Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) from Universities: 2016-17: Scotland

Scotland and GB Comparison

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the distribution of total earnings of graduates from universities in 2010/11 for Scottish and all GB HEIs five years after graduation^[2]. Overall, the median total earnings of UK domiciled first degree graduates from Scottish HEIs was £27,100. This compares to £26,000 for GB HEIs (Note: subject studied has a large influence on earnings and this may account for the differences between Scotland and GB median earnings). In contrast, of the 34 subject areas, graduates of Scottish HEIs had higher median earnings in 12 of the subject areas compared to the median earnings for all GB HEIs.

Earnings of graduates also varied across subjects. For example, those who studied Medicine & Dentistry at Scottish HEIs had median total earnings of £50,500 five years after graduation. In contrast, those who studied Creative Arts & Design at Scottish HEIs had median total earnings of £19,300 five years after graduation. For GB HEIs the same variation can be seen in these subject areas. Median earnings can vary between subject and institution for various reasons. Different institutions will offer different courses that are considered to be in the same subject category, but could lead to vastly different career paths. See ‘Data Quality’ for some of the other issues to consider when looking at this data.

Subjects are ordered from those with the highest median earnings to the lowest median earnings for Scotland. The boxes represent the inter-quartile range (quartile 1 to quartile 3) – the earnings of the middle 50 per cent of graduates in each subject will fall in the box.

Figure 2: Distributions of total earnings of graduates* by subject area, five year after graduation (lower quartile, median and upper quartile), Scotland, and GB, 2016/17 tax year

*UK domiciled First degree qualifiers 2010/11. Hours worked are not taken into account.