在学历贬值与求职寒冬的夹击之下，“你的硕士学位是否沦为鸡肋？” 这一疑问始终萦绕在众多想要报名深造学子的心间。（湖北研楚教育咨询有限公司）
11月18日，英国《经济学人》发布了相关文章，我们一起看看，并讨论聊聊~
International | University in America and Britain
Is your master’s degree useless?
New data show a shockingly high proportion of courses are a waste of money
IN THE COMING months millions of people across the northern hemisphere will apply to do postgraduate study. Most will top up an undergraduate qualification with a one- or two-year master’s degree in the hope that this will set them apart in a job market crowded with bachelor’s degrees.
“The number-one reason people get these degrees is insecurity,” reckons Bob Shireman of the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think-tank in New York. “The feeling that if they are going to get a job—or keep their job—they need a master’s degree.” Yet on average these provide a much smaller bump to wages than an undergraduate degree does. And a new body of data and analysis suggests that a shockingly high share of master’s courses leave graduates worse off.
In America close to 40% of workers with a bachelor’s also boast a postgraduate credential of some sort. In the decade to 2021 the number of postgraduate students there increased by 9% even as undergraduates fell by 15%. PhDs required by academics and long professional degrees of the sort needed by doctors and lawyers are becoming more popular. But master’s courses still account for most of the growth.
They are an even bigger business for universities in Britain, which hand out four postgraduate degrees for every five undergraduate ones. This has much to do with a boom in master’s students from places such as India and Nigeria. Britons have been getting in on the action, too. The number enrolling in taught master’s courses has grown by about 60% over 15 years.
In part this has been driven by employers demanding higher qualifications as jobs in science and technology, in particular, grow more complex. But universities are also keen. In Britain, undergraduate fees are capped by the government and have barely increased in a decade. Enrolling more postgraduates—who may be charged whatever the market will bear—is one way to cope. America’s university-age population will soon start declining. College presidents there hope that repeat customers can keep their institutions afloat.
Since 2000 the cost of postgraduate study in America has more than tripled in real terms, according to the Centre on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. The median borrower now acquires around $50,000 in debt while completing their second degree, up from $34,000 20 years earlier (in 2022 dollars). Almost half of the money America’s government lends to students goes to postgraduates, even though they are only 17% of learners. In Britain domestic master’s students paid about £9,500 ($13,000) a year in 2021, some 70% higher than in 2011 after accounting for inflation.
Students have put up with these fees in part because they assume that lofty credentials will usually increase their earnings. “Gaining a financial return is not the only reason to pursue education,” acknowledges Beth Akers of the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think-tank. But “for the vast majority of students...that is the ambition.” At first glance they are making a reasonable bet. In America full-time workers with a bachelor’s earn about 70% more than high-school graduates. And those who tack on a master’s can expect an additional 18%.
Yet earnings vary enormously by subject and institution. Moreover, postgraduates are usually from richer families and got better grades as undergraduates than did their peers. They would tend to do well in life, regardless of additional credentials. Working out the real returns requires comparing the outcomes of this brainy cohort with those of similarly impressive people who decided against further study.
Seen through that lens, the average master’s student will bank no more than $50,000 extra over their lifetime as a result of their qualification, reckons Preston Cooper, an analyst formerly of FREOPP, a think-tank in Austin, Texas, who also considered fees paid and potential earnings forgone while studying. Worse still, students enrolled on about 40% of America’s master’s courses will either make no extra money or incur a financial loss. That is a higher risk than for undergraduate courses, which Dr Cooper believes provide positive returns about 75% of the time.
Because American data remain somewhat patchy, reaching conclusions such as these still involves vast amounts of guesswork. Things are a bit clearer in Britain, where researchers who ask nicely may crunch a database linking the tax histories and educational achievements of millions of young adults. In 2019 analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank in London, concluded that one-fifth of undergraduates would be better off if they skipped university all together.
More recently the institute has investigated returns from master’s courses—with even more striking results. It has found that by the age of 35, master’s graduates earn no more than those with just a bachelor’s (after accounting for their better-off backgrounds and higher previous attainment). That finding was “genuinely surprising” says Jack Britton, one of the study’s authors. It also differed markedly from research that used less-granular data.
On both sides of the Atlantic, choice of subject is the single biggest factor determining whether a master’s boosts earnings. In America returns are especially large in computer science and in engineering. They are slightly smaller in other science subjects, in part because an undergraduate degree in these already bumps up salaries by quite a lot. Teachers who bag graduate degrees in education tend to earn more, even if wages for the profession as a whole are fairly low, because many American school districts automatically raise the pay of those who have them.
More striking are the large negative returns in some subjects. British men who complete master’s degrees in politics earn 10% less in their mid-30s than peers who do the same subject at undergraduate level only. For history the hit to earnings is around 20%; for English it is close to 30% (see chart 1). Many of the people on these courses are targeting careers that they know will be low-earning, but which they think they will enjoy, explains Dr Britton. But some drift into advanced study because they have not yet decided what profession to pursue. It should probably not be a surprise that these people tend to earn less in the medium term than peers who have rocketed straight from bachelor’s courses into jobs.
Choice of institution matters, though in most cases less than is commonly assumed. In America costs range widely by university. But there is no strong connection between the price of a master’s course and the amount its graduates go on to earn, according to Tomás Monarrez and Jordan Matsudaira from the US Department of Education (see chart 2). “Brand-name schools have realised that they can trade on their reputation to offer programmes that look very prestigious on paper,” says Dr Cooper, “but which don’t have outcomes that justify the hype.”
MBA courses are a notable exception: graduates from the most celebrated institutions make far more than everyone else. But in other walks of life, acquiring swanky networks while studying is not quite so crucial to success. The upshot is that splurging on an elite university is not nearly as clever as picking a well-priced course somewhere less fancy.
Women have a higher chance than men of getting a boost to earnings from doing a master’s. The British study finds that these qualifications increase earnings for women in 14 out of 31 subject areas; for men that is true in only six of them. This seems surprising: men’s hourly earnings are higher than women’s and the gap widens further with education. But women with higher qualifications do better than women without them because they also tend to work longer hours, particularly when they become parents and are put under pressure to go part-time or stop working.
The poor returns from many master’s degrees should worry applicants. But they also raise thorny questions for governments. In Europe and America politicians have been accused of inadvertently pushing up costs. In 2016 master’s students in Britain became eligible for government-backed loans with generous repayment terms. America’s federal government limits how much it will lend to undergraduates—but since 2006 has allowed postgraduates to borrow whatever their universities choose to charge. In both cases easy money has led to price inflation.
A related debate is whether governments ought to be more picky about which postgraduate courses they fund. In America credit is offered as freely to people studying “underwater basket-weaving” as to those who study law, says Dr Akers. In 2026 profit-making universities could be prevented from enrolling students who borrow federal money in courses that have saddled graduates with unmanageable debt, or which have not boosted their incomes. But the new rules will not be applied to public and non-profit universities, which enroll most students. These institutions will instead simply have to warn applicants about courses with poor returns.
Americans from both the right and left of politics agree that graduate education is “a bit out of control”, says Mr Shireman. That could make it easier to make changes to, say, the postgraduate loan system. But it remains to be seen how the incoming administration will choose to handle these issues, says Dr Akers. The worry, she says, is that Donald Trump’s team might “focus more on publicly shaming institutions that are bastions of progressivism, than on thoughtful reform”.
以下为译文，来自环球时报↓↓
未来几个月里，北半球将有数以百万计的学子选择继续申请研究生（包括硕士和博士）学位，其中多数都会选择一到两年制的硕士学位，以期从本科生人满为患的人才市场脱颖而出。
缺少安全感逼人多读书
“人们选择深造的首要因素就是缺乏安全感，”纽约智库世纪基金会的鲍勃·希尔曼表示，“他们想要求职或保住饭碗，只能靠多读书。”
然而，相比于本科，硕士学位并没有帮人们增加太多收入。一项最新数据分析表明，许多学科反而让硕士的处境更为艰难。
在美国，读过本科的员工中有40%通过深造获得研究生学历。2011—2021年间，本科生数量减少15%，研究生数量增加9%。医生和律师等职业所需的博士学历变得愈发流行，但硕士学位仍占主导地位。英国更加内卷，本科生取得更高学历的比例高达80%。大量涌入的印度和尼日利亚国际生源，以及英国本土学生共同组成了这场声势浩大的求学浪潮。过去15年来，授课型硕士学位招生人数增加近60%。一方面，科学技术迅猛发展对员工提出更高要求；另一方面，在政府限制下，多年来本科学费维持在稳定水平，高校迫切希望通过扩招研究生赚钱。随着学龄人口减少，高校管理层意图通过深造教育的发展实现持续创收。（湖北研楚教育咨询有限公司）
数据表明，21世纪以来，美国研究生学费实际增加近两倍。仅占总生源17%的研究生吸纳近半数的助学贷款。为了毕业后升职加薪的美好愿景，学生们忍受着高昂学费。美国企业公共政策研究所的贝丝·艾克尔称：“赚钱不是求学的唯一目的，却是多数人的第一要务。”乍一看这场“豪赌”收益可观——美国本科员工比高中生多赚70%，硕士工资比本科生多18%。
然而，很多研究生出身富庶，本科成绩也比同龄人好。不论是否有高学历的加持，他们都能过得很好。因此，我们要将那些表现优异但不继续深造的本科生与研究生进行比较。
专业、学校甚至性别都影响收入
数据表明，排除上述因素后，在普通人的一生中，硕士学位增加的收益不足5万美元，其中更有40%无法带来正向收益。35岁时，硕士的薪水并不比本科生高，这一结果让许多人大跌眼镜。
不论英美，专业是回报率的首要影响因素。在美国，计算机科学和工程学硕士的回报率很高，而数学等其他学科相对差些。令人担心的是，许多学科存在很大的收益负面效果。在英国，政治学硕士毕业生在30岁时比本科生工资低10%，历史和英语分别减少20%和30%左右的收入。这些专业的有些人之所以深造，是因为还没做好职业规划，因此他们可能会比目标明确、直奔职场的本科生收入更低。
选择学校也很重要，学费高低并不能等价转化为毕业后的薪资水平，名校往往会把一些项目包装得很“高大上”，回报却不尽如人意。相比男性，女性从硕士学位中获得收入增益的几率更大。尽管男性的平均薪资比女性更高，但继续深造的女性，工作时长更长，和低学历女性拉开的差距更大，其工作也更难被婚姻和生育影响。
欧美放宽贷款引发学费通胀
求学者应该仔细考量学位的回报率，政府也应重视起来。欧洲和美国政客就曾被指控提高求学成本。2016年，英国政府开始以宽松的偿还条件向硕士生提供助学贷款；尽管限制了贷款额度，但2006年起，美国联邦政府也放宽贷款发放条件，这些政策都引发学费通胀。政府是否应该对资助的研究生项目进行严格筛选？未来，面对学费过高或收入增益有限的专业，高校可能会选择停止发放贷款，或是向求学者提出警示。美国民众普遍认为，如今研究生教育“有点不受控制”。通过调整助学贷款机制可以改善这一现象，但新政府如何处理这些问题仍未可知。
文章中分享了一些关于英美研究生的数据，我们可以来看看。
研究生人数上涨 报名需求旺盛
未来几个月里，北半球将有数以百万计的学子选择继续申请研究生（包括硕士和博士）学位，其中多数都会选择一到两年制的硕士学位，以期从本科生人满为患的人才市场脱颖而出。
在美国，读过本科的员工中有40%通过深造获得研究生学历。2011-2021年间，本科生数量减少15%，研究生数量增加9%。医生和律师等职业所需的博士学历变得愈发流行，但硕士学位仍占主导地位。
英国更加内卷，本科生取得更高学历的比例高达80%。大量涌入的印度和尼日利亚国际生源，以及英国本土学生共同组成了这场声势浩大的求学浪潮。过去15年来，授课型硕士学位招生人数增加近60%
不同专业/学校的硕士学位回报差异大
数据表明，在普通人的一生中，硕士学位增加的收益不足5万美元，其中更有40%无法带来正向收益。35岁时，硕士的薪水并不比本科生高，这一结果让许多人大跌眼镜
不论英美，专业是回报率的首要影响因素。在美国，计算机科学和工程学硕士的回报率很高，而数学等其他学科相对差些。令人担心的是，许多学科存在很大的收益负面效果。在英国，政治学硕士毕业生在30岁时比本科生工资低10%，历史和英语分别减少20%和30%左右的收入。这些专业的有些人之所以深造，是因为还没做好职业规划，因此他们可能会比目标明确、直奔职场的本科生收入更低。
选择学校也很重要，学费高低并不能等价转化为毕业后的薪资水平，名校往往会把一些项目包装得很“高大上”，回报却不尽如人意。
女性获得收入增益的几率更大
相比男性，女性从硕士学位中获得收入增益的几率更大。尽管男性的平均薪资比女性更高，但继续深造的女性，工作时长更长，和低学历女性拉开的差距更大，其工作也更难被婚姻和生育影响。
硕士学位的成本在不断上涨
数据表明，21世纪以来，美国研究生学费实际增加近两倍。仅占总生源17%的研究生吸纳近半数的助学贷款。为了毕业后升职加薪的美好愿景，学生们忍受着高昂学费。
美国企业公共政策研究所的贝丝·艾克尔称：“赚钱不是求学的唯一目的，却是多数人的第一要务。”乍一看这场“豪赌”收益可观——美国本科员工比高中生多赚70%，硕士工资比本科生多18%。
通过这篇文章，其实在提醒我们虽然当下读研是大势所趋，但我们在报名前需要更仔细地考虑它的经济价值，不是所有的硕士学位都能带来好的回报，选择专业和学校时要格外慎重。
在众多岗位的招聘要求中，专业的限定愈发凸显出读研时专业选择的关键意义。以人工智能工程师岗位为例，如今几乎所有科技企业在招聘时都会要求应聘者具备计算机科学、数学、电子信息等相关专业的硕士及以上学历。
埃隆・马斯克曾表示，特斯拉在招聘人工智能团队成员时，首要考量的就是候选人是否毕业于斯坦福大学、麻省理工学院等全球知名院校的相关专业硕士项目，因为这些项目能够培养出深入理解人工智能算法、具备强大编程能力以及丰富实践经验的人才。
据行业统计，在人工智能领域，拥有硕士学位的从业者平均薪资比本科毕业生高出50%以上，而毕业于顶尖院校相关专业的硕士更是能获得远超行业平均水平的高薪待遇。
所以，我们在择校择专时需要结合经济实力及职业发展，慎重选择。
（湖北研楚教育咨询有限公司）
