Postgraduate study - Is it worth it?

Postgraduate study doesn’t come cheap but it can pay off.

With a price tag of anywhere between £3,070 and £10,000 for a Masters (for a PhD the figures are higher), postgraduate study can seem an expensive way to boost your career prospects, especially as there is not much in the way of funding available. But with a bit of tenacity it can be paid for and, for many, can be a real investment. Prospects found two students who are now reaping their rewards.

Before her Masters, Emma Smith didn’t have much direction when it came to her career.

‘When I graduated I made the mistake of returning home. Six months later I was selling fork lift trucks and wondering why I even bothered going to university,’ says Emma.

‘So I saved up £2,000 and spent a year in India. Two visits to India later, I moved over to Manchester to work as a live-in carer, but I had no career plan, I just bounced from one job to the next.’

Part-time work
Having completed her first degree in Human Geography, Emma opted for an MSc in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). But in order to pay for her course, Emma had to work part time.

‘The university was opposite my place of work, so I was able to continue working whilst I studied. I didn’t fancy going back to my undergraduate days when I had no money,’ she explains.

‘I worked one week on and one week off. On my week on I worked as a carer at the BBC and was able to nip out for the odd lecture. On a full day I arranged cover so that I could be at the university all day. I was able to keep this balance until my dissertation when I left work to focus on my study.’

Emma is now working full time for a waste management business and is certain that her postgraduate qualification opened doors for her.

‘When I finished my Masters I volunteered for a community-based recycling company, which opened up the opportunity to work part time on a waste audit for one of the projects,’ Emma explains.

‘The audit work was followed by a year of business development and I moved into sustainable waste management a year later – that’s composting to me and you!

‘My Masters increased my confidence and knowledge base and put me on my current career path, so I would say it was definitely worth the cost.’

Full-time study
For Chris Long, a postgraduate course led him straight to the BBC, where he now works as a broadcast journalist. Despite the cost of his further study, (Chris estimates this at about £4,500) he believes it was worth every penny.

‘I took out a career development loan, so that I could put everything into my course. It was an intense course and I knew that I'd never be able to give it my all if I had a part-time job too,’ says Chris. ‘It wasn't really a lecture-based course - I reckon there were probably about two hours a day, but most days were spent working as a proper newsroom, so there was plenty of learning to do.’

Like Chris, you may want or need to focus all your energy on studying and so a part-time job may not be practical. There are alternative sources of funding on offer and a career development loan is one of them. It is only offered for people studying vocational courses, however, and interest charges and repayments begin once you have started full-time employment.

But whilst a loan may not seem an ideal solution, especially on top of existing debt from your undergraduate days, it could offer you the chance to get the qualification you need for that dream job.

For Chris, extra debt was a small sacrifice to make. He was offered his job at the BBC within a year of graduating.

‘Quite simply, I wouldn't be in the job I'm now in without my postgraduate course, and given that I get to live out my childhood dream of getting free music delivered to me on a daily basis, postgraduate study was the best decision I ever made!’

Written by Joanne O’Connor

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