The universities that earn graduates the highest salaries: Russell Group graduates earn TWICE as much as those from creative arts colleges
- London School of Economics graduates earn more than £40k after five years
- Graduates from rich households earn around 10 per cent more than those from less affluent backgrounds
- Five years after graduation, men earn around £3,500 more than women
- Medicine and dentistry graduates earn double the wage of those who studied creative arts and agriculture
The university you go to matters when it comes to predicting likely future earnings - and so does the course, new research into graduate incomes has concluded.
Graduates who went to the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford earned, on average, more than £40,000 five years after graduation, the study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies for the BBC found.
Those who attended one of the 24 Russell Group universities took home an average of £33,500 after the same time period.
High earners: Of the students who did the same subject at the same university, those from rich households still earn around 10 per cent more than those from less affluent backgrounds
While in contrast, students at several of the dance, music and drama colleges pocketed closer to £15,000 after five years.
The subject studied is another big determining factor in graduates' earning power.
Five years after graduation, medicine and dentistry graduates earn an average of £46,700, while those who studied economics take home £40,000.
That is about double the average wages of creative arts (£20,100), agriculture (£22,000) and mass communication (£22,300) graduates.
Another stark finding which stood out for Dr Jack Britton, the senior research economist at the IFS who carried out the research, was that the social status of your parents still matters when it comes to how much you earn.
He said: ‘The biggest surprise from the research was the difference in earnings between the rich and poor.'
University | Average salary five years after graduating |
---|---|
London School of Economics and Political Science | £43,500 |
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine | £42,050 |
The University of Oxford | £41,036 |
The University of Cambridge | £39,497 |
St George's Hospital Medical School | £39,302 |
University College London | £37,489 |
King's College London | £37,099 |
The University of Bristol | £35,281 |
The University of Warwick | £35,175 |
The University of Bath | £34,480 |
The Royal Veterinary College | £34,335 |
University of Nottingham | £33,615 |
University of Durham | £33,086 |
Queen Mary University of London | £32,604 |
The City University | £32,307 |
Loughborough University | £31,837 |
Aston University | £31,763 |
The University of Manchester | £31,275 |
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne | £31,016 |
Source: The top 20 paying universities, figures from research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies for the BBC |
University of Oxford graduates earned on average more than £40,000 after five years
Of the graduates who did the same subject at the same university, those from rich households still earn around 10 per cent more than those from less affluent backgrounds.
'It’s difficult to know what the drivers are for it,' Dr Britton added. ‘But a number of factors could come into play, including different labour market opportunities, different engagement at university different sets of skills that are not observed.
‘The lesson to take away is that improving access to university alone is not enough to address issues of social mobility.’
The research also found that those from better off households are much more likely to go to university, as well as going to more selective universities.
Five years after graduation, medicine and dentistry graduates earn an average of £46,700
That explains why male graduates from households with incomes above £50,000 earn about 20 per cent (£7,000) more than their peers from lower income households, by the time they are in their early 30s.
For women that gap is 16 per cent (£4,000).
The report also found that if a woman has a degree, she can expect to earn about £250,000 more over her lifetime, while for men it’s roughly £170,000 more.
However, when compared against each other male graduates earn more than female graduates. Five years after graduation, male graduates bring in around £3,500 or 14 per cent more than their female counterparts.
This can be partly explained by differences in subject choices, with women more likely to choose courses with low earnings potential such as creative arts, nursing, psychology and social science.
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