main barriers.
A postgraduate degree is often a popular response among graduates to times of crisis. A 2009 NUS survey found that nearly a third of students were considering postgraduate study to shelter from the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.
Mark Corver, an admissions expert from DataHE, said that early Student Loans Company data suggested there was a 15% rise in English students securing the postgraduate loan in 2020-21, double the increase of recent years. Combined with undergraduate intakes getting larger and younger and uncertainty over international student numbers, this could result in 30% of UK graduates going on to do some form of further study, he said.
Mickayla graduated from the University of the Arts London with a BA in textile design. Her placement at the National Theatre was cancelled due to the pandemic, so she enrolled in a garment technology diploma to work in the fashion industry, which has not been as badly hit by the pandemic as the creative arts. “I’m still living at home with my mum, desperate to move on with my life,” she said.
Mairi McWilliams is finishing her BA in law at West Scotland University, and has applied to Strathclyde for postgraduate courses after she was unable to find work as a paralegal or admin assistant in a law firm and had placements cancelled. She is especially frustrated with larger firms, which she felt treated her applications “just like a number”.
“This is a massive commitment financially and academically, because I feel I’ve done all the work over the last years, and now I am just going to do an MA because I can’t get a job,” she said.
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