Student Profile
- This page gives an idea of the profile of the Masters EUS students for the six years 2004-2005 to 2009-10. Where I can, I will comment on the results using my own experience in similar masters degrees elsewhere.
- Age
- The youngest student is 21 at the start of the course. Half the students are 23 or younger. This does not deviate much from similar Masters courses elsewhere.
- Gender
- In 2004-5, 2006-7, 2007-8 and 2009-10 the sex ratio is more or less 50:50. This is rather surprising, since most similar masters in which I have taught have been predominantly female. However, in 2005-6 the pendulum overshot in the other way with an 85:15 female:male ratio and again 2008-9 with a 73:27 ratio. This still reflects the swings that one gets with small samples, and eventually I expect that ratio to settle around 60:40.
- Nationality
- The pattern of students over time has become more diverse, representing in 2009-10 no less than eighteen different nationalities, making the student body truly international one. Recently the Dutch have constituted the largest single body, but have made up about a third of the student numbers (this year just over 40%). This year’s shift is largely due to a fall in the take-up of non-Dutch students as the impact of the recession and the uncertainty in exchange-rates began to bite.
- Applications
- For the record, the pattern of applications is far more divers, with applications for 2009-10 received from no less that thirty-six different countries. Not all those applying actually arrive:
- Students fail to secure the necessary funding
- Relational/Family ties keep them at home
- Students go fishing for grants and offers (and those already with a Masters also try for PhD grant)
- And we actually turn some down!
- Qualifications
- The first year of the degree saw a relatively high percentage of students who had already obtained a masters degree. The exact percentage of students starting the degree with a Masters qualification was:
| 2004-2005: |
33% |
| 2005-2006: |
14.3% |
| 2006-2007: |
25% |
| 2007-2008: |
25% |
| 2008-2009: |
20% |
| 2009-2010: |
15% |
On average, a quarter of the students start the degree having already obtained a Masters degree. This is a little higher than my experience elsewhere, and I will not be surprised when, it drops a little.
Overall slightly over 40 per cent of students have come to the Masters program came with a background in political science and/or international relations. With larger numbers of students, the pattern has become more varied, though foreign language graduates, that feature largely in other programs with which I am familiar, have only just started finding their way to our program. The pattern for the last four years is given below:
| |
2006-7 |
2007-8 |
2008-9 |
2009-10 |
| Economics/Business |
4 |
3,5 |
6 |
3,5 |
| European Studies |
- |
3,5 |
3,5 |
4 |
| History |
5 |
3 |
5 |
6,5 |
| Languages |
2 |
4 |
7,5 |
6 |
| Law |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2,5 |
| Political Science/IR |
5 |
5 |
16 |
16 |
| Other |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3,5 |
- Language Ability
- In 2007-8 and 2008-9 those students with English as their mother tongue averaged 14%. Thus already, the overwhelming majority of students have a command of two languages (their native language and English). By ‘command of a second language’ we mean the ability to read a scholarly article in that language! This is very impressive, and very useful for a degree of this kind. French and German are the most common of the second foreign languages, followed by Italian and Spanish.
- Labour Market Destination
- There is not much on-line about the labour market destination of EU Studies graduates, except attractive lists of (glittering) careers. If there is information, it is often attractively (and misleadingly) packaged. For example, hardly anyone admits to the existence of a group of students for which there is no information (and who are often jobless, which is why they haven’t replied to the questionnaire). Thus the percentages always add up to 100%, all with jobs. Another statistic is the time taken to find work. Again, this is based on those registered with work, any work, and is usually another brilliant 100% within a couple of months. I doubt whether this is ever the case, but doubt it even more if a sizeable proportion of students comes from abroad. It is a sad fact that foreign study enhances career prospects in the medium-term, but in the short-term, it does cut graduates off from their home job-markets and networks. This brings me to another way of distorting results, namely by talking-up the job descriptions. It is a fact that many graduates start their careers (if only for a few months) in jobs below their qualifications. So if someone is in food retail, she might be managing an international food refrigeration business or flipping Burgers. We do have statistics from out 2004-5, 2005-6, 2006-7 and 2007-8 graduates collected four months after the end of the course or internship. The ‘local government’ data includes two graduates employed in local representation in Brussels This is also the first year that we registered unemployed students (ironically, after an internship which left them walking slap-bang into the current recession). What is interesting (and not reflected in these statistics) is that 13% of graduates from these years have eventually gone on to undertake PhD research. And 2% of our graduates get married (to each other!).
By Richard T. Griffiths (updated September 2009).
