Career Services for UK Master's Programs (Public Affairs/IDEV)

[monocle]

What are the career services like for UK Master's programs in international development and public affairs?

 Based on my admittedly cursory research, here's what I gather:

NOTE: I realize this is a very unscientific comparison, but I wanted to highlight one upper-tier UK course vs one upper-tier US course with my examples.

1. Admissions is not as concerned with how much work experience an applicant has (in contrast to US programs of the same field)

2. Number one leads to a lower employability for UK finishers?

• LSE has ~71% of graduates with full-time employment
• ~90% at SAIS Johns Hopkins

3. UK Programs include more people looking to study further

• ~2% from SAIS vs ~12% from LSE

4. Median Salaries are markedly lower than their US counterpart reports (I realize this could be self-selective, so if anyone could share their insights)

• 26,500 pounds ($38000 US) per year from IDev at LSE, 32,500 Pounds ($46,500 USD) from MPA at LSE
• median salaries of MA graduates SAIS: (Private sector) $65,000, (Public) $63,000, (Non-profit) $55,000, (Multilateral) $50,000

So are SAIS and other American MA schools cooking the books? Are UK programs taking more people who get entry-level jobs right after graduation? Are UK programs mainly for those seeking PhD programs after? What's the deal? Do career services in the UK help grads find appropriately-paying jobs less than US?

Edited January 14, 2016 by monocle

[bsack]

based on what i've seen, i think the key distinguishing difference is simply age and experience.

as you point out, UK programs DO NOT require work experience, and if anything, might slightly discourage it. therefore, a lot of their masters intake are students matriculating immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees. keep in mind that undergrad is also generally 3 years long in the UK, as opposed to the standard 4 in the US. also, many masters take just 1 year in the UK, as opposed to the typical 2 in the US.

i studied at the LSE during my junior year, and one of my flatmates was a european masters student. remember, his undergrad only took 3 years, and he also happened to be slightly young for his grade. so it turned out he was actually slightly younger than me, and here he was finishing up an effin postgraduate degree, while i hadn't even finished junior year of undergrad yet!

point is, a majority of the kids from SAIS did 4 years of undergrad, have 3-4 years of solid work experience, and then spent 2 years of grad school on top of that. on average, they're about 28 years old when they finish their first masters degree. contrast this with the british LSEer, who spent only 3 years in undergrad, did not work full-time after graduating, went straight to grad school, and finished their first masters degree at 22. you can certainly get away with paying some kid fresh out of school $46k for their first job, especially when they are the same exact age as american students when they finish their bachelors. a 28 year old...not so much. they certainly have more experience and have more seniority when they finish SAIS, so they are entitled to their $55000. that is why you are probably noticing a slight difference in postgrad pay between the brits and the americans. if you were to compare salaries age-by-age, i am very certain the brits more than catch up. in fact, i would think the LSEer would eventually surpass the SAISer at some point, particularly because (1) the LSEer has a bit of head start over the SAISer, (2) earning in GB pounds gives you a slight boost (yes, even with its recent depreciation), and (3) the LSE network's strength internationally in both the public and private sectors (referred to affectionately as the "LSE mafia" by our dean). 

Edited February 29, 2016 by bsack