At the University of Georgia, we are committed to raising the bar for higher education, and statistics show that master’s degree programs have grown increasingly popular, especially online.

Master’s degree programs are also becoming increasingly more expensive, with net prices having risen faster than bachelor’s degrees. This is why recently, more and more people have chosen to pursue an online Master’s degree to forgo additional institution costs that are associated with being on-campus.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, more than 800,000 master’s degrees are conferred annually (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 318.20). The same federal data show that more than half of post-baccalaureate students take at least one distance education course, and a substantial share are enrolled exclusively in online programs. (NCES, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 311.15) Graduate students, in particular, are more likely than undergraduates to pursue fully online study.

Over the past two decades, master’s programs have also enrolled a larger and more diverse group of students. Enrollment among students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds has steadily increased, and graduate offerings have expanded to include more specialized fields aligned with workforce demand.

At UGA Online, we now offer more than 40 fully online master’s degrees across education, business, public health, social work, engineering, data science, pharmacy, financial planning, environmental sciences, media, and more. In addition, students can pursue online doctoral and specialist degrees, low-residency MFA programs, graduate certificates, and professional endorsements. These programs are developed and taught by the same UGA faculty who teach on campus, and graduates earn the same University of Georgia degree.

Online education is particularly well suited for students in master’s programs because these students typically tend to be proactive and self-motivated learners who are more likely to be previously educated and employed. Online master’s degrees also offer more flexibility to the students, allowing them to make their own schedule and complete work on their own time, within deadlines.

This article was adapted from Inside Higher Ed.