Brighton is taking part in one of 20 pilot projects being publicly funded to the tune of £25m through the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) Postgraduate Support Scheme.
The university will be one of nine universities in a collaboration led by Kingston University. The project will investigate "expectations and attitudes of students, universities and employers towards postgraduate study in science, technology engineering and mathematics, and the outcomes following students' graduation, to support and sustain growth in this area in the UK".
It will offer 40 fee scholarships at each of the English partner institutions and lead to the development of a range of student support mechanisms. HEFCE will provide £1.8m for the project. A total of 360 students will benefit initially and numbers will rise in the future.
Professor Andrew Lloyd, Dean of the University of Brighton's Faculty of Science and Engineering, said the aim of the programme was to encourage students to take new courses that they otherwise would not progress to.
He said: "We are very pleased the University of Brighton has been selected for this programme which will offer exciting new opportunities for postgraduates who currently are not in a position to progress their training and education."
The HEFCE funding will support a total of 2,800 students around the country with financial and pastoral help, mentoring, networking, curricula change, funded scholarships, work placements and bursary and loan schemes.
Most participating universities will work with a range of partners including higher education institutions and businesses.
David Willetts, the Universities and Science Minister, said: "Postgraduate study is good for students, good for universities, and good for the economy. We want talented graduates from all backgrounds to feel inspired and able to continue their education. This £25 million investment will help develop partnerships, explore different ways of financing postgraduate study, and attract students from less advantaged backgrounds to postgraduate education. It will also provide a big boost to our internationally renowned postgraduate sector."
Steve Egan, HEFCE Interim Chief Executive, said: "The range and innovative approaches in the schemes which universities have devised to increase take up of postgraduate courses is impressive. We will work closely with the projects to see what is working well and to communicate this widely to build strong foundations for this critical aspect of higher education."
Kingston, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Lincoln, Teesside and Manchester Metropolitan are the other English universities involved in the consortium. The project will get under way in January and is expected to conclude in March 2016.