The report warns that ‘urgent reform’ is needed in the postgraduate sector, and has raised the possibility of introducing government-funded student loans for postgraduates in the future. The Commission has found that higher undergraduate tuition fees, and the reluctance of banks to grant loans to postgraduates, has dissuaded many students from continuing their education after graduation.

These conditions have created a “perfect storm” in postgraduate study, according to the report which comes following an eight-month enquiry by the Higher Education Commission on whether the sector can be “brought in from the cold”. The proportion of British students going on to postgraduate study is currently one of the lowest in Europe. The already high cost of postgraduate study is likely to increase further after the tripling of tuition fees for new undergraduates this year.

When contacted by Varsity, the Graduate Admissions Office declined to comment on whether the University would increase tuition fees for postgraduate students.

The report concludes by calling on the government to “immediately establish a taskforce to examine the feasibility of a postgraduate student loan scheme and develop policy options”, to report by December 2013”.

Daniel Zeichner, Labour Party Candidate for Cambridge, told Varsity that this report is “really important for Cambridge.” He continued: “Postgraduate education will be increasingly important as more students seek to differentiate themselves from others by going beyond a first degree.The costs are rising, and the current support is piecemeal – the Higher Education Commission is right to recommend that a proper postgraduate loan scheme be developed.”

However, Arsalan Ghani, current President of the Graudate Union, was sceptical about the findings, saying that “the fundamental problem is having an education system that relies on individual students accumulating a mountain of debt, just in order to gain an education that is proving to be increasingly worthless in the face of continued economic crisis, recession, and barren job prospects.”

One MPhil Economics student told Varsity: “I’m not convinced the government should be fully funding students through postgrad - how much benefit is brought to society by someone spending 1-4 years researching whether Egyptian artwork and literature progressed similarly, for example?!”