The past few years have seen a steady increase in the number of people opting for postgraduate studies. While it is possible that part of that increase has been due to the recession and the fact that until recently there have been fewer jobs for graduates, it certainly does not give a full picture.

''A masters degree demonstrates the ability to work at a higher level than the undergraduate,'' said Thomas Connolly, associate head of the department of Computing and Information Systems at Paisley University. ''If you are competing on paper with a graduate with a first degree you are more attractive.

''The benefits of postgraduate education are significant. We find that from the IT side, it is very much a maturing process that allows individuals to work more independently at a higher level and to use the standard skills that they have brought from an undergraduate course.

''At postgraduate level, they are able to synthesise creatively, and apply what has been learnt. They are able to work independently and at a higher level.

Paisley University runs an IT conversion postgraduate course which has been most beneficial to those graduates who have found that employers are not satisfied with a first degree when it does not include IT skills.

In the area of science and engineering, where research and development are vital, employment prospects can be enhanced by a higher degree and in many of the professions, employers do not merely favour employees with postgraduate qualifications but in fact demand a higher level degree.

It is generally agreed that masters and doctorate degrees will improve employment prospects. The postgraduate qualification is thought to make a big difference, especially when so many people enrol on postgraduate programmes while they are in the workplace, incorporating what they are learning in theory with what they are using in practice.

This is particularly true at the dissertation or thesis part of the course which the students can integrate with research to benefit their organisations.

There is evidence too that the postgraduate degree also improves salary prospects. A report entitled The Class of '92 followed the career routes of 2833 people who graduated from Scottish universities in 1992, to see their progress four years later, in terms of salary progression.

Using #20,000 as a threshold, it was clear that by 1996, there were real differences between graduate and postgraduate earning capacity.

The survey showed that 64.2% of postgraduates were earning more than #20,000 - some substantially more - while the figure for those with first degree qualifications was only 29.6 %. An important factor that has to be built in to the findings is that many people will already have some work experience before returning to complete a masters, especially those returning to study for MBAs.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters surveyed its membership earlier this year and also found a salary differential. According to the findings, those people with a PhD are likely to be paid #2000 more at the start of their career while those with a masters can expect just under #1000 more than the graduate. Given that it is an average, for some, the figure will be substantially more while for others it will be less.

Barbara Graham of Strathclyde University's Career Services Department, chairs the recently established Postgraduate Students' Working Party which comprises UK career advisers whose purpose is to produce more appropriate education materials, and to look more closely into the issue of destinations of postgraduates.

''While all destinations of undergraduates must be collected, as part of a government requirement, apart from higher degree and the postgraduate Certificate in Education which have to be collected, there is no national database with information on postgraduate destinations,'' she said.

''We are a kind of pressure group trying to get better destination statistics and to analyse that information once it is gathered.

''Another of our objectives is to look at employers' attitudes to postgraduates, and an employer has been nominated by the Association of Graduate Recruiters to work with us.

''We see that as an indicator that employers are aware that more people are doing postgraduate courses and therefore they cannot gear up all of their recruitment literature just to people who have a first degree.''

More and more universities are offering postgraduate IT courses to help make undergraduates more employable. As Thomas Connolly says, such courses also allow undergraduates to widen their options.

''People either do our IT conversion course at Paisley for example, so that they become skilled in information technology and can move away from the area of the first degree, whether it is physics or engineering, social sciences or a language,'' he said.

''But some people see it as a means of acquiring some IT skills that will complement their first degree and allow them to get a job in the area of their first degree whether it is accountancy or engineering.''

Postgraduate programmes are extremely flexible, taking account of the fact that many of those taking part will already be employed. Most students who have been on what is usually a one year full-time course will agree that the intensity and continuity are very beneficial, and some employers consider the investment in terms of time and money to be well spent.

Part time, flexible postgraduate degrees have the advantage of the theory/practice dichotomy, can be less expensive and although they take longer to complete, the time scale is not prohibitive, often around two years.

Many feel that the most difficult postgraduate programmes are those which are mainly based on individually structured study, with limited teaching time, often involving distance learning, and potential students would be well advised to investigate what is involved before embarking on this type of study.

At the end of the day, reputation is important and so is the learning environment. Those interested in postgraduate study should find out as much as possible about the courses offered by the Scottish universities so that they can make an informed choice.