The search for master’s degrees has skyrocketed, but there are courses that come with exorbitant prices.

Demand for master’s degrees has risen sharply in the past two decades, rising from 2,000 to 32,000, but fees for some courses are keeping many from continuing, an education economist warns.

There are master’s degrees that cost from 15,000 euros to almost 20,000, but there are others that cost exactly the same as a bachelor’s degree (less than 700 euros per year).

Higher education institutions have autonomy in defining values, and the market is responsible, based on “demand and the status of the institution,” explains education economist Belmiro Gil Cabrito.

Demand began to grow two decades ago, following the Bologna Declaration, which made the various European higher education systems comparable. The length of study increased from five to three years.

“There has been a degradation and a reduction in the value of the diploma market,” said an associate professor at the Institute of Education at the University of Lisbon, based on research conducted in France.

The reality in Portugal shows that until now families have been focused on their children getting a higher education, and Masters have been “few”. According to the General Directorate of Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), in the year of the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, less than two thousand Masters were completed in Portugal and about 30 thousand students received a degree.

In just 10 years, the number of new graduates has grown almost 10-fold, while the number of graduates and masters degrees remains far behind. In 2023, the difference was already much more blurred: about 56 thousand received a bachelor’s degree, and another 33 thousand received a master’s degree.

Despite the growth, “access to a master’s degree is not equal for everyone,” warns a retired professor. While liberal arts institutions choose to value close to the minimum tuition, some science courses offer “master’s degrees with tuition paid at death.”

A defender of universality and free education laments that higher education institutions (HEIs) use a “market view of courses” approach to determining the amounts students pay, making them “the weakest link”.

“There is a social status being built. There are courses that are perceived as very good and with many professional opportunities. They appear in international ‘rankings’ and they have more renowned teachers. But there are really good teachers in all educational institutions,” says Belmiro Gil Cabrito.

The most attractive courses are in engineering and management, especially in the Faculty of Economics of the Nova SBE University of Lisboa, ISCTE or ISEG.

For example, Nova SBE’s “regular CEMS MIM Master’s degree” costs €19,650. The program “is at the forefront of master’s degree delivery,” according to the institution’s website, which explains that in year 1, students follow the Master of Management curriculum, while in year 2 they combine “cross-cutting themes, courses, seminars, and projects” developed by the Alliance’s 34 business schools.

In exchange for almost 20,000 euros, these students will be able to study one semester at Nova SBE and another at one of the 33 best management schools in the world.

There is also a Nova SBE Management Master’s degree with “double degrees”, which costs 16 thousand euros and also includes part of the training at a partner university.

The school ensures that it is “aware of the challenges some families face in making this investment” and therefore awards scholarships annually, “meeting 100% of eligible requests for financial support” last year, according to a press release sent to Lusa.

Professor Belmiro Gil Cabrito points out that this is often not enough: “The value of scholarships in terms of quantity and money has increased, but when one of the parents is unemployed or when both parents earn the minimum wage, they are already working hard to achieve. At the end of the month, I seriously doubt that there will be no expulsions due to financial insolvency. If this happens with the undergraduate, it will happen much more with the master’s.”

The expert regrets that the price of some master’s degrees affects many candidates who “of course would like to continue their studies, but cannot.”

The ISCTE Master of Management was designed to “continue the 1st cycle of management studies”, but the tuition fee is 7,350 euros. Also at ISCTE Business School, the Master of Management in Analytical Methods costs 5,800 euros, and the course in Accounting and Management Control costs 6,850 euros.

Nearby, at ISEG, there are courses that cost at least seven thousand euros: the fee for a Master’s degree in Finance is 7,900 euros, the fee for Management is 7,800 euros, and the fee for Business Sciences is seven thousand euros.

“Very different fees are charged for the same thing,” warns the researcher, remembering that this championship also takes into account “the status that the institution itself has.”

On the other hand, the University of Porto (UP), which has the highest average acceptance rates in the country for degrees in management and economics, has much lower tuition fees for master’s degrees.

Access to four continuous Master’s programmes “aimed at recent graduates” of the Faculty of Economics costs €1,500, as well as specialisation Master’s programmes aimed at those who want to “strengthen their skills in specific course areas to enhance their careers”.

However, the cost of an “executive master’s degree” at the UP Faculty of Economics is already approaching seven thousand euros.

For example, at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, an 18-month Master’s degree in Management costs 2,100 euros, while at the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, the fee for the same Master’s degree is one thousand euros per year.

In the same institution, tuition fees vary depending on the studies offered: at the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, a master’s degree in community nursing costs 1,500 euros per year, while a master’s degree in maternal health and obstetric care costs two thousand euros per year.

In some fields, such as medicine or architecture, a master’s degree is required to enter the profession. In these cases, they are integrated master’s degrees with fees equal to those of a bachelor’s degree.

“Despite the efforts that the state is making in the homes – which are still few, but that does not mean that it does not spend millions – on food, offering prices in the canteen that are actually lower than the real cost of food, and on stipends, there are still many who remain,” he complained.

According to the expert, one of the biggest problems associated with the value of master’s degrees is related to the “lack of state responsibility” that has left educational institutions to survive on their own in recent years.

In 1995, 95% of the university’s budget came from the state budget, and only the remaining 5% came from tuition fees, donations, or research projects.

Currently, universities have to cover more than 40% of their budget, the expert says. “Where do they get the money from? Tuition fees,” he notes, explaining that in general, fees for the first and second cycles alone account for 16% to 17% of a university’s budget.

“They will get money from the students and if they can charge more, they will charge more. The weakest part is the students,” he laments.

The result: “Among the potential future masters, many of them do not show up due to financial insolvency and end up being punished in the labor market later, getting more unstable work,” he criticizes.

Belmiro Gil Cabrito recalls that when faced with two candidates, one with a PhD and the other with a master’s degree, “it is natural that the employer would prefer, for the same position and with the same pay, to have a graduate with a master’s degree instead.”