To understand students’ motives in obtaining postgraduate qualifications, we elicit intentions to pursue postgraduate education and beliefs about its returns in a sample of 1,002 university students. We find large gaps in perceptions about the immediate and later-life benefits of postgraduate education, both between first- and continuing-generation students and within the latter group. Differences in student beliefs about returns can account for 70% of the socioeconomic gaps in intentions to pursue postgraduate studies. We document large differences in students’ current undergraduate experiences by socioeconomic background and find these to be predictive of perceived returns to postgraduate education.

为了了解学生获得研究生资格的动机，我们希望在1002名大学生中进行研究生教育和对其回报的信念。我们发现，在第一代和连续世代学生之间以及在后一类学生中，对于研究生教育的直接和后期收益的认识存在很大差距。学生对回报的信念差异可以弥补在攻读研究生的意图中所占的社会经济差距的70％。我们通过社会经济背景记录了学生当前本科经历的巨大差异，并发现这些差异可以预测研究生教育的回报。