subject: A Study Into The Average Salary Of Graduates According To Subject Taken [print this page] With such widespread discussion about the repercussions of the government's plans to dramatically increase tuition fees, I thought it best to get at least vaguely involved. Wishing to stay out of such controversial politics however, I am instead going to look at the more optimistic side of university education: the positive financial benefits.
It is widely understood (and indeed proven) that a university level of education more often than not leads to a higher starting salary than that offered to those who choose not to study at a higher level. Although by no means a universal truth, there are a wealth of statistics which demonstrate that average earnings are considerably higher for graduates. Given the high costs and very much subjective nature of the 'to study, or not to study' decision I will shy away from outlining the salary differences between graduates and non-graduates and instead look at which subjects offer the highest graduate salaries.
Many A level students face a tough decision in choosing which course they wish to study at university - often taking into consideration their current subject preferences, their predicted grades and of course the likely workload. To provide an additional perspective I turned my attention to data from the HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) and UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service).
The HESA collect and compile huge volumes of data in order to analyse all aspects of higher education, from this information it was possible to extract the ten subjects which lead into the highest mean salary upon graduation.
Although very interesting, this data neglects a very important area for consideration by potential undergraduates: the likelihood of acceptance. Continuing the focus upon objective data I looked to statistics from UCAS in order to establish which subjects took on the most undergraduates each year. Rather than investigating the entry requirements of various institutions and bringing their respective employability ratings into the equation; this seemed the most straight-forward and simple means of comparing the likelihood of getting a place on a course and the average graduate salary.
In an attempt to make sense of these two distinct values I took an average of the number of places for a subject and the mean salary for graduates in order to come up with a figure which I have called the OTEALS (Opportunity To Earn A Lot Score).
Corners were cut and large amounts of data ignored in coming to the conclusion; but in accordance with the data processed; Law is the degree subject which offers the highest opportunity to earn a lot. If you're considering going to university, then maybe, just maybe this little study helped you to decide upon the subject you will take.
