What do Masters graduates do? 2007

• Summary
• Overview
• Subjects
• First destinations
• Types of work

Summary

This article examines the first destinations of Masters degree graduates from UK universities in 2005, writes Charlie Ball of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU).

41,725 Masters degrees were awarded to UK-domiciled graduates in 2005, and first destinations remain better than those for first degree graduates. Graduate numbers went up 3.9% from 2004 levels, keeping pace with the increase in first degree graduates over the same period.

Unemployment rates fell in 2005, and the level of non-graduate employment remained low. But this is moderated by the large number of qualifiers taking part-time routes as part of professional development. A relatively high level of non-graduate employment in some subjects, particularly in the arts and humanities, reinforces findings from other studies that the Masters degree is not an automatic guarantee of satisfactory employment. Rather, it is best approached as an element of personal development, and should be thoroughly researched by would-be participants, as would any significant investment.

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Overview

HECSU produces an annual web-based resource, looking at postgraduate destinations, What Do Postgraduates Do? [1]. The study is based on raw data from the Destination of Leavers of Higher Education (DLHE) survey, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, and looks at the destinations of postgraduates six months after they left university.

This article looks at the destinations of Masters graduates from 2005, and examines the outcomes of this group of university leavers in comparison to those of 2004.

The destinations of doctoral graduates from 2005 will be the subject of an update from HECSU and the UK Grad Programme later in 2007.

In 2005, 41,725 Masters degrees were awarded to UK-domiciled graduates by UK universities. Of them, 70.5%, or 29,430, gave information to the survey.

After a minimal rise in the number of graduates from Masters degrees in 2004, the figures from 2005 showed a modest increase of 3.9%, keeping pace with the increase in first degree graduates during the same period. There is little evidence of an ongoing explosion in the number of Masters qualifiers, as is popularly assumed.

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Subjects

Examining the overall graduate population by subject group shows that the majority of Masters degree graduates are in social science and arts subjects (see Table 1). This is no surprise. Not only are there more first degree graduates in these disciplines than in science and engineering, but the latter subjects often have well-defined career paths involving doctoral, rather than Masters, postgraduate study. It remains to be seen whether increasing awareness of the MRes research Masters will feed through to greater numbers of Masters degrees in science subjects.

A more complete breakdown of the most popular subjects studied is shown in Table 2.

After a steep rise in the number of MBA qualifications last year, numbers fell sharply, down from 5,355 to 4,390 in 2005. Again, most MBAs were taken by mature, part-time students and this may therefore represent the results of an admissions change that began more than a year ago. With this fall, MBAs made up 10.5% of Masters degrees awarded in 2005 and still remain comfortably the most popular Masters qualification awarded to UK citizens by UK universities. But at the same time, the number of management degrees awarded went up from 1,700 to 2,240 - representing 5.4% of the Masters graduating population and boosting the subject to second in the list of popular subjects.

Masters degrees in computing also fell sharply, down from 2,385 in 2004 to 1,395 in 2005. There was also a significant fall in the number of first degree qualifiers in the same time period, linked to the serious recession in the industry that had led to high levels of unemployment within computing graduates. Although these conditions have improved, 2004 saw over one in ten first degree computing graduates unemployed six months after graduating. That the number of Masters qualifications fell so sharply suggests that the conventional wisdom - that many graduates take Masters degrees in the absence of other options - does not hold true in this case.

Psychology and education studies, two subjects strongly linked with mature and part-time study for career purposes, saw rises, whilst law, English, human resources and social work all saw falls in numbers, with implications for the supply to the latter two professions. Many other subjects, such as history and politics, remained very steady in terms of numbers of graduates.

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First destinations

Figure 1 shows the destinations of 2005 Masters graduates reported in the DLHE survey.

In 2004, unemployment for first degree graduates fell, whilst Masters-level unemployment rose. In 2005, first degree graduates saw little change in unemployment rates, but Masters graduates saw a fall in unemployment, suggesting that the previous year’s figures were due to local fluctuations in the labour market, and no indication of a long term trend. In the same way that national first degree graduate early unemployment appears to naturally fluctuate within a range of values under normal economic conditions, the same may be true of Masters graduates.

This makes a great deal of sense - there is, as yet, little employment in the UK specifically for Masters graduates outside of a number of defined career niches, such as social work, engineering and other subjects where a Masters degree is a necessity. As a result of this lack of a very clearly defined Masters employment market similar to that for first degree graduates, many Masters graduates often compete with first degree graduates for the same jobs. Others are mature, part-time students taking courses as part of continuous professional development, often funded by employers, and do not access the labour market in the same way.

Unemployment levels for Masters graduates in all subject categories remains lower than for the equivalent areas of undergraduate study.

Proportionally more UK-domiciled Masters graduates than undergraduates went on to further study, mainly for doctorates. There were also a larger proportion who went overseas to work or study. A larger proportion than for undergraduate qualifiers were combining work and study, reinforcing the view that for a number of professions, Masters degrees play an important role in professional development.

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Types of work

23,140 UK-domiciled graduates from Masters degrees in 2005 were working in the UK six months after graduating, in a wide range of roles shown in Table 3.

The employment patterns of 2005 Masters graduates were very similar to those of 2004, with a modest decrease in the proportion of graduates entering management, but increases in the arts and education.

Despite the fall, nearly a quarter of Masters graduates from 2005 were working in management roles six months after graduating, and there is no reason to believe this proportion is likely to see a significant fall in the foreseeable future. Those graduates entering education were working largely as lecturers in further or higher education, or as secondary school teachers, whilst the category of ‘other professionals’ included significant numbers of general researchers in academia, along with town planners and architects.

The top ten most popular occupations entered by Masters graduates shows the domination of education and management in this area of study (see Table 4). But the presence of general office assistant roles in the list does show that some Masters graduates - 13.2%, or about one in eight - started their post-graduation careers in non-graduate jobs. This is significantly lower than at undergraduate level (37.5%), and is heavily subject dependent. For graduates in biomedical subjects, about one in twenty started in non-graduate positions, whilst for arts and humanities subjects, nearly one in four graduates from Masters courses in 2005 were working in a job that was judged not to be graduate-level, six months after graduating. These figures demonstrate the oft-repeated fact that a further qualification does not guarantee a good job, and that prospective students need to be very sure of their reasons for entering a course if they wish to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

HECSU -funded research on full-time Masters students, by Leeds University from 2005 suggested that many prospective Masters students do not use careers services when planning their course, and this may be a factor for those graduates who do not get the jobs that they want [2].

However, prospects are not wholly bleak for those embarking on non-graduate employment on completing a Masters degree. Many of the non-graduate jobs undertaken by Masters graduates were in entry-level office roles that are typically undertaken by those with little previous employment expertise. These jobs allow a graduate to display their skills and quickly work their way into graduate-level jobs if they show the right ability and attitude.

For individual subject groups, other jobs were also important. For MBA graduates, finance, marketing and PR management roles were important, whilst town planning, architecture and the Army were all popular with graduates from engineering disciplines. For social science graduates, along with social work and personnel roles, jobs as economists and managers in health services were important. And for graduates in the arts and humanities, editing and journalism was a popular occupation, as were jobs as arts officers and producers, and roles as translators.

This diversity of role shows that Masters degree study can provide a good career boost to those who choose a good course after careful consideration of the options. Employers can recognize the benefits of Masters study, particularly as part of a professional development programme, and the degree remains an excellent qualification that benefits most who study it.

References

1. What Do Postgraduates Do?. Download the PDF of What Do Postgraduates Do? for a summary of the 2004 cohort.

2. Employability and Careers Progression of Full-time UK Masters Students, Helen Bowman, Phil Hodkinson and Helen Colley, November 2005.

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