Charles H.F. Davis III speaks with Business Insider about what he deems the “master’s degree industrial complex”

In an article for Business Insider, author and higher education policy analyst for Education Reform Now, James S. Murphy, states that of the approximately 2 million students who earned bachelor’s degrees this spring, many will soon find themselves back on campus to begin the next chapter of their lives: graduate school. He argues that millennials and Gen Zers have been sold on the idea that a master’s degree is the new bachelor’s—a must-have credential in the modern workforce. More than 3 million students were enrolled in a graduate program in 2020—a million more than there were in 2000, writes Murphy. However, he cites numerous reasons why obtaining a master’s degree often proves to be a poor return on investment, not to mention the common accumulation of crippling student loan debt.

SOE professor Charles H.F. Davis III added that the increasing credentialization of work is a major driver of what he calls the “master’s degree industrial complex.” Jobs that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree before now do, and those that used to call for a bachelor’s now call for a master’s. Murphy writes, “Davis puts the onus squarely on what he calls the ‘mutually beneficial relationship between industry and higher education,’ in which corporate America demands credentials that universities are happy to provide.”