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\nThe benefits associated with postgraduate qualifications are becoming increasingly clear.\u00a0Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)\u00a0statistics<\/a>\u00a0show that those with higher degrees have an income advantage over their first-degree-only compatriots in each country providing data.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the Sutton Trust\u00a0suggests that in Britain, people with a postgraduate qualification can expect to earn on average 14 per cent more than those with an undergraduate degree alone. Postgraduate degree holders are more likely to be employed and to be using skills acquired in their education for their work.<\/p>\n
The recent sharp rise in undergraduate fees has focused attention on barriers to postgraduate progression, as mounting student debts could deter potential postgraduates. These concerns lie behind the introduction of\u00a0master\u2019s loans of up to \u00a310,000<\/a>\u00a0in England for 2016\/17. With more than 50,000 such loans disbursed, perhaps up-front cost rather than fear of debt is the bigger obstacle.<\/p>\n About three quarters of UK master\u2019s students are self-funding, often\u00a0relying on family<\/a>\u00a0financial support. Little wonder, then, that those from low-income backgrounds are the most likely to want to pursue postgraduate study,\u00a0but the least likely<\/a>\u00a0to do so. Nor that there are\u00a0inequalities in access<\/a>\u00a0by social class background, among other factors.<\/p>\n The first stage in postgraduate enrolment is to apply for a place. Many who do so will face an expensive surprise: postgraduate application fees. The principle of paying a fee for an application service will be familiar to those who apply for an undergraduate place in the UK via Ucas, which charges \u00a324 for up to five applications. But the level of and variation in postgraduate fees will come as a shock.<\/p>\n Many institutions, including those that use Ucas postgraduate application service UKPASS, charge nothing. Others charge substantially more than the \u00a35 per application an undergraduate would effectively pay.<\/p>\n In fact, among those universities in the Russell Group charging a postgraduate application fee, all charge more for a single application than Ucas charges for five (see the table below). Applying to the universities of Cambridge or Warwick will set you back \u00a350 a time; it\u2019s \u00a365 to apply to the London School of Economics and no less than \u00a375 at the\u00a0University of Oxford\u00a0and\u00a0University College London.<\/p>\nPostgraduate application fees (Russell Group universities)<\/h3>\n