Graduate salaries 2021
Which degrees will get you the highest pay?
Graduate pay varies significantly according the subject you study – and where you study it
We identify the courses with the best prospects
Studying chemical engineering at Imperial nets graduates £32,500
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
Some are swayed by dreaming spires, while others like the drinks deals. A few will pick the furthest place from Mum and Dad to spend their formative years. But as a new cohort of teenagers gets ready to make a decision, it has never been a better time to be picky about universities.
New data suggests that choosing the right place to study can add up to £45,000 to graduate earnings — even between universities with similar reputations.
According to figures compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa), computer science graduates from Oxford attract median salaries of £65,000 just 15 months after finishing their degree, more than those from any other course. Take the same subject at Bath Spa or Leeds Beckett, though, and you might start your working life on £20,000 a year.
GRADUATE SALARIES
Best paid graduates
Median salary
Imperial College
£33,500
London School of Economics
£32,000
Cambridge
£30,100
University College London
£30,000
Oxford
£30,000
King’s College London
£29,000
St George's, London
£29,000
Warwick
£29,000
Bath
£28,500
Bristol
£28,000
Queen Mary, London
£28,000
Even between similar highly-selective Russell Group universities, the difference can be tens of thousands of pounds. Dentistry graduates from Newcastle make £50,000, but those from Manchester get £38,364, dropping to £32,000 for graduates from Queen’s Belfast and Dundee. Studying maths at Imperial nets graduates £38,000, but just £23,000 at Newcastle.
The same is true of post-1992 universities, where it pays to shop around for specialised courses. Bournemouth has one of the highest salaries for information systems and management, with graduates making about £42,000. Those from Derby, however, make just £19,000, a difference of £23,000.
With so many graduates to choose from, it is thought that employers are having to get pickier and are beginning to take as much notice of where you study as how you did (firsts and 2:1 degrees preferred).
Professor Jeff Frank, an economist at Royal Holloway, University of London, says: “If the vast bulk of students are getting ‘good degrees’ — firsts and upper-seconds — then employers need to rely upon A-levels and upon the university.”
It is not quite that simple, however: good universities do not necessarily guarantee good salaries. Oxford’s German graduates are paid just £21,010 after 15 months — below the subject average of £23,500, and about £6,000 less than those at St Andrews.
GRADUATE SALARIES
Median graduate salaries by course
Imperial College London
The median graduate salary for Imperial College London is £33,500
Subject | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Computer Science | £50,000 |
Business, Management and Marketing | £39,600 |
Mathematics | £38,000 |
Electrical and Electronic Engineering | £35,000 |
Medicine | £35,000 |
Materials Technology | £32,660 |
Chemical Engineering | £32,500 |
General Engineering | £32,000 |
Mechanical Engineering | £32,000 |
Physics & Astronomy | £32,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Frank says these examples show the limitations of graduate salary data. “It can be dangerous to take a short-run perspective,” he says. “I am confident that an Oxford arts graduate can make a high salary if they decide to go that route, although early career jobs such as a junior curator at a museum are poorly paid.”
But the Hesa data does reflect an apparent shortage of so-called “Stem” graduates (science, technology, engineering and maths) who are able to command higher initial salaries.
Across all subjects, the median salary 15 months after graduation is £24,000, but £27,000 for maths, £28,000 for physics and astronomy, and £29,160 for chemical engineering. Leading the way, though, are dentistry and medicine graduates, on £38,694 and £35,000.
What about the rest? Last year, a paper by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggested that the overall “graduate premium” — the net financial benefit of going to university — was about £120,000 over the course of a working life. However, once the cost of tuition was factored in, a fifth of graduates would not be better off for going to university at all.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, says: “Some people in government say that if a degree course leads to low earnings, it is a low-value course. I don’t agree with that: there are some professions you just don’t earn much in; it doesn’t mean those courses shouldn’t exist.”
Bottom of this year’s salary rankings are drama, dance and cinematics, on £19,000, and creative writing, on £18,500. “Look at the theatre: the West End relies on people with creative arts degrees,” says Hillman.
Most students are not motivated by salaries, at least according to research published earlier this year by the Universities and College Admissions Service (Ucas). “We know the motivating factors behind degree choice are often not based on financial return, and salary is not the ‘be-all and end-all’. Only 13 per cent of finalists consider salary as more important than interest in the role when looking for a graduate job.”
However, the Ucas study found that those who were motivated by graduate outcomes tended to do better. “Maths students are particularly motivated by graduate prospects when choosing their degree subject and have one of the highest recorded salaries,” the research found.
The huge discrepancies in graduate salaries should not be surprising, says Hillman. “It’s always been the case that big gaps between graduate outcomes exist. But the difference now is that we’ve got the data to prove it.”
For those motivated by picking a salary with well-paid prospects, the data is now available to make educated decisions. But some wonder whether it is fair to charge the same fees for town and country planning at the University of Gloucester, whose graduates earn just £12,000 on average, as Oxford’s computer science graduates.
“The post-’92 universities are simply charging too high a price for a less research-led teaching environment,” says Frank. He points to America, where the elite University of California charges fees of about $14,000 a year but mainstream California State charges closer to $7,000.
For now, though, with no reform of tuition fees on the horizon, students will have to weigh up for themselves whether their degree is worth it.
Computer Science
The median graduate salary for Computer Science is £27,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Oxford | £65,000 |
Cambridge | £50,000 |
Imperial College London | £50,000 |
University College London | £42,000 |
Warwick | £39,000 |
Durham | £38,000 |
Suffolk | £36,000 |
King's College London | £35,000 |
Manchester | £35,000 |
Bristol | £34,700 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Law
The median graduate salary for Law is £21,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Oxford | £45,000 |
Cambridge | £32,000 |
Durham | £30,000 |
King's College London | £30,000 |
London School of Economics | £30,000 |
University College London | £28,000 |
Kingston | £26,000 |
London South Bank | £26,000 |
Exeter | £25,000 |
Queen Mary, London | £25,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Medicine
The median graduate salary for Medicine is £35,000
University | Median graduate salary▲ |
|---|---|
Plymouth | £37,000 |
Cambridge | £37,000 |
York | £37,000 |
Bristol | £36,000 |
East Anglia | £36,000 |
Nottingham | £36,000 |
Warwick | £36,000 |
Edinburgh | £36,000 |
Birmingham | £35,000 |
Leeds | £35,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Dentistry
The median graduate salary for Dentistry is £38,694
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Newcastle | £50,000 |
Sheffield | £49,000 |
Birmingham | £45,000 |
King's College London | £41,000 |
Bristol | £40,000 |
Leeds | £40,000 |
Queen Mary, London | £40,000 |
Liverpool | £39,700 |
Plymouth | £38,500 |
Manchester | £38,364 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Business, Management and Marketing
The median graduate salary for Business, Management and Marketing is £23,500
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Oxford | £40,000 |
Imperial College London | £39,600 |
Plymouth Marjon | £36,500 |
London School of Economics | £34,500 |
Cumbria | £31,500 |
Bristol | £31,000 |
Bath | £30,000 |
Cambridge | £30,000 |
University College London | £30,000 |
Loughborough | £30,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Economics
The median graduate salary for Economics is £28,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Cambridge | £50,000 |
University College London | £35,700 |
London School of Economics | £35,000 |
Warwick | £35,000 |
Oxford | £34,500 |
Bath | £32,400 |
Durham | £32,200 |
Exeter | £31,200 |
King's College London | £31,000 |
Edinburgh | £31,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Mathematics
The median graduate salary for Mathematics is £27,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Imperial College London | £38,000 |
Cambridge | £37,750 |
London School of Economics | £37,000 |
Oxford | £34,500 |
University College London | £33,000 |
St Andrews | £30,500 |
Bristol | £30,000 |
Warwick | £30,000 |
Bath | £29,500 |
Glasgow | £28,600 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
General Engineering
The median graduate salary for General Engineering is £28,700
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Northampton | £40,000 |
Imperial College London | £32,000 |
Oxford | £32,000 |
Cambridge | £31,000 |
Durham | £29,070 |
Cardiff | £27,960 |
Bristol | £27,900 |
Edinburgh Napier | £27,500 |
Warwick | £27,000 |
Glasgow Caledonian | £26,100 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Physics & Astronomy
The median graduate salary for Physics & Astronomy is £28,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
University College London | £35,000 |
Imperial College London | £32,000 |
Royal Holloway, London | £32,000 |
Oxford | £31,650 |
Hertfordshire | £30,500 |
Bath | £30,000 |
Durham | £30,000 |
King's College London | £30,000 |
Queen Mary, London | £30,000 |
Warwick | £30,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Materials Technology
The median graduate salary for Materials Technology is £27,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Imperial College London | £32,660 |
Oxford | £31,250 |
Loughborough | £28,000 |
Birmingham | £27,000 |
Sheffield | £27,000 |
Sheffield Hallam | £25,000 |
Manchester | £23,500 |
Swansea | £20,000 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency
Anatomy & Physiology
The median graduate salary for Anatomy & Physiology is £24,000
University | Median graduate salary |
|---|---|
Huddersfield | £32,165 |
Oxford | £30,000 |
St George's, London | £27,000 |
Anglia Ruskin | £26,800 |
University College London | £25,500 |
West of England, Bristol | £25,000 |
Leicester | £25,000 |
Liverpool | £25,000 |
King's College London | £25,000 |
Southampton | £24,907 |
Source: Higher Education Statistical Agency