Graduate Outcomes 2021/22: Summary Statistics - Graduate salaries and work locations

Summary statistics Graduate Outcomes 2021/22

13 June 2024

2021/2022 Graduate Outcomes data error
We have identified a minor issue with the 2021/22 Graduate Outcomes data and statistics published on 13 June 2024.

Some open data tables, charts and commentary that make use of the following data fields (either as a breakdown or a data restriction) differed from the data we previously provided to HE providers, funders and regulators:

Standard Occupational Classification (SOC - the skill level of jobs)
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC - industry of employment)
Location of employment (including tables restricted to graduates in UK employment)

This issue was due to data publications inadvertently using a version of the Graduate Outcomes data to which a final stage of processing had not been applied. The full list of impacted tables can be found below.

Scale and impact

This affects 17 of 49 tables and charts across both the summary statistics and open data repository. The impact of the issue on each individual table is small, affecting very small proportions of graduates in each case. To quantify this, the percentage of survey respondents with a change to SIC and SOC data is 1.7% and 0.6% respectively, with 0.2% showing a change in location of employment.

Actions for data users

Although the impact on the tables listed below is small, we aim to re-publish with the correct data by Friday 5 July. This message will be updated when this is complete.

Given the minor impact, we recommend that users be mindful when using the affected data while we compile updated versions of the tables. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused by this issue.

Impacted tables

Table/chart	Affected fields
Chart 12 - Graduates' reflection on activity by salary band	SOC, Location
Chart 13 - Graduates in UK work by main reason for taking the job and skill group	SOC, Location
Chart 14 - Graduates working for an employer in the UK by qualification required for the job and skill group	SOC, Location
Chart 15 - Reflections of graduates working for an employer in the UK by employment contract basis	SOC, Location
Figure 7 - Employment basis of graduates working for an employer in the UK by level of qualification obtained	Location
Figure 11 - Standard industrial classification of graduates entering work in the UK by subject area of degree	SIC, Location
Figure 12 - Standard occupational classification of graduates entering work in the UK by subject area of degree	SOC, Location
Figure 13 - Percentage of graduates in full-time paid employment in the UK by salary band and personal characteristics	Location
Figure 14 - Weighted median salary of UK domiciled full-time graduates who obtained first degree qualifications and entered full-time paid employment in the UK by subject area of degree and skill marker	SOC, Location
Figure 15 - UK domiciled graduates entering work in the UK by region of domicile, region of provider and region of work	Location
Figure 16 - UK domiciled graduates entering work in the UK by region of domicile, region of provider and region of work	Location
Table 19 - Standard industrial classification of graduates entering work in the UK by provider	SIC, Location
Table 22 - Standard occupational classification of graduates entering work in the UK by provider	SOC, Location
Table 23 - Standard industrial classification of graduates entering work in the UK by standard occupational classification	SIC, SOC, Location
Table 24 - UK domiciled graduates in full-time paid employment in the UK by personal characteristics and salary band	SOC, Location
Table 26 - UK domiciled graduates who obtained first degree qualifications and entered full-time paid employment in the UK by provider and salary band	SOC, Location
Table 30 - UK domiciled graduates in full-time paid employment in the UK by subject area of degree and salary band	SOC, Location

If you have any questions about these tables please contact [email protected].

What were the salaries of graduates?

Both historically and in this release, earnings data reported by HESA are in nominal terms. This means graduate earnings have not been adjusted for inflation to reflect the purchasing power of those earnings. Therefore, caution is advised when comparing salary data across years.

Figure 13 shows:

At an overall level, the £27,000-£29,999 band contains the highest proportion of graduates in full-time paid UK employment at 17%, followed by the £24,000-£26,999 band with 16% of graduates.
The proportion of females earning salaries of £29,999 or less tended to be higher than males, while the proportion of males earning salaries of £30,000 and above tended to be higher than females.
For salary bands of £36,000 and above, the proportion of graduates aged 25 years and over was greater than any other age group.
A higher percentage of graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds were earning salaries between £30,000 and £42,000 than White graduates.
A higher proportion of graduates with no known disability were earning salaries above £33,000 when compared with graduates with a known disability.

What are the upper and lower bounds for salary?

At the lower extreme of the salary range, graduates who reported an annual salary calculated to be below the UK national minimum wage for those aged 21-24 pertaining to the census period are removed. This is based on the assumption that a graduate in full-time work would be working 30 hours, 52 weeks of the year. For the 2018/19 and 2019/20 graduates, a multiplier of 0.8 was applied to this minimum wage to account for those receiving furlough.

At the upper extreme of the salary range, graduates reporting a salary of more than £245,000 were excluded. This followed analysis of the quality of the data of salaries at the upper end and accounts for the top 0.1% of salaries. More detail can be found on our definitions page.

Why do some tables and charts contain fewer years?

Some tables and charts within this release contain data from more recent years only due to the large amount of data included within them. Data for all applicable years can be found in the corresponding CSV files.

Figure 13 - Percentage of graduates in full-time paid employment in the UK by salary band and personal characteristics

Academic years 2017/18 to 2021/22

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Figure 14 shows:

Among 2021/22 graduates, those who studied (09) Mathematical sciences and (11) Computing saw the largest difference between high skilled and low skilled median salaries at £10,031 and £9,125 respectively. Conversely, graduates who studied (24) Media, journalism and communications saw the smallest difference between high skilled and low skilled median salaries at £2,927.
For science subjects, the median salary for all skill levels was £27,998, while for non-science subjects it was £25,999.
When considering all skill levels, (15) Social sciences and (22) Education and teaching had the highest median salary amongst non-science subjects, while (01) Medicine and dentistry had the greatest median salary amongst science subjects.

The DfE published analysis on Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) with new data on Graduate industry included from July 2023. Note that this data is based on the 2020/21 tax year.

How are science subjects defined?

The science grouping is an aggregation of CAH level 1 codes CAH01 through to CAH13 and CAH26 with the exception of CAH26-01-03 (Human geography). CAH26 (Geographical and environmental studies) has been disaggregated so that CAH26-01-03 (Human geography) is presented in the non-science grouping labelled as 'Geographical and environmental studies (social sciences)'. All other CAH level 3 codes within CAH26 are presented in the science grouping labelled as 'Geographical and environmental studies (natural sciences)'. This grouping of science subjects has been created by HESA.

What is the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)?

The UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system is used to classify workers by their occupations. Jobs are classified by their skill level and content. Graduates are asked what their job title is. This information is coded using the SOC2020 coding frame. The codes are grouped together for publication. See Standard Occupational Classification: SOC2020 for the full list of codes and how they are grouped together. Major groups 1 to 3 are grouped together as 'High skilled'. Major groups 4 to 6 are grouped together as 'Medium skilled' and 7 to 9 are grouped as 'Low skilled'.

What is a weighted median?

Weighted median salary is a way of calculating the middle salary (50th percentile) when there are different groups or categories involved. This method accounts for groups of different sizes, giving more weight to groups with more people. This means the salaries of graduates from smaller groups are not over-represented and don't have a disproportionate effect on the overall median.

To find the weighted median salary, we first arrange the salaries from lowest to highest. Then, we calculate the cumulative proportion of people in each group as we go along. The weighted median is the salary where the cumulative proportion or total weight to the left of the median salary equals half of the total weight. When there is no such value, linear interpolation is performed. If the weights are equal, then the weighted median is equivalent to the arithmetic median.

Figure 14 - Weighted median salary of UK domiciled full-time graduates who obtained first degree qualifications and entered full-time paid employment in the UK by subject area of degree and skill marker

Academic years 2019/20 to 2021/22

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Where were graduates employed?

Figure 15 presents information on the movement of UK students from home to study and on into work. It shows the number of graduates domiciled from a specified region and the flow of movements between that region and the rest of the UK. Figure 16 providers further detail on Figure 15, showing the specific regions that graduates move between.

Region:

Figure 15 - UK domiciled graduates entering work in the UK by region of domicile, region of provider and region of work

2021/22

Region of domicile

Region of HE provider

Region of work

Download source data (csv) | About SB268 Figure 15

Figure 16 shows:

Graduates who were in UK work at the time of the 2021/22 survey were most likely to be working in the same region as that which they were domiciled.
In 2021/22, only 2% of graduates domiciled in England worked outside of their country of domicile. In contrast, 28% of Welsh domiciled graduates worked outside of Wales.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and London were the regions with the highest percentage of graduates working in the region they were domiciled at 87%, 83% and 81% respectively. Conversely, East Midlands, the South East and the East of England had the lowest percentages at 59%, 57% and 54% respectively.

Figure 16 - UK domiciled graduates entering work in the UK by region of domicile, region of provider and region of work

2017/18 to 2021/22

Show:

Academic year