According to a report from the Urban Institute, master’s degree programs enroll a more diverse set of students than ever and offer a more diverse set of program fields. They also increasingly are online, with more than 50 percent of master’s students reporting at least some online coursework in 2015–16. Although master’s degrees are more popular and more readily available to a wider cohort of students, the net price for these programs has risen.
The report can be obtained at https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99501/the_rise_of_masters_degrees.pdf.