You’d think that after three years of late night cramming, constant coursework and attempting to stay away in 9am lectures, your university degree will be worth it because you’ll snap up a great grad job? Right?
Er, not really. I hate to break it you, but only 57 per cent of UK university grads are in full-time employment two years later. The number of students who end up unemployed varies loads for different UK uni subjects . My heart goes out to all you history students x
62 per cent of STEM students had full-time grad jobs, compared to 60 per cent of arts and humanities students. It’s not surprising that STEM students are more employable. But the difference really isn’t as big as your secondary school careers advisor led you to believe.
The even gloomier news is that even the people who do snatch up decent grad jobs are still fairly miserable. According to the recruitment company Robert Walters, only 20 per cent of people who graduated between 2019 and 2022 are happy with their jobs. Yikes.
This data comes from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). It refers to what people who graduated in 2022 were up to in 2024. It doesn’t take into account people who are doing part-time work, or procrastination Master’s courses.
So, here are all the UK uni subjects ranked by the percentage of grads who are in full-time employment two years later:
21. Veterinary sciences – 79 per cent
20. Architecture, building and planning – 71 per cent
19. Education and teaching – 70 per cent
=17. Engineering and technology – 69 per cent
Engineering girlies at Glasgow
=17. Medicine and dentistry – 69 per cent
16. Business and management – 66 per cent
=14. Computing – 64 per cent
=14. Geography, earth and environmental studies – 64 per cent
13. Subjects allied to medicine – 63 per cent
12. Media, journalism and communications – 62 per cent
11. Law – 61 per cent
=9. Mathematical sciences – 60 per cent
=9. Social sciences – 60 per cent
8. Agriculture, food and related sciences – 58 per cent
Not me only just learning you can do whole degrees in food studies?
7. Physical sciences – 55 per cent
6. Psychology – 53 per cent
5. Biological and sport sciences – 51 per cent
4. Combined and general studies – 50 per cent
3. Language and area studies – 49 per cent
2. Historical, philosophical and religious studies – 48 per cent
1. Design, and creative and performing arts – 46 per cent
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