UK sees drop in PhD students but boom in taught master’s

Fall in number of postgraduates on research courses, but rise in those on taught programmes

The number of postgraduate students is rising on taught courses, but falling on research ones.

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency published on 27 January show that 33,910 students started a postgraduate research degree in 2019-20, a 9 per cent drop compared with 2018-19 and the lowest rate in five years.