Debt Levels for Dark Arts Degree Shock Wizarding World

A report released today by New America reveals skyrocketing debt levels for graduate students with a Master of the Dark Arts degree. Since 2004, graduate students who took out loans to finance their education have seen their average combined undergraduate and graduate debt levels double from 3,500 Galleons to nearly 7,000 Galleons—roughly $70,000. Much of the rise in debt can be attributed to an increase in the number of high-cost for-profit universities offering that degree program, as well as to the availability of unlimited Wizardry PLUS loans for students from wizarding families (Muggles are restricted to Graduate Bagnold loans, named for former Minister of Magic and long-time Muggle advocate Millicent Bagnold, which carry strict limits).

The first Master of the Dark Arts degree was offered in the late 1980s by the vaunted Durmstrang Institute in Scandinavia. However, its program was shut down in 1998 after the atrocities committed in the Second Wizarding War. In 2002, Durmstrang reopened the program, focusing less on practical skills and more on the study of the Dark Arts from "an academic, theoretical, and cultural perspective." After Durmstrang reopened its master's program in 2002, many for-profit wizarding academies followed suit, including training institutions like the Academy of Broom Flying, which has traditionally been more career-oriented and focused degrees for broom-related careers. The University of the Burning Phoenix, a largely online for-profit institution, hosts the largest Dark Arts master's program, graduating roughly 3,000 wizards annually at a cost of more than 4,000 Galleons per year.

While the degrees are expensive—with prices only growing—employment for students with such degrees is very low; many M.D.A. recipients become watchwizards (glorified security guards). Others who did not score high enough to become an Auror on their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.) also pursue the degree, though its connection to employment is tenuous, at best. The degree has also been billed as a qualification for teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts in wizarding schools, though few professors in the field actually hold such a degree. Indeed, with a high tuition and no relevant licensure or career path, the Master of the Dark Arts may be the medical assistant program of the wizarding world.

Despite the questionable usefulness of such a degree, the Association for Private Sector Wizarding Academies (APSWA) has vigorously defended Dark Arts master programs across the country. Better known as One Knockturn Alley (the address for its headquarters), the lobbying powerhouse has successfully pushed local Ministries of Magic to grant accreditation to a variety of these for-profit programs over the last few years.

It's difficult to say exactly why the Ministry of Magic has allowed schools to charge unrestricted tuition—and wizards'-in-training to borrow Ministry loans for the full tuition and cost of living, as defined by the school—with no check on the utility of such a degree. From what we can tell, no one in the Ministry of Magic is under the Imperius curse (for those who haven't studied up on their Unforgivable Curses, that's a spell in which the caster has complete control over the victim). Yet expensive master's degrees of questionable value have popped up at an astounding rate over the last decade, with unlimited access to Ministry of Magic credit a clear culprit. Even gathering data on these programs is difficult, as One Knockturn Alley has successfully lobbied lawmakers to ban the Ministry from collecting and analyzing wizard record data, leaving policymakers more in the dark than a prisoners' rights advocate touring Azkaban.

Luckily for these wizards and witches, their payments will still always be affordable if they enroll in Income-Based Repayment. But the rise of master's programs, coupled with this generous repayment option, means that many of these borrowers will not pay off their loans, leaving schools stuffed with gold, streets filled with unemployable graduates, and a large bill for the Ministry of Magic. The Ministry should focus its subsidies on undergraduate degrees, especially for low-income students, through grants. And it should explore institutions' outcomes and limit eligibility to federal Galleons to those that serve their students well. Even in the wizarding world, money doesn't grow on trees.

Join the conversation about out-of-control graduate debt in the wizarding world using #DarkArts on Twitter.