The university degrees that land graduates the highest salaries

Economics students from the UK’s top universities earn around £32,000 more than the average UK graduate after five years in the workforce, according to new statistics from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

A previous IFS study had already revealed big differences in the earnings of graduates from different universities, but the many other variables that might affect student performance made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. The updated research is an attempt to account for these differences, which include students’s backgrounds and how well they had performed at school. 

The new study draws on a dataset of school, university and tax records created by the Department for Education - and concludes that choice of degree or university alone “might increase or decrease your earnings” later in life.

An economics degrees from a prestigious university secures the best wages for both men and women across the UK, with graduates who read economics at Cambridge earning £32,532 more than the average, followed by London School of Economics (LSE) alumni, with an additional £31,307.

At the other end of the scale are creative arts graducates, the BBC reports. “For men the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama has an impact of -£19,962, and for women the Guildhall School of Music and Drama comes last with -£16,589,” says the broadcaster.

The IFS report concludes that “a large proportion of the raw earnings differences can be explained by differences in the characteristics of students taking different degrees”, but adds that “high-earnings subjects and institutions typically take students with higher prior attainment and from higher socio-economic backgrounds who would have gone on to have higher earnings anyway”.