University is fleeting. One minute you’re sat next to a bunch of strangers in a kitchen you’re supposed to call home, the next you’re contemplating whether to apply for a Master’s degree (in what? You’ll cross that bridge when you come to it) or to become a fully-fledged grown-up in the real world.
According to HESA.ac.uk, Between 2020/21 and 2021/22, the number of qualifications awarded at postgraduate level increased by 13%. This increase was largely driven by increases in both masters taught and other postgraduate taught qualifications. And with unemployment rates for graduates being at 3.2%, there’s no surprise that students are looking at this option.
Gina Hall, aged 20, who studies Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield, wants to do a Master’s to broaden the opportunities she can be offered. She says: ‘I’m doing a Master’s after my undergrad so I can better my chances of getting on the NHS scientist training program. It’s an extremely competitive program and the majority of my peers who are applying will definitely have a masters.’
Regardless of the competitive nature of the professional world, students are all too aware that this will be the best time of our lives. Any grown-up at one point in our lives has said to ‘enjoy it while it lasts because it all goes downhill from here.’ Or at least that’s what the grown-ups around me said…
These three prescious years are the first time in life that we can do anything we want without having to answer to anyone, or to have any real responsibilities. Ice cream for dinner? Carling with breakfast? So what, mate, I’m at uni.
It’s the chance for us to explore who we are without our home, and to grow into ourselves independently. Essentially, university is like a giant playground for big kids who are learning how to be responsible.
When asked about the motivation for doing a Masters, the majority of students I spoke to have the same response: prolonging the inevitable. No responsibilities, no social expectations, no authority to answer to. The only downside of another year at university is being constantly strapped for cash.
Can you really blame students for wanting one more sweet year of being an adult, but not quite a grown up?
