Is undergraduate debt an impediment to postgraduate enrolment in England?

Abstract

Changes to undergraduate student funding arrangements in England have prompted concerns that increased indebtedness will deter graduates from postgraduate study. While it is clear that student debt has increased substantially in recent years, international evidence is equivocal on whether such debt is a deterrent to further study and there is hardly any prior research on this topic in the UK context. Using a large‐scale survey of 2009 and 2012 graduates from six selective English universities, we investigate the association between undergraduate debt, other graduate characteristics and progression to postgraduate study. We find some association of higher debt levels with lower rates of progression to postgraduate study, although this reduces when controlling for other factors, such as degree‐level attainment and subject discipline. Within a multivariate logistic regression model predicting progression to postgraduate study we find that debt is not a statistically significant predictor, although other characteristics are important. This indicates, we suggest, that underlying financial resources, rather than debt per se, are critical in enabling access to postgraduate study. We consider the implications of recently announced loans for postgraduate study in England given these findings.

How post-Bologna policies construct the purposes of higher education and students’ transitions into Masters programmes

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Religion as a barrier to the use of student loans for higher education: A community‐based participatory study with Somalis living in England

“…The policy papers either focus on the implications of student loan debt (Bachan, 2014; Esson & Ertl, 2016; Wakeling et al, 2017) or they attempt to compute the right proportion of student loan debt financially feasible for going to university (Loonin & Morgan, 2019). The current policy papers also discuss the political and economic feasibility of student loans on the grounds of providing higher education opportunities to low‐income deprived communities across England (Czarnecki et al, 2020).…”

Student loans and participation in postgraduate education: the case of English master’s loans

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