The proportion of students in England who land in graduate-level jobs varies widely between universities and subjects studied, according to data published by the Office for Students (OfS) that is likely to fuel the government’s efforts to restrict entry to “low-quality” courses.
Graduates of Imperial College London were the most likely to complete their studies and go on to either a professional occupation or further study, with 92% doing so a year after leaving. Graduates of the Royal College of Music and Oxbridge were close behind.
But at the other end of the scale, less than half of degree-holders from several mainstream universities do the same. The University of Bedfordshire had just a third of its graduates in relevant occupations or further study, according to the OfS.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said: “This government has a manifesto commitment to tackle low-quality higher education and drive up standards, and this data proves there is much more work to be done.
“Our landmark skills bill makes clear the power of the Office for Students to take much-needed action in this area, including its ability to enforce minimum standards for universities on course completion rates and graduate outcomes, and I look forward to seeing the results of this work.”
The figures compiled by the higher education regulator uses data from students who graduated in 2018-19, modified by drop-out rates from the previous year and their occupational status 15 months after graduation. Those who go on to further study or who left the labour market for a number of reasons are also counted.
Health subjects such as medicine, dentistry and nursing, as well as veterinary sciences and economics, topped the table of subjects that were most successful in launching graduate careers. Politics graduates were more popular than those taking law. But fewer than half of students who took sociology, social policy or anthropology courses had outcomes approved by the OfS.
Nicola Dandridge, the chief executive of the OfS, said the figures showed “profound differences” in outcomes depending on where students study and their subject. “While we have no plans to use this indicator for regulatory purposes, we are determined to tackle poor quality provision which offers a raw deal,” Dandridge said.
Many subjects at individual universities were too small to return valid results. But of those that did, medicine and dentistry courses at multiple universities had rates above 95%, interrupted only by graduates in economics at Cambridge and maths at Oxford.
Critics of the OfS’s figures said they took little account of backgrounds, penalising universities that recruit students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are less likely to complete their courses. The University of Bedfordshire’s business and management courses saw just 15% of students reach graduate-level outcomes – but only a quarter of the students who enrolled went on to graduate.
The figures are also likely to distort the outcomes for graduates in areas such as creative arts, where early career employment is far more likely to be freelance or temporary.
The data also confirmed that, in many cases, the university attended is more influential than the subject studied. While 85% of Oxford’s philosophy and religious studies graduates met the job threshold after leaving, just 59% of students taking similar courses at the University of Southampton did so.
The OfS’s tables also threw up other surprises: the University of Bath recorded better overall outcomes than many members of the Russell Group of research universities, including Durham, Bristol and Exeter.
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