ABSTRACT
Burgess (1997), in a book entitled Beyond the First Degree, noted that the shift from elite to mass higher education since the 1980s had resulted in major debates between researchers, practitioners and policy makers about the purposes and nature of postgraduate education and training. While undergraduate education has retained predominance in policy initiatives and public debate since then, postgraduate education has nevertheless continued to move rapidly from the margins of consideration to a more central focus for development and change in the UK and Europe, both within institutions and at national policy levels.
