Economics
The Economics of the One-Year Master's
Compressed degrees look cheap on a fees page and expensive on a calendar. The real cost is the learning that never had time to settle.
A one-year taught master's is the most efficient product in higher education and the least forgiving. Nine months of teaching, three of dissertation, and no slack anywhere in the schedule.
The efficiency is real: lower fees, one year of forgone earnings instead of two, and a credential that arrives before a career has calcified. The cost is that reflection is squeezed out. Students learn material in the same term they are examined on it, which favours retention over synthesis.
Two-year structures with an integrated placement solve this not by teaching more but by leaving a gap between exposure and assessment. That gap is where judgement forms.