Recession-hit graduates queue to go back to university By: Greg Hurst, Education Editor From: The Times 18 May, 2010

The number of people applying for postgraduate study at Oxford has overtaken applications for its undergraduate degrees for the first time.

Demand for masters degrees, PhDs and other research or doctoral study has reached record levels at the university. It reflects an increase in demand for postgraduate study at British universities as graduates try to escape the recession and raise their qualifications.

It could also undermine efforts to widen access to those from poor and non-graduate families. Student loans are not given to postgraduates, while grants are competitive and many receive funding help from family.

The first full figures compiled by Oxford showed that postgraduate applications rose from 13,551 last year to 17,510 for this academic year, compared with 15,277 for undergraduate places.

Next year’s figure will be higher, with 18,800 postgraduate applications already received by the university and more than three months of the academic year to run. Submissions for undergraduate places increased to 17,144.

Just under 39 per cent of those seeking postgraduate study at Oxford are British, 20 per cent are from other European Union countries and 41 per cent are international students. Among undergraduates, 85 per cent are British.

Jane Sherwood, Oxford’s director of graduate admissions, said: [The recession] just seems to be an obvious factor to the mix of reasons why people would want a graduate education from Oxford.‖

The number of full-time postgraduates in British higher education rose from 143,520 to 236,800 between 1997-98 and 2008-09, an increase of 65 per cent, according to a review by Adrian Smith, a civil servant and former university principal. The number of full-time undergraduates went up from 1 million to 1.2 million in the same period, a rise of 24 per cent.

More than 250,000 postgraduates also study part-time. Their numbers have risen, but less dramatically, while those numbers taking first degrees on a part-time basis have increased faster than the rise in full-time undergraduates.

Demand from graduates is highest at specialist and selective universities, such as Oxford, where the proportion of postgraduates has risen to 40 per cent: 8,701 postgraduates compared with 11,766 undergraduates.

Oxford has a cap on student numbers based on accommodation limits and capacity in its system. Ewan McKendrick, Oxford’s pro-vice-chancellor for education, said: ―We have more or less hit the ceiling, so if we want to go further to expand graduate numbers we have difficult decisions to make.