Graduates with multiple degrees are more likely to get higher-paid and better jobs than those with only one degree, according to figures suggesting that a bachelor’s qualification alone is no longer a passport to a well-paid job.
Holders of postgraduate degrees are also more likely to be in work 3½ years after graduating than those who have just a single degree.
The snapshot survey of graduates who left university in 2005, conducted by the Higher Education Statistics Agency , also found that graduate unemployment has risen by a third in the past two years and almost a quarter were still not in full-time work.
Of those who graduated in 2005, more than 11,000 were unemployed 3½ years later. The same figure for those who left university in 2003 was just 8,000.
Among those with postgraduate qualifications, 85 per cent had been in graduate level jobs since leaving university compared with 56 per cent of those with just a bachelor’s degree.
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Professor Steve Smith, the president of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said: “Gaining specialist, higher-level skills will give graduates an edge.
“Skills and attributes that will help graduates get jobs and manage their careers over a lifetime are being developed as part of the broader, higher education experience.”
Universities report that the number applying to start postgraduate courses this year has jumped as the graduate job market dries up. Sixty per cent of employers have cut their recruitment of graduates.
At the University of Manchester, applications for postgraduate courses are up 23 per cent from home and EU students. At Imperial College London, applications are up 21.8 per cent overall. Starting salaries are on average £3,000 higher for postgraduates than graduates, the survey of 41,000 graduates found.
But the cost of study beyond a first degree is borne by the student and no government funding is available for courses that cost £3,200 on average for a one-year master’s.
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Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said that graduates who can offer more than their peers will be at an advantage when looking for work. “Unfortunately the widening participation agenda is currently aimed purely at encouraging more undergraduates,” she said.
More than three quarters of graduates (78 per cent) going on to full-time further study said that they were doing so to change or improve their career options.
Postgraduates were happier about the subject they chose compared with first-degree graduates, researchers said. More than half (58.8 per cent) said that they would not have chosen a different subject with hindsight compared with 41 per cent of those who took undergraduate degrees.
Female postgraduates were the happiest among the 400,000 cohort 3½ years after leaving university in 2005 but men continued to dominate in terms of salaries — earning £2,000 more than women three and a half years after graduating.
Among the class of 2005, nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of those working full or part-time were not in graduate professions, and more than one in ten said that they had been out of work at least once.
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Almost a quarter, 23.9 per cent of graduates were not yet in full-time paid work. The figures represent students who graduated before the recession hit — and the picture is much gloomier for the class of 2009.
Case study
Rebecca Freeman thought her degree in Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour would allow her to get a job straight after graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University.
“It is more practical and less theoretical so I assumed it would be easier to walk into a job through it,” she says.
But when she graduated last year she found there were few jobs around and those that were went to people with a Masters degree.
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“Those people had something extra, and were getting jobs that you wouldn’t think needed even a degree.”
Unable to find work in her chosen field, Rebecca, 22 from Runcorn, decided to apply for a Masters degree in Conservation Biology.
“It didn’t make sense to spend the whole year looking for jobs when nothing was coming up.”
The 12-month course cost £3,200 but the year has cost her at least £7,000 she says and she funded it through a loan from the bank.
“I’m hoping the Masters will pay for itself within a year if I get a job but I’m £22,000 in debt after both degrees.”
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Rebecca says she worked harder for her Masters than her first degree, “I certainly took it more seriously. It’s definitely been worth it. I’ve got that extra edge now.”