Welcome to your Pulse report for April 2026.

Here you can stay on top of key datapoints for postgraduate recruitment, powered by a unique combination of search and survey data. (See below for more details on our data sources.)

Our Spotlight picks out some of the interesting trends we've been seeing and discussing for postgraduate study, whilst our Pipeline, Destination, Subject and Motivation data tracks important metrics for Masters and PhD audiences.

We'd love to share what else we're seeing, hear what you're looking to understand or just chat postgraduate audience trends with you. Check out the latest postgraduate insights stories on our blog, or request a call with a FindAUniversity expert to learn more.

Why do UK domestic continuers want to study? And are their reasons changing?

UK PGT enrolments have grown slightly for younger age groups for the first time since 2020/21.

This cohort face one of the toughest job-markets since the tail end of the 2008 financial crisis, and that is impacting the reasons why current undergrads may want to continue directly into postgraduate study.

The chart shows how their motivations have changed over the previous year alone. We see how, Subject Interest and Career Entry are always important factors.

The biggest increases are for Transferrable Skills (5pp) and Career Progress (6pp), meanwhile Career Entry (-1pp), Earnings (-3pp) and Challenge (-5pp) are all down.

On the Find A University blog, Mark further explores how and why motivations are changing for continuers and what it might mean for the future.

The chart below displays relative interest in select global study destinations based on Keystone's Share of Search data (monitoring how thousands of users search for postgraduate study every month).

Trends are indexed to Q4 2023, showing how interest has increased or decreased relative to this baseline. Use this data to see the direction of change, but not to compare absolute interest (get in touch with us if you'd like to do that).

Use the toggle to select between Masters and PhD audiences. Use the box below to select specific subject destinations for comparison over time.

The chart below displays search interest across broad subject areas for prospective postgraduate students over the past four complete quarters. This is based on Keystone's Share of Search data which records how thousands of users actually search for postgraduate study every month.

Use the toggle to select between Masters and PhD audiences. Use the box below to select specific subject areas for comparison over time.

Looking to dive deeper into a specific discipline area? Reveal growing subject specialisms? Or uncover trends for individual audiences? Send us an enquiry and your expert Account Manager will happily prepare and discuss the exact postgraduate market data you need.

The chart below shows the main motivations for postgraduate study, based on thousands of monthly responses to Keystone's always-on Pulse survey.

Data is for domestic Continuers (current students considering further postgraduate study in their home country) and Returners (audiences considering returning to university for postgraduate study in their home country ) and Internationals (audiences considering postgraduate study abroad, regardless of their situation).

Use the toggle to select between prospective Masters and PhD.

This report uses audience insight from Keystone Education Group's Share of Search (behavioural analytics across millions of search events on Keystone platforms) and Pulse Survey (always-on tracker surveying with thousands of monthly responses). Information here focusses on postgraduate-level interest in the UK and elsewhere. You can find additional audience insight on the Keystone website.