Looking at taught and research postgraduate programmes in Australia, England, Germany, India, Norway, Scotland, Spain and the US, researchers outlined their strengths and challenges in themes of access and quality; further lending insight into headline grabbing issues from each country.

“At all levels and in all programmes, the personal skills of the postgraduate are inextricably linked with the subject studied”

“What stood out most was the similarity of the challenges faced globally in postgraduate education across the different countries, including whether numbers of graduates meet or exceed demand from the different perspectives of policy-makers, economists and also prospective graduates in each country,” the report’s co-author Gill Clarke told The PIE News.

The report conlcuded that graduates in each destination are most likely to have higher earnings than those without degrees, however they are often working in contexts which may not require their higher level skills.

Carried out over 12 months, the research methods included a review of relevant literature and interviews with “key informants” in the eight countries.

Not surprisingly, the researchers concluded that the field a student studies shapes their experience and the outcomes of postgraduate education.

“At all levels and in all programmes, the personal skills of the postgraduate are inextricably linked with the subject studied,” the report states.

“An Australian interviewee illustrated this by saying that there is a ‘big difference between the skills of someone who’s done social work as opposed to maths’.”

As more students pursue postgraduate education motivated by employment, the report comments on which qualifications are being used for job success in certain sectors.

“Generally the professional Masters route is more common in social sciences fields such as law, business, management, health care, social work and other public sector careers,” it states.  “At doctoral level the main fields are education, engineering, psychology (where a doctorate is essential for professional practice), and other social sciences.”

Some PhDs similarly prepare graduates for employment in a chosen area, not just academia. “For example, in biosciences, chemical or engineering industries, it would be difficult to enter or to progress without a doctoral qualification,” it states.

When it comes to links between a postgraduate education and employment, Clarke said she and fellow researcher Ingrid Lunt found variation among countries “in the extent to which postgraduates are valued, by employers and by society in general”.

“For example in Germany and the United States, it is an expectation that those entering high level roles in industry and elsewhere, not just in academia, will be doctoral graduates.”

Employers in the UK and Australia meanwhile appear to be the most critical of postgraduate skills compared to satisfaction levels in other countries.

In all countries, government intervention, mostly in the form of funding initiatives, has been implemented to answer the gap between industry needs and graduate skills as well as to address “ethical and political priorities”.

The report highlights efforts in the selected European countries – Spain, Norway and Germany– where national research councils/institutes have resulted in structured doctoral training to become “one of Europe’s greatest strengths”.

India’s immense human capital is considered a strength for its prospective talent pool, however demand for higher education exceeds supply

Germany’s boom in undergraduate students for example was seen as a strength as it could increase demand for Masters programmes and potentially provide a good supply of PhD entrants.

And India’s immense human capital is considered a strength for its prospective talent pool. However, demand for higher education exceeds supply and “growing enrolments are not linked with greater consistency or quality”.

Meanwhile researchers found Norway, often held as a bastion of education on all levels, is challenged by concerns about grade inflation as the result of a new grading system for postgraduate degrees.