Postgraduate Education in the UK - Analysis 2016 to 2022

Looking at how the UK postgraduate landscape has changed since the previous report was published a decade ago, this new report uses previously unpublished data to reveal the state of UK postgraduate education in the years before the Covid-19 crisis struck.

The analysis considers how postgraduate education was affected by the great recession of 2008 as well as at the successful implementation of student loans for home and EU postgraduate students from 2016/17 onwards.

The top 20 key findings in the report are listed below.

1. There were 566,555 postgraduate students in 2017/18, of which 356,996 (63%) were in their first year – up by 16% since 2008/09 (p.22 and Table 2.1).
2. Two-thirds (65%) of new postgraduates are studying for Master’s degrees, 10% are taking doctorates or other research degrees, 7% are doing teacher training and the rest (18%) a range of diplomas, certificates, professional qualifications and modules (Figure 2.1).
3. The most popular discipline is Business & Administrative Studies (20%), followed by Education (14%) and Subjects Allied to Medicine (12%). Research postgraduates (64%) are more likely to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) but most taught postgraduates (68%) take non-STEM subjects (Table 2.2 and pp.26-27).
4. Just over half of new UK-domiciled postgraduates (53%) study full-time, reversing past trends favouring part-time study – back in 2008/09, most postgraduates (59%) were part-time students (Table 2.4 and pp.32-33).
5. More than half (60%) of new postgraduate students at UK institutions come from the UK, while one-third (32%) come from outside the EU and 8% come from EU countries. The majority of Master’s students (53%) come from outside the UK (Table 2.5 and Table 2.6).
6. Between 2008/09 and 2017/18, UK-domiciled postgraduate entrants increased by 10% but students from overseas grew faster: EU-domiciled student numbers increased by 11% and non-EU international students grew by 33% (Table 3.2).
7. Since the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, the number of new postgraduate students from EU countries has fallen(by 2% in 2017/18 and another 2% in 2018/19), but the reduction in the value of the pound contributed to a 10% increase in non-EU postgraduate starters in 2017/18 (Figure 3.14, p.81 and Figure 3.10).
8. Chinese students formed 38% of the non-EU postgraduate cohort by 2017/18. Such heavy reliance on a single country exposes universities to greater risk from geo-political events (p.84 and Table 3.3).
9. The introduction of £10,000 Master’s loans for home / EU students in 2016 had a big positive impact: UK-domiciled student numbers grew by 29% in one year and by 59% among those from the most disadvantaged areas. The loans have also encouraged above-inflation fee increases (Figure 2.22, Figure 3.11, p.80 and Table 5.3).
10. The number of people taking Taught Master’s courses grew by 30% from 2008/09 to 2017/18, but the total has been volatile, particularly among UK students. Among all new postgraduates, justover half (51%) were full-time Taught Master’s students in 2017/18 (Table 3.1 and p.23).
11. The great recession following the 2007/08 financial crash witnessed a marked rise in Master’s take-up, as employment opportunities were restricted and people brought forward their plans to study (Figure 3.12).
12. The female:male ratio among new postgraduates is 60:40, or 62:38 among UK-domiciled students alone. This reflects greater female participation over time – in 2008/09, the overall female:male ratio was 55:45 (p.40 and Figure 2.12).
13. The gender ratio varies considerably by discipline: women are in a big majority in Subjects Allied to Medicine (77%), Veterinary Sciences (72%) and Education (70%) and men are in a big majority in Engineering & Technology (78%), Computer Science (76%) and Mathematics (71%). Males outnumber females among PhD researchers (51%) (Table 2.7 and Figure 2.13).
14. The proportion of postgraduate students aged under 30 has grown from 52% to 57% since 2008/09, reflecting a broader decline in people accessing lifelong learning opportunities (Figure 2.18 and p.48).
15. White men, particularly disadvantaged White men, are less likely to undertake postgraduate study than others. Among UK-domiciled postgraduate entrants from the poorest areas, 64% are women and 36% are men (Table 2.9 and Figure 2.24).
16. Women have a bigger boost to their earnings from postgraduate study, earning 28% more than women with only undergraduate degrees – the comparable figure for men is 12%. But women with postgraduate qualifications still earn 14% less on average than men with the same level of qualifications (Table 5.4 and p.120).
17. In the last crash, employment among those with postgraduate qualifications was slower to fall and faster to recover than for those with only a first degree, which may signal how the labour market will respond to the current Covid-19 crisis (Figure 5.11).
18. The abolition of post-study work visas (announced in 2011 and implemented in 2012) had a negative impact on demand for postgraduate study, most notably within India. The announcement that this policy is to be reversed is welcome but needs communicating quickly and clearly (Figure 3.15).
19. Transnational education, where people take UK qualifications abroad, has seen substantial growth, more than doubling since 2007/08 to 127,825 postgraduates in 2017/18 and overtaking the number of overseas postgraduate students in the UK (p.58 and Table 2.11).
20. Demand for postgraduate education is likely to grow over the long term: there could be an additional 22,750 undergraduates moving directly to postgraduate study by 2030 in England alone. While Brexit could mean a drop of around 11,500 EU postgraduates, successful implementation of the UK Government’s International Education Strategycould see an increase of 53,000 in other overseas postgraduates by 2030, although this partly depends on how the world recovers from the current Covid-19 crisis (pp.131-133).

The Report is by HEPI - The UK's only independent think tank devoted to higher education.

Are poor quality maths textbooks letting English pupils down?

Good textbooks are more important for high attainment in maths than factors such as setting or expensive IT equipment, according to a new study by King’s academics into international comparisons of maths attainment in schools.

 

The study was commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation and undertaken by academics from the Department of Education and Professional Studies.

 

 

Countries that perform consistently well in maths use carefully constructed text books as the primary means of teaching. By comparison, use of maths textbooks in English schools is relatively low, and English textbooks use routine examples and are less mathematically coherent than those in other countries. Pupils in high-performing countries are also more likely to use textbooks at home than their English counterparts.

 

 

The King’s College London researchers, led by Professor Mike Askew and Dr Jeremy Hodgen, also highlighted the importance of parental values and expectations. In high attaining East Asian countries for example, parents of all socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to pay for extra-curricular maths tutoring for their children than provide direct help with school work.

 

  

Cultural factors play an important part in teaching methods and pupil attitudes, and the researchers warn against trying to identify aspects of maths education that appear successful in other countries and importing them into the UK school system.

 

  

‘We should be careful not to ‘cherry pick’ findings that fit with what we believe might be key to success, particularly as countries with very different education systems can perform equally well. For example, Singapore performs well and has a rigid and centralised assessment structure. However Finland also performs well but has an extremely flexible and decentralised approach to assessment in schools,’ Professor Askew said.

 

The main findings

 

• England’s improvement in international rankings of maths attainment between 2003 and 2007 does not necessarily mean an improvement in all areas of maths education. Year 9 performance in algebra is still below the international average.  
• Use of textbooks for teaching maths in English schools is low. English textbooks use routine examples and are less mathematically coherent than those used in other countries.
• Mathematics education outside school – shadow education – can contribute to high standards, but can also have an adverse effect on pupils’ wider social development.
• There is no link between achievement and enjoyment in maths education. Pupils in countries that perform well in international surveys do not necessarily enjoy maths more than those who perform less well.
• Pupils from high-performing countries often have low confidence in maths.
• Countries that perform well in maths have not reduced the difference in attainment between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds.
• There is no evidence that pupils who participate in pre-school mathematics learning are likely to perform better at maths than those who don’t.
• Differences in maths performance between countries do not necessarily reflect differences in standards of teaching. The degree to which the questions used in international surveys match the curriculum content of a particular country is a more significant factor than the standard of teaching.

 

The study was undertaken by Professor Mike Askew, Dr Jeremy Hodgen, Dr Sarmin Hossain and Nicola Bretscher from the Department of Education & Professional Studies King’s College London. It is based on data from international mathematics studies (FIMS 1963-67, SIMS 1977-1981, TIMSS 1995, 1999 & 20003, PISA 2003 & 2006), and an analysis of 550 research papers relating to mathematics education.

More information is available at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/education//research/mechma