Last time you heard from us we were issuing warnings about the inadvisability of doing postgraduate study based purely on the desire to extend or relive your student days, since postgraduate study can be hard, hard work, and often quite expensive.

However, as we hinted at last time there are lots of good reasons to do postgraduate study. So, if you’re thoughts are turning towards postgraduate study based on purer motives than wanting to not give up your regular seat in the union bar, read on!

Postgraduate study can make you more employable

The job market for young people is more competitive than ever, right across the spectrum of skill levels. Competition for jobs requiring degrees is very intense nowadays, primarily because a higher proportion of people than ever have an undergraduate university education.

In this climate, postgraduate study is a great way to stand out from the crowd. Employers know that it is much more demanding than an undergraduate degree, and so accordingly it equips people with more advanced skills, whether they relate to a specific career or are transferrable ones. For example, while a BA or BSc in economics will give people some quantitative (i.e., equations and statistics) skills, an MSc in the same subject will contain a much more advanced set of skills in this area. The same goes for skills such as research, writing, problem solving, giving presentations, meeting deadlines and a whole lot more besides.

Postgraduate study can give you essential qualifications

With some career paths, it isn’t even a question of postgraduate study enhancing your chances. Instead, it’s an essential requirement. This can either be because the field requires both an undergraduate degree and a Master’s, or–and more frequently–because if you don’t have an approved undergraduate degree in the subject, the only way into it is by doing postgraduate study in it (technically you could often do a second undergraduate degree, but the expense and time involved make this option unrealistic for the vast majority of people). Examples of careers where postgraduate study is required if you want to move into it are (to name but a few) teaching, law, librarianship, translation and medicine. So if you have an idea on a career that your undergraduate degree doesn’t equip you for and that needs specific qualifications, postgraduate study could be your best bet.

Postgraduate study can be intellectually enriching

Career prospects aren’t the only reason for considering postgraduate study. It’s also the best possible way to study something for its own sake and develop a greater and deeper appreciation of it. When people begin life as an undergraduate in many subjects–particularly the traditional disciplines and in non-vocational subjects–they think that when they graduate they’ll have reached the peak of that subject area. When they graduate, they find out that said peak was just a false summit, and there’s still a long way to climb before they get to the top. For those with the stomach and the desire to face that challenge, postgraduate study it what’ll get them there.