The effect of rising tuition fees on postgraduate study

Back in March we promised you some postgraduate research and an answer to the question ‘What will the knock on effect of rising tuition fees be on postgraduate applicants?’

Well we kept our promise and surveyed 672 domestic and international students, at various stages in their education from The Student Room. And only 41% of postgraduate and undergraduate students said they would do a postgraduate course if they’d had to pay the higher tuition fees set to come in to force in 2012.

The Student Room Tuition Fees Tracker has been keeping tabs on how much the UK’s universities are expecting to charge from 2012 and with many looking to the top end of the spectrum it could be bad news for the future of postgraduate education.

Our research shows that course costs and funding are already the main barriers to students continuing their university education beyond their first degree, which indicates that when the first batch of ‘£9,000 tuition fee’ students graduate in 2015 the number looking to continue on to a postgrad course will be significantly lower than today.

More postgraduate research

• Why students are turning down postgraduate opportunities
• Students lack loyalty to British universities