Higher Education Graduate Outcomes Statistics: UK, 2017/18 - Outcomes by subject studied

Experimental statistics

How do the activities of first degree graduates vary by their class of degree?

Figure 9 shows:

• The proportion of first degree graduates in full-time employment was highest among those who acheived first class honours degree, 58%, and lowest for third class honours/pass 53%.
• The opposite correlation applies to those who went in to part time employment. For first class honours, the proportion is 8%, increasing to 14% for third class honours/pass.
• When excluding significant interim study, 2% of first class honours graduates were unemployed. For third class honours/pass, this was 7%.

How do the activities of graduates vary by the subjects they studied?

Figure 10 shows:

• The highest proportion of postgraduates who studied part-time going on to full-time employment were those studying architecture, building & planning. Of postgraduates studying part-time historical & philosophical studies, languages or creative arts & design, less than half were in full-time employment.
• Graduates who studied creative arts & design were more likely to go in to part-time employment than those from any other subjects.
• On average, more graduates who studied science based subjects were in full-time employment or full-time study than those studying non-science subjects.
• Undergraduates who studied computer science had the highest unemployed group when excluding interim study, this was 6%.

Figure 11 shows:

• Of those with known standard industrial classification (SIC) codes, 33% of undergraduates and 36% of postgraduates who studied science subjects and were working in the UK were employed in human health and social work activities. A high proportion of these graduates studied medicine and subjects allied to medicine (e.g. nursing).
• Of computer science graduates working in UK employment, 41% were working in Information and communication.
• For non-science subjects, the highest proportion of undergraduates went on to employment in education.
• Graduates from business & administrative studies, the subject with the highest number of qualifiers from 2017/18, were employed in a wide range of industries. The highest proportion, 16%, were in professional, scientific and technical activities 

Figure 12 shows:

• Of graduates who were in work in the UK and studied science subjects 82% went on to high skilled occupations. For non-science subjects, graduates going on to high skilled occupations was 71%.
• For those who graduated from biological sciences going on to professional occupations, there is a 37 percentage point difference between postgraduate level and undergraduates.
• The largest proportion of graduates going on to low skilled occupations were from creative arts & design graduates courses at 23%.

• Summary
• Graduate activities and characteristics
• Activities by previous study characteristics
• Graduate salaries
• Graduate reflections on activities
• Notes