Warning over postgraduate education crisis

Vice-chancellors warned today of the "economically disastrous and socially divisive" neglect of postgraduate education in the UK.

Leaders of 11 higher-education institutions have combined to demand action to avert a crisis as figures show funding for postgraduate students is being phased out. The number receiving financial aid for taking up a research Masters will drop by 47 per cent this autumn from 786 to 413.

Only two European countries – the UK and Andorra – plus Kazakhstan have fewer than 10 per cent of students going on to postgraduate study.