Master's Degree Contract Job Trends in the South East

Master's Degree
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 196 136 140
Rank change year-on-year -60 +4 +23
Contract jobs citing Master's Degree 27 23 45
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.41% 0.67% 0.98%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.94% 1.72% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 13 25
10th Percentile £416 £356 £350
25th Percentile £459 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.79% -1.60% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £537 £625
90th Percentile £659 £540 £689
England median daily rate £579 £537 £525
% change year-on-year +7.73% +2.29% -19.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 10
10th Percentile - - £38.91
25th Percentile - - £41.50
Median hourly rate £33.50 - £61.44
75th Percentile - - £91.50
90th Percentile - - £92.37
England median hourly rate £36.00 £33.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year +7.46% -21.18% -34.62%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

Master's Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,887 1,338 1,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.60% 38.92% 43.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,948 864 1,245
10th Percentile £350 £222 £336
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% -6.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £732 £650 £717
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 308 117 158
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.36
25th Percentile £35.81 £18.87 £46.64
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £57.70
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.41% -3.84%
75th Percentile £83.00 £68.50 £72.22
90th Percentile £102.22 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -53.43% -1.42%

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Master's Degree relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Master's Degree job vacancy trend in the South East

Master's Degree
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree

Master's Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree in the South East over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Master's Degree in the South East

Master's Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Master's Degree

Master's Degree
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Master's Degree within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Surrey - 12 £550 - 26
Thames Valley -46 10 £450 +5.88% 132
Berkshire -27 9 £450 +12.50% 57
Kent - 4 - - 9
West Sussex -28 1 £560 -2.61% 23
Oxfordshire - 1 - - 50
Master's Degree
England

Master's Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 1 (3.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (7.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (3.70%) Chatbot
2 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (3.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 14 (51.85%) Azure
2 11 (40.74%) AWS
3 10 (37.04%) GCP
4 4 (14.81%) Entra ID
5 2 (7.41%) SaaS
5 2 (7.41%) Serverless
6 1 (3.70%) Amazon EventBridge
6 1 (3.70%) Amazon SQS
6 1 (3.70%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (3.70%) Dialogflow
6 1 (3.70%) Google Workspace
6 1 (3.70%) Power Platform
6 1 (3.70%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.70%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (22.22%) PostgreSQL
1 6 (22.22%) Relational Database
2 2 (7.41%) GIS
3 1 (3.70%) DynamoDB
3 1 (3.70%) MySQL
3 1 (3.70%) NoSQL
3 1 (3.70%) Power BI
3 1 (3.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (18.52%) Git
2 3 (11.11%) JIRA
General
1 16 (59.26%) Social Skills
2 7 (25.93%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (25.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 7 (25.93%) Public Sector
3 6 (22.22%) Finance
4 2 (7.41%) Aerospace
4 2 (7.41%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (3.70%) Aviation
5 1 (3.70%) Law
5 1 (3.70%) Legal
Job Titles
1 8 (29.63%) Lead
2 5 (18.52%) Technical Leader
3 3 (11.11%) Architect
3 3 (11.11%) Technology Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Business Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Business Relationship Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Delivery Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Developer
4 2 (7.41%) Network Engineer
4 2 (7.41%) Network Systems Engineer
4 2 (7.41%) Relationships Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Senior
4 2 (7.41%) Service Delivery Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Service Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Systems Engineer
5 1 (3.70%) CyberArk Architect
5 1 (3.70%) Data Engineer
5 1 (3.70%) Environment Delivery Manager
5 1 (3.70%) SOX Consultant
5 1 (3.70%) Technical Service Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (29.63%) OAuth
1 8 (29.63%) OpenID
2 6 (22.22%) CSS
2 6 (22.22%) HTML
2 6 (22.22%) React
3 5 (18.52%) Django
3 5 (18.52%) OAuth2
3 5 (18.52%) RESTful
4 3 (11.11%) LDAP
4 3 (11.11%) SAML
5 2 (7.41%) .NET
5 2 (7.41%) Node.js
5 2 (7.41%) REST
5 2 (7.41%) XML
6 1 (3.70%) .NET Framework
6 1 (3.70%) AngularJS
6 1 (3.70%) CSS3
6 1 (3.70%) HTML5
6 1 (3.70%) SailPoint
6 1 (3.70%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 7 (25.93%) Cloud Native
2 5 (18.52%) Security Posture
3 3 (11.11%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (11.11%) Legacy Systems
3 3 (11.11%) Management Information System
3 3 (11.11%) PKI
4 2 (7.41%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (7.41%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (7.41%) Operational Technology
4 2 (7.41%) SCADA
5 1 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (3.70%) Distributed Systems
5 1 (3.70%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.70%) Linux
1 1 (3.70%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (51.85%) Computer Science
1 14 (51.85%) Stakeholder Management
2 12 (44.44%) Agile
3 11 (40.74%) DevOps
3 11 (40.74%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (40.74%) Technical Leadership
4 9 (33.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
5 8 (29.63%) Analytics
5 8 (29.63%) CI/CD
5 8 (29.63%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 8 (29.63%) Microservices
5 8 (29.63%) Roadmaps
6 7 (25.93%) Cybersecurity
6 7 (25.93%) Performance Optimisation
7 6 (22.22%) Containerisation
7 6 (22.22%) Continuous Improvement
7 6 (22.22%) ITIL
7 6 (22.22%) Mentoring
7 6 (22.22%) Service Delivery
8 5 (18.52%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 9 (33.33%) Python
2 6 (22.22%) JavaScript
3 3 (11.11%) SQL
4 2 (7.41%) Java
5 1 (3.70%) Bash
5 1 (3.70%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 27 (100.00%) Degree
2 13 (48.15%) Computer Science Degree
3 5 (18.52%) SC Cleared
3 5 (18.52%) Security Cleared
4 4 (14.81%) PMI Certification
4 4 (14.81%) PMP
5 3 (11.11%) AWS Certification
5 3 (11.11%) MBA
6 2 (7.41%) Azure Certification
6 2 (7.41%) CISA
6 2 (7.41%) CISSP
6 2 (7.41%) PhD
7 1 (3.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (3.70%) CCSP
7 1 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (3.70%) CISM
7 1 (3.70%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (29.63%) QA
2 5 (18.52%) Accessibility
3 3 (11.11%) GRC
3 3 (11.11%) PMO
4 2 (7.41%) NIST
5 1 (3.70%) Data Quality
5 1 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (3.70%) ITGC
5 1 (3.70%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 7 (25.93%) Docker
2 3 (11.11%) Active Directory
2 3 (11.11%) OpenAM
Systems Management
1 7 (25.93%) Kubernetes
2 3 (11.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (3.70%) CASB
Vendors
1 7 (25.93%) Microsoft
2 2 (7.41%) Google
2 2 (7.41%) SAP
3 1 (3.70%) CyberArk
3 1 (3.70%) Infor
3 1 (3.70%) JDA
3 1 (3.70%) Oracle
3 1 (3.70%) Planview
3 1 (3.70%) Salesforce
3 1 (3.70%) ServiceNow