Why is this?Among overseas students, demand is still strong especially from China, India and South-east Asia. And, despite a fall-off nationally in Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programmes, the university has seen a marked increase in numbers on specific Masters programmes within the business school in areas like finance. As Professor Weinberg points out, the university is ideally placed for that. Its prestigious John Cass Business School sits right on the edge of London’s financial hub so there is much to-ing and fro-ing between students and professionals.Close ties with practitioners also mark City’s taught courses in computer studies, where demand is still growing despite the bursting of the dot bubble and the recent downturn in numbers at undergraduate level.
“We link the taught Masters to professional development, allowing the students to build up to the full Masters over time,” says Professor Weinberg “Courses have to be very flexible. Many of these students are not on a one-year, full-time course but on day- or block-release.”Other growth areas at City University, one of the institutions that pioneered taught Masters in professional areas, are arts policy and journalism. Once again, the biggest growth is among overseas students, who now account for nearly one half of taught postgraduate students But home numbers have been rising steadily too. Growth in taught degrees has been fastest in new universities such as Westminster (the former Polytechnic of Central London).What are the boom subjects? Top of all comes health, where the numbers on taught courses in subjects allied to medicine, such as physiotherapy, have risen by more than 100 per cent over the past seven years, as traditional doctors’ roles have been assumed by other health professionals.Julius Weinberg, director of the Institute of Health Sciences and pro-vice-chancellor for research at City University, says nearly all of the students on these courses are home students funded by the National Health Service. That may lead to problems with replacing academics in certain disciplines.Overall, however, postgraduate numbers are flourishing in the UK. There has been a growth of more than one-fifth in new entrants over the past seven years, bringing total numbers to nearly half a million. And the main reason for this is the boom in taught degrees, mainly Masters but also postgraduate certificates and diplomas.For, as growing student debt and poor career prospects dim the attractions of traditional research, at least for home students, the number of students opting for taught courses that will give them a vocational boost is rising fast.
This is creating an over-reliance on overseas doctoral students, especially in science, that has “significant” implications for the country’s research base, according to the report. The number on research degrees has gone up by 28 per cent since 1995 and they now account for two in five of the doctorates awarded. How many of Britain’s brightest graduates would spend their twenties living on a pittance, pondering the nature of matter or the finer points of econometrics, when they could be earning a fortune in the City, their student debts forgiven? Not surprisingly, not enough. As a recent report on the state of postgraduate education in the UK makes clear, overall demand from home students for postgraduate research places has stalled. “Students tend to be clued up because with fees of around £3,000 per year for a masters, most people tend to do their homework before making that kind of investment. And those kinds of research and analytical skills are pretty key to doing a masters anyway.”. I’m far more worried about other issues in education.”Bassnett says today’s students are sophisticated purchasers of postgraduate education “I find most are extremely well informed.
