Analyses of graduate degrees suggest that many programs are ‘cash cows’ for colleges and universities, including online master’s degrees and certificates.

Shelby Kearns:

Higher Ed Dive recently shared a report from the Urban Institute on graduate degrees’ return on investment (ROI). The results are not good for the students. 

Data from the Urban Institute shows that “[b]orrowers are taking on more debt to complete their graduate degrees,” and “the typical earnings for workers with graduate degrees have held steady after increasing in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” according to Higher Ed Dive

“Undergraduate borrowers didn’t see the same level of increases in their debt loads as graduate students,” Higher Ed Dive reported. “These differences may be chalked up to differing federal student loan policies for undergraduate and graduate students.”

The Urban Institute report said that, adjusted for inflation, “the median debt among borrowers completing master’s degrees nearly doubled” from 2000 to 2016, and “increases for borrowers obtaining professional doctoral degrees or research doctoral degrees roughly doubled.”