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 18 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 139 162
Rank change year-on-year -49 +23 -5
Contract jobs citing Master's Degree 18 24 44
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.32% 0.80% 0.78%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.69% 1.95% 1.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 16 27
10th Percentile £466 £339 £421
25th Percentile £525 £400 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £650 £538 £611
90th Percentile £719 £635 £650
England median daily rate £538 £580 £575
% change year-on-year -7.33% +0.87% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 9
10th Percentile £25.36 - -
25th Percentile £26.72 - £41.50
Median hourly rate £28.98 £87.05 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -66.71% +33.92% +44.44%
75th Percentile £31.24 - -
90th Percentile £32.60 - £68.00
England median hourly rate £33.50 £65.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -48.46% +18.18% +22.22%

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 2,615 1,231 2,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.99% 41.07% 45.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,751 794 1,421
10th Percentile £306 £301 £300
25th Percentile £425 £437 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £645
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 83 212
10th Percentile £16.32 £20.00 £16.38
25th Percentile £21.69 £27.55 £25.08
Median hourly rate £54.50 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.96% -1.05% +4.74%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £65.44
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.13 £84.44
England median hourly rate £47.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -6.00% +25.13% -20.08%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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
Thames Valley -60 10 £550 +10.00% 13
Hampshire -21 7 £650 +23.81% 10
Berkshire -44 5 £650 +30.00% 7
Oxfordshire -15 4 £550 +10.00% 6
Buckinghamshire - 1 - -
East Sussex - 1 - - 1
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 2 (11.11%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 7 (38.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (5.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 4 (22.22%) Azure
2 3 (16.67%) AWS
2 3 (16.67%) GCP
3 2 (11.11%) Power Platform
4 1 (5.56%) Google Workspace
4 1 (5.56%) OCI
4 1 (5.56%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 1 (5.56%) Internet
1 1 (5.56%) Intranet
1 1 (5.56%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (33.33%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
2 2 (11.11%) Big Data
2 2 (11.11%) Hadoop
2 2 (11.11%) Power BI
2 2 (11.11%) Tableau
3 1 (5.56%) Oracle Database
3 1 (5.56%) RDBMS
3 1 (5.56%) Relational Database
3 1 (5.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Appium
1 1 (5.56%) Burp Suite
1 1 (5.56%) Cypress.io
1 1 (5.56%) Selenium
General
1 13 (72.22%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (55.56%) Finance
3 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
4 2 (11.11%) Legal
5 1 (5.56%) Aerospace
5 1 (5.56%) Aviation
5 1 (5.56%) Law
Job Titles
1 6 (33.33%) Finance Manager
2 2 (11.11%) Data Scientist
2 2 (11.11%) Lead
3 1 (5.56%) Architect
3 1 (5.56%) Commercial Manager
3 1 (5.56%) Contracts Manager
3 1 (5.56%) Data Architect
3 1 (5.56%) Information Assurance Officer
3 1 (5.56%) Information Officer
3 1 (5.56%) Integration Manager
3 1 (5.56%) Integration Project Manager
3 1 (5.56%) Penetration Tester
3 1 (5.56%) Project Manager
3 1 (5.56%) QA Engineer
3 1 (5.56%) Risk Officer
3 1 (5.56%) Security Manager
3 1 (5.56%) Senior
3 1 (5.56%) Senior Architect
3 1 (5.56%) Senior Data Architect
3 1 (5.56%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (11.11%) Matplotlib
1 2 (11.11%) PyTorch
1 2 (11.11%) Seaborn
1 2 (11.11%) TensorFlow
2 1 (5.56%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 7 (38.89%) Analytical Mindset
2 2 (11.11%) Algorithms
2 2 (11.11%) Security Posture
3 1 (5.56%) CESG
3 1 (5.56%) Data Structures
3 1 (5.56%) Driving Licence
3 1 (5.56%) Management Information System
3 1 (5.56%) Mobile App
3 1 (5.56%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.56%) Kali Linux
1 1 (5.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (44.44%) Business Intelligence
2 7 (38.89%) Computer Science
3 6 (33.33%) Budgeting
3 6 (33.33%) Budgeting and Forecasting
3 6 (33.33%) Collaborative Culture
4 5 (27.78%) Problem-Solving
5 4 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
6 3 (16.67%) Agile
6 3 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (16.67%) Data Engineering
6 3 (16.67%) Decision-Making
6 3 (16.67%) Information Security
7 2 (11.11%) Actionable Insight
7 2 (11.11%) Business Continuity
7 2 (11.11%) Data Pipeline
7 2 (11.11%) Data Science
7 2 (11.11%) Disaster Recovery
7 2 (11.11%) ERP
7 2 (11.11%) Mathematics
7 2 (11.11%) Statistics
Programming Languages
1 2 (11.11%) Python
1 2 (11.11%) R
1 2 (11.11%) SQL
2 1 (5.56%) Java
2 1 (5.56%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 18 (100.00%) Degree
2 4 (22.22%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (11.11%) CISSP
4 1 (5.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 1 (5.56%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (5.56%) CCSP
4 1 (5.56%) CESG Certified Professional
4 1 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (5.56%) CISMP
4 1 (5.56%) DBS Check
4 1 (5.56%) ISTQB
4 1 (5.56%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 1 (5.56%) MBA
4 1 (5.56%) OSCP
4 1 (5.56%) SANS
4 1 (5.56%) SC Cleared
4 1 (5.56%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (11.11%) Data Quality
2 1 (5.56%) GRC
2 1 (5.56%) NIST
2 1 (5.56%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (5.56%) Nessus
1 1 (5.56%) Nmap
Vendors
1 7 (38.89%) Microsoft
1 7 (38.89%) SAP
2 2 (11.11%) Oracle
3 1 (5.56%) Infor
3 1 (5.56%) JDA