Do Masters Scholarships Matter Enough?

I can't say for certain how many of those conversations were about funding, but it was definitely 'a lot'.

What I can say, with actual data, is that funding really matters at postgrad level. Go over to HESA and look at the difference the PG loan made when it was introduced almost a decade ago (definitely don't go and read about how broken the loan is now). Or check our Pulse data where we consistently see that the biggest concern for prospective Masters students is cost. Way ahead of eligibility, time, value or many other obstacles that matter too, but don't matter nearly as much.

We know all this. But do we think enough about how much scholarships from universities matter – and how we can maximise their impact?

I've got some fresh data to share with you and some suggestions for how FAU can help the universities we work with via the new Scholarships Search feature on FindAMasters.

Support from the university is the only majority preference here. It's comfortably ahead of government funding (including student loans etc) and well ahead of any other options.

Many of these respondents are international, which will impact results. I'd expect the % for government funding to be a bit higher for domestic audiences and we'll segment to explore that in future. But we can still see that university support is the majority preference for the majority audience.

I think the fact that working during study comes second at 50% helps nuance this finding a little. Students aren't necessarily expecting a 'full ride' scholarship from the university to fully fund their course. They know they'll need other support, including their own resources. That means and smaller or more specific awards may also be impactful if you offer them.

The main takeaway is simple enough though: postgraduate students have always been on the hunt for funding. Today's students are highly likely to be looking for it from their university.

Indeed...

The answer is mostly 'extremely' or 'very':

I would expect audiences to say scholarships are important, but the finding here is pretty compelling nonetheless: respondents aren't just indicating that the presence of funding is 'moderately' important (we gave them that option and only 13% picked it); almost half of them are going for the 'extreme(ly)' option.

Instead we asked audiences to rate the 'attractiveness' of a range of options:

All of these are attractive (we aren't asking for a preference) but there are two fairly clear winners: both the healthcare and inclusive accommodation options score highest on the % of 'extremely' + 'very' responses and students are least likely to be indifferent to these options. Accordingly, they also take the top two spots if we calculate a weighted average.

Some of what this tells us may seem obvious. Healthcare is very expensive for international students (it's got a lot more so in the UK) and inclusive accommodation is always going to be an attractive package, albeit a difficult one for all institutions to offer at scale.

What I think this also tells us, though, is that scholarships don't have to be a full or heavily discounted fee package in order to be attractive at Masters level. Audiences will value support with a range of expenses associated with study and some of these awards may be easier for your university to offer without having to substantially waive or otherwise lose out on fees.

The aim is simple: to better meet the needs of prospective postgrads by making funding options visible as part of their course search and to help universities ensure their getting as much engagement from the scholarships they offer. We know this is important (and we'll have even more behavioural data emerging from this feature soon).

If you already work with FindAUniversity then you can list your scholarships now, for free. All you need is an Institution Profile on FindAMasters. If you want to find out more, our team would love to help. And, if you're attending EAIE, you can book a meeting to see this feature in person.

Of course, I'm always up for a chat about the insights side of things too.