SUTTON TRUST NEWS RELEASE Not for use before: 00.01, Thursday 18 th December 2014 STUDYING AT OXBRIDGE EARNS YOU 7,600 MORE THAN STUDYING AT A NEW UNIVERSITY - SUTTON TRUST RESEARCH Students who study at Oxford and Cambridge will start on salaries 7,600 or 42% - higher than graduates from post-1992 universities, according to new Sutton Trust research published today. The average starting salary for an Oxbridge graduate is approximately 25,600 compared to 18,000 from the new universities. The research, Earning by Degrees, which draws on Higher Education Statistics Agency data, shows stark differences in the starting salaries of students according to the subject studied and university attended. There is a larger salary premium for graduates from medicine, engineering and technology, economics, and computer science courses. Six months after graduation, engineering and technology graduates will earn starting salaries 8,800 (55%) higher than design and creative arts graduates, and 8,000 (49%) higher than English graduates. A science or engineering graduate at Oxbridge is likely to command a starting salary 11,800 higher than a graduate in an arts or humanities subject from a post-1992 university. Graduates of Oxford and Cambridge gain a significant premium, even compared to other highly selective universities, earning 3,300 (15%) more than those in the 11 other most selective universities. Differences in earnings between graduates of different universities persist even when factors like socio-economic background, previous educational attainment and attendance at a private or state school are taken into account. The Sutton Trust said today that the research highlighted the importance to social mobility of enabling bright students from less advantaged backgrounds to access the best universities. The Trust provides 1900 places at its summer schools at ten leading universities each year to encourage able sixth formers to choose the best courses and universities for them. Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, said today: This new research shows how important it is that we enable low and middle income students with the ability to go to Oxbridge and other elite universities to fulfil their potential. With your chances of
going to a top university nearly ten times higher if you come from a rich rather than a poor neighbourhood, it is vital that we redouble our efforts to improve access to these institutions. Sutton Trust access programmes, including our summer schools, already make a big difference. But we need to do more to raise aspirations and attainment among school students from an earlier age if we are to close this access gap, which is why we last week launched Sutton Scholars to work with highly able students from the age of 13. The figures also show the importance of choosing the right degree and course. With debts of 44,000 on average, returns from some degrees may mean going into a good apprenticeship offers a better deal for many students. After accounting for graduates demographic characteristics, social background, and previous educational attainment, other key findings include: Oxbridge graduates earn starting salaries that are 4,800 higher than graduates from post- 1992 universities and 2,500 higher than graduates other elite universities when background and other factors are taken into account. 3.5 years after graduation, graduates from the 13 most selective universities earn on average 4,300 per year (17%) more than graduates from post-1992 universities, and are 12 percentage points more likely to be in professional employment. The five subjects with the highest starting salary were medicine and dentistry; engineering and technology; economics; computer science; and education. The five lowest earning subjects were psychology; English; design and creative arts; biological sciences; and history and philosophy. Medicine and dentistry graduates earn starting salaries 8,000 per year (48%) higher than English and psychology graduates. Average starting salaries for graduates from arts, humanities, and social science courses at Oxbridge are around 10% higher than those for science and maths graduates from post-1992 universities All other things being equal, graduates who attended fee-paying secondary schools earned average starting salaries 1,300 higher than their state school educated counterparts. However, which school you went to makes no difference to the starting salaries of medicine graduates. Surprisingly, Oxbridge graduates who were the first in their family to go to university did better than those from more educationally advantaged families, earning starting salaries 1,000 higher. The report s author, Sutton Trust research fellow Dr Robert de Vries said: The research shows that where and what you study matters a great deal for your career outcomes. There are large advantages to a degree in the right subject from an elite university even after accounting for differences in school achievement, social background and degree classification. Research by the Independent Commission on Fees earlier this year showed that there is a near tenfold gap in the proportion of students from the poorest and richest fifth of neighbourhoods going to the Sutton Trust 13 group of highly selective universities.
For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Sharmini Selvarajah on 020 7802 0645 or Conor Ryan on 0207 802 1660 NOTES TO EDITORS 1. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 150 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to access to the professions. 2. The Sutton Trust 13 are Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial College London, London School of Economics, Nottingham, Oxford, St Andrews, University College London, Warwick and York universities. 3. The Sutton Trust s week long UK summer schools are designed to give bright students from non-privileged homes a taste of life at a leading university. The programme reaches over 1,900 sixth form students across ten leading universities - Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial, King's College London, Nottingham, the Royal Veterinary College, St Andrews and UCL. Independent evaluation has shown that young people have a significantly higher chance of going to a leading university if they attend one of the summer schools. 4. Sutton Scholars is a new programme which gives academically able students aged 11-14 from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to participate in workshops and seminars at leading universities. 5. The report is based on an analysis of the Destination of Leavers of Higher Education Survey (DLHE) survey of 2012/13 graduates six months after graduation, and of the DLHE longitudinal survey of 2008/09 graduates 3.5 years after graduation (copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2014 HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties). Sample size considerations mean that separate Oxbridge data is only available for starting salaries. Analyses of earnings were restricted to UK domiciled graduates from first degree courses (excluding the Open University) who were in full-time work at the time of the survey. Analyses of access to professional employment were restricted to UK domiciled graduates from first degree courses (excluding the Open University) who were in full or part-time work at the time of the survey, or who were unemployed. Professional employment was defined as occupations falling into the top three analytic classes of the National Statistics Socio- Economic Classification large employers and higher managerial and administrative occupations, higher professional occupations, and lower professional occupations). 6. The following factors are accounted for in the adjusted figures: age, gender, government office region of domicile prior to the start of the course, UCAS tariff score, study mode (full or part time study), degree classification, parental education (whether the respondents parents had a higher education qualification prior to the start of the respondents course), parental occupation (whether the respondents parents had a professional job prior to the start of the respondents course), and whether the respondent attended a fee-paying secondary school. 7. The Independent Commission on Fees research can be found here.
8. This table shows the data on average salary for the different university groups, using both the actual data and the data adjusted for the factors included in Note 6. Note that, due to considerations of sample size, Oxford and Cambridge graduates are included in the Sutton Trust 13 group for the 3.5 year figures. Table 1 Mean graduate salary at 6 months and 3.5 years by university type 6 months 3.5 years Unadjusted Adjusted Unadjusted Adjusted Post-92 18,009 18,853 23,797 25,005 Post-92 Pre-92 19,684 19,406 26,329 25,867 Pre-92 ST30 21,031 20,264 28,611 27,712 ST30 ST13 23,311 21,158 30,744 29,341 ST13 (including Oxbridge) Oxbridge 25,582 23,613 Adjusted figures for all 2012/13 graduates at six months in full-time work who had information on all relevant factors (N=53,720), and for all 2008/09 graduates in full-time work at 3.5 years (N=9,330). Salary estimates are adjusted for gender, mature student status, domicile (Government Office Region), UCAS tariff score, study mode, degree classification, parental education (six month data only), parental occupation, and private school attendance. In accordance with HESA policy, counts of graduates have been rounded to the nearest five. 9. These tables show data on average starting salary for the different combinations of university group and degree subject, using both the actual data (Table 2) and the data adjusted for the factors included in Note 6 (Table 3). Table 2 Mean graduate starting salary by degree subject and university type figures in brackets are the number of graduates in each university type and degree combination Post-92 Pre-92 ST30 ST13 Oxbridge Hospitality etc. 16,761 16,654 17,683 17,222 N/A (1690) (205) (80) (70) (0) Vocational (nonmedical) 19,201 (4270) 19,094 (735) 19,266 (700) 20,169 (400) 20,952 (40) Humanities & social sciences 15,797 (7150) 16,965 (2265) 17,737 (2615) 18,918 (1600) 22,239 (385) Medicine & related 20,940 22,758 24,544 24,834 27,129 (2560) (1355) (2050) (920) (285) STEM 19,333 21,240 22,091 23,902 27,570 (3640) (2075) (3055) (2050) (285) Combined 17,094 18,943 20,237 21,594 26,445 (2820) (1335) (1950) (995) (220) Economics & business 18,955 20,498 22,177 25,369 32,378 (3270) (995) (1080) (580) (40) Note: Unadjusted figures for all 2012/13 graduates in full-time work who had information on all relevant factors (N=53,720)
Table 3 Mean graduate starting salary by degree subject and university type (adjusted) figures in brackets are the number of graduates in each subject by university type combination Post-92 Pre-92 ST30 ST13 Oxbridge Hospitality etc. 17,432 16,922 17,514 16,887 N/A (1690) (205) (80) (70) (0) Vocational (nonmedical) 20,157 (4270) 19,863 (735) 19,534 (700) 20,347 (400) 20,301 (40) Humanities & social sciences 16,656 (7150) 17,260 (2265) 17,803 (2615) 18,586 (1600) 21,247 (385) Medicine & related 21,654 21,208 22,760 22,181 24,061 (2560) (1355) (2050) (920) (285) STEM 19,319 20,792 21,704 23,085 24,728 (3640) (2075) (3055) (2050) (285) Combined 17,817 18,846 20,016 20,611 24,897 (2820) (1335) (1950) (995) (220) Economics & business 19,243 20,328 21,674 24,392 30,899 (3270) (995) (1080) (580) (40) Note: Adjusted figures for all 2012/13 graduates in full-time work who had information on all relevant factors (N=53,720). Salary estimates are adjusted for gender, mature student status, domicile (Government Office Region), UCAS tariff score, study mode, degree classification, parental education, parental occupation, and private school attendance. In accordance with HESA policy, counts of graduates have been rounded to the nearest five.