Demand for Master’s Degrees Expands, and Schools Take Notice

Angela Januzzi

September 12, 2007 

For all the hype surrounding increased undergraduate applications these days, this fall semester is experiencing the highest-ever enrollment in master’s programs.  

Since 1980, the number of students earning master’s degrees has doubled. Since 1970, the increase in master’s degree enrollment has been 150 percent—more growth than in either bachelor’s or PhD degrees. While students are realizing how much their job possibilities expand with a master’s degree, the schools offering the programs are finally taking sharp notice of the rising interest.

Gary W. Reichard, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for the California system, said that administrators at his school “are really conscious of the fact that master’s degrees are becoming the coin of the realm… And because M.B.A.’s can offer tremendous salary boosts down the road, we can charge higher tuitions to students.” Schools also gain revenue with graduate students because they are not expected to build on-campus housing for post-grad students, due to the students’ older age and increased independence. For these reasons, colleges and universities are finding investing in their master’s programs is becoming quote lucrative.

Some administrators are reluctant to acknowledge the profitability of offering master’s degrees and focus on the purely educational aspect of providing the programs. Still, administrators who recognize the value in investing in their school’s master’s programs can meet both pedagogical and profit-oriented concerns.

Through direct response enrollment marketing, administrators can determine which master’s programs would be most profitable to market, and then directly aim at the specific students who are interested in those programs. One aspect of enrolling master’s students is also guaranteed: numbers a projected to increase steadily in master’s programs for some time to come. 

Source: Fairfield, Hannah. “Master’s Degrees Abound as Universities and Students See a Windfall.” www.nytimes.com. Posted: September 12, 2007.