At a time when everyone appears to be cost conscious, weighing up the investment required to gain a Masters degree against the potential benefits after graduation is perhaps more important than ever before. Talk of rising tuition fees in Australia, the UK and across Europe has made more prospective graduate students nervous about the costs associated with taking their first steps on graduate program ladder, thinking twice about applying before the complete cost of study is considered.
But a careful approach and some detailed research can make all the difference in locating a Masters program that fits your ambitions and the size of your wallet, with some new and emerging destinations offering excellent value for money for the more adventurous student. Perhaps the starting point from which to understand how much a Masters degree is going to actually cost is what exactly you will have to pay for, with tuition fees just being the start of the investment. Living costs, equipment and book costs, travel and moving costs and the loss of income, if you are giving up employment to go and study for one, two or more years, all contribute to the amount of money you will need at your disposal before you can embark on your program of studies. Most international students will spend the majority of their time focusing on the level of tuition fees and living costs associated with their first choice program, yet the additional costs of being away from home in a different country can add a further 25% on top of the basic sum required.
The cost of higher education more generally and Masters degrees in particular vary enormously from country to country, providing opportunities for students to pursue high quality graduate programs at wildly different levels of tuition fees. The immediate trend that has emerged in recent years is the relative similarity between the majorities of tuition fees across the key destination countries, from US$24,000 in New Zealand to US$26,000 in the UK, where the significant share of the cost of education has been passed to the international student. Only France, Germany and Italy remain as relatively low cost tuition countries, where the structure of higher education continues to mean that international students are subsidised by the national government in one form or another.
The major difference in tuition fees for international Masters programs is explained by how universities are funded in the country where they are located. Professor Celeste Schenck, President of The American University of Paris (AUP), explains some of the most important differences between tuition fees across countries and their universities. “The level of fees varies largely because of the structure and situation each university finds itself in. For many years, the Government of the country in which the institution was located would subsidize students for Masters and other degrees. As funding for higher education came under more pressure, many countries decided that because international students and their parents had not contributed to the local tax system – the usual source of funding for university students – it was necessary to pass the full cost of education over to them.”
Irrespective of the country and course you choose at the Masters level, there are an increasing number of ways that you can offset your overall costs depending on where you study. Almost all countries that welcome international students allow part-time work during term-time and often provide work permits for full-time employment when a student is away from their program of study during vacations. Regulations in Australia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK and the USA all allow students to work during term-time and vacations, with an increasing number also making it considerably easier to secure a work permit for between one and two years upon graduation. The difficulty, however, for many international Masters students intending to offset the costs of their program of study by part-time or full-time work is the way in which visa regulations require students to arrive at their place of study with sufficient funds to cover their entire period of study. While ingenious students are able to often circumvent such requirements, immigration authorities are becoming more rigorous in ensuring that new international students have the funds they claimed to have when they applied for their visas.
When considering the cost of a Masters program anywhere in the world, perhaps the single most important factor in judging whether a degree is worth the financial investment is whether it helps to meet your ambitions. In some circles, particularly when looking at degree programs like the MBA or other management-related programs, this is often called the “return on investment” or ROI factor. In reality, however, this is a discussion far more complex than whether the tuition fees and living costs paid during the course of your study can be recouped from a higher salary after graduation. For many students it is just as important to consider whether the reasons that caused them to study abroad in the first place have been justified and if they are now on the way to the career they hoped to embark on at the beginning of their program. Weighing up factors such as degree, program and university reputation, the content of the course, the location of the university, destination country, practical experience and the employability of a qualification put the overall cost of a Masters program in a more rounded context and contribute to a far more informed decision about where and what to study.
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