Destinations and earnings of graduates after higher education

Published

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the year ending 5 April 2019, 89.6% of white people were in sustained employment, further study, or both 1 year after graduating from a degree – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
  • 89.5% of people from the Indian ethnic group were in sustained employment, further study, or both
  • 67.2% of people from the black Caribbean ethnic group were in sustained employment 1 year after graduating – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups (for employment only)
  • 34.1% of people from the Arab ethnic group were in further study, with or without employment, 1 year after graduating – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
  • people from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest average earnings 1 year after graduating (£23,000), followed by people from the Indian ethnic group (£22,600)
  • people from the mixed white and black Caribbean and Bangladeshi ethnic groups had the lowest average earnings 1 year after graduating (£19,000), followed by the Pakistani, black Caribbean and any other black background ethnic groups (£19,300)

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data shows what people did after finishing their degree, by ethnicity. It includes:

  • people who graduated 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years ago (before the year to March 2019)
  • the average (median) earnings of people in employment

The data shows destinations recorded in the 2018 to 2019 tax year for students who finished their further education the previous year. Destinations include:

  • sustained employment or study (or both)
  • a destination that was not sustained – this might include people who went into employment or further study but not continuously between October 2018 and March 2019
  • activity not recorded

Earnings data is also shown for people who completed further education 1, 3, 5 and 10 academic years earlier. It does not include data for people in both sustained employment and further study.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest 0.1%. Earnings are rounded to the nearest £100.

Not included in the data

Some of the data labelled as ! in the tables and download file has been withheld. This is to minimise risk of disclosure and because the numbers are too small to be able to make any reliable conclusions.

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for the Asian, black, mixed and other ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census. Data for the White ethnic group is aggregated, which means figures are shown for the group as a whole.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.

The median earnings for each ethnic group is the middle point when the figures are ordered from lowest to highest.

You can read more about when we use the mean and median to work out averages.

In the data file

See Download the data for counts of students in each ethnic group for every year covered by this data.

3. Graduate destinations by ethnicity

Location:
England
Time period:
6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019
Source:
Graduate outcomes (LEO): 2018 to 2019
Percentage of graduates in different destinations 1, 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation, by ethnicity
1 Year After Graduation 3 Years After Graduation 5 Years After Graduation 10 Years After Graduation
Ethnicity 1 Year After Graduation Sustained employment further study or both 1 Year After Graduation No sustained destination 1 Year After Graduation Activity not captured 3 Years After Graduation Sustained employment further study or both 3 Years After Graduation No sustained destination 3 Years After Graduation Activity not captured 5 Years After Graduation Sustained employment further study or both 5 Years After Graduation No sustained destination 5 Years After Graduation Activity not captured 10 Years After Graduation Sustained employment further study or both 10 Years After Graduation No sustained destination 10 Years After Graduation Activity not captured
All 88.8 7.2 4.0 87.7 6.2 6.1 86.7 5.6 7.7 84.9 4.5 10.5
Bangladeshi 88.4 8.5 3.1 87.5 8.1 4.5 84.7 7.9 7.5 82.1 6.7 11.2
Chinese 81.6 8.8 9.6 80.3 6.2 13.5 75.2 5.7 19.1 70.5 4.4 25.1
Indian 89.5 7.2 3.2 88.7 6.1 5.2 87.1 5.5 7.4 84.9 5.1 9.9
Pakistani 85.6 10.0 4.4 84.4 8.4 7.2 82.6 8.2 9.2 80.0 7.1 12.9
Any Other Asian Background 86.7 8.3 5.0 83.9 7.5 8.6 82.9 6.5 10.6 79.4 5.5 15.1
Black African 87.4 8.8 3.8 85.3 8.8 5.9 82.5 9.1 8.3 78.6 8.0 13.5
Black Caribbean 87.6 9.6 2.8 87.3 8.6 4.1 86.9 8.3 4.7 84.4 6.6 9.0
Any Other Black Background 86.1 10.4 3.6 84.6 8.7 6.8 78.4 10.7 10.9 79.6 8.4 12.0
Mixed White And Asian 86.2 8.4 5.4 84.7 7.7 7.6 83.4 6.6 10.0 83.5 4.7 11.8
Mixed White And Black African 84.4 10.0 5.6 82.5 8.9 8.6 80.8 6.4 12.7 76.6 7.1 16.3
Mixed White And Black Caribbean 87.4 9.3 3.3 86.7 7.7 5.6 86.6 6.8 6.6 85.0 5.9 9.1
Any Other Mixed Ethnic Background 84.7 10.0 5.3 82.6 8.2 9.2 81.4 7.7 10.9 79.6 6.5 13.8
White 89.6 6.6 3.8 88.6 5.6 5.8 87.7 5.0 7.2 86.1 4.1 9.9
Arab 81.3 12.0 6.7 74.8 11.9 13.4 78.9 7.0 14.1 withheld to protect confidentiality withheld to protect confidentiality withheld to protect confidentiality
Other 83.0 11.1 5.9 81.2 9.7 9.1 78.3 8.8 12.9 76.3 7.5 16.2
Unknown 83.5 9.3 7.2 83.5 8.0 8.6 81.0 7.8 11.2 81.0 5.9 13.1

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data for ‘Graduate destinations by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Graduate destinations by ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Destinations and earnings of graduates after higher education Graduate destinations by ethnicity Summary

The data shows that for the 2018 to 2019 tax year:

  • 88.8% of people who graduated 1 year ago were in sustained employment, further study or both
  • 7.2% of people who graduated 1 year ago had no sustained destination – the destination was unknown for 4.0%
  • white people (89.6%) were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to be in sustained employment, further study or both 1 year after graduating
  • people from the any other black background (10.4%), other (11.1%) and Arab (12.0%) ethnic groups were the most likely to have no sustained destination 1 year after graduating
  • people from the white (6.6%), Indian (7.2%) and any other Asian (8.3%) ethnic groups were least likely to have no sustained destination 1 year after graduating
  • people from the white (87.7%) and Indian (87.1%) ethnic groups were the most likely to be in sustained employment, further study, or both 5 years after graduating
  • people from the any other black background (10.7%) and black African (9.1%) ethnic groups were the most likely to have no sustained destination 5 years after graduating
  • the destination was unknown for 4.0% for people who graduated 1 year ago – it was 10.5% for people who graduated 10 years ago

4. Graduate destinations (further study or employment) by ethnicity

Location:
England
Time period:
6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019
Source:
Graduate outcomes (LEO): 2018 to 2019
Percentage of graduates in further study or sustained employment 1, 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation, by ethnicity
1 Year After Graduation 3 Years After Graduation 5 Years After Graduation 10 Years After Graduation
Ethnicity 1 Year After Graduation Sustained employment only (%) 1 Year After Graduation Further study with or without sustained employment (%) 3 Years After Graduation Sustained employment only (%) 3 Years After Graduation Further study with or without sustained employment (%) 5 Years After Graduation Sustained employment only (%) 5 Years After Graduation Further study with or without sustained employment (%) 10 Years After Graduation Sustained employment only (%) 10 Years After Graduation Further study with or without sustained employment (%)
All 64.2 24.6 72.5 15.2 76.1 10.6 79.2 5.7
Bangladeshi 62.8 25.6 74.2 13.2 77.4 7.2 77.8 4.3
Chinese 53.8 27.9 64.9 15.4 66.0 9.2 66.6 3.9
Indian 62.3 27.2 73.9 14.8 77.8 9.3 80.3 4.6
Pakistani 57.1 28.4 69.5 14.8 73.5 9.1 74.9 5.0
Any Other Asian Background 60.2 26.5 67.9 16.1 71.9 11.0 72.7 6.7
Black African 59.2 28.2 66.1 19.2 67.9 14.7 69.2 9.4
Black Caribbean 67.2 20.3 71.2 16.1 76.0 10.9 77.4 7.1
Any Other Black Background 61.5 24.5 65.6 18.9 65.8 12.6 72.8 6.8
Mixed White And Asian 60.4 25.8 69.7 14.9 72.1 11.3 76.9 6.5
Mixed White And Black African 61.5 22.9 67.4 15.2 69.5 11.4 69.7 6.9
Mixed White And Black Caribbean 65.9 21.4 72.0 14.7 76.7 9.9 78.3 6.7
Any Other Mixed Ethnic Background 59.0 25.7 66.8 15.8 69.0 12.4 73.3 6.3
White 65.6 24.0 73.7 15.0 77.3 10.4 80.4 5.6
Arab 47.2 34.1 56.2 18.6 60.9 18.0 withheld to protect confidentiality withheld to protect confidentiality
Other 56.6 26.4 64.4 16.8 66.4 11.9 69.7 6.6
Unknown 63.4 20.1 69.0 14.4 69.9 11.1 74.4 6.6

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data for ‘Graduate destinations (further study or employment) by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Graduate destinations (further study or employment) by ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Destinations and earnings of graduates after higher education Graduate destinations (further study or employment) by ethnicity Summary

The data shows that for the 2018 to 2019 tax year:

  • 64.2% of people who graduated 1 year ago were in sustained employment only, and 24.6% were in further study (with or without employment)
  • black Caribbean people (67.2%) were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to be in sustained employment only, 1 year after graduation
  • people from the Arab (47.2%), Chinese (53.8%) and other (56.6%) ethnic groups had the lowest percentages in sustained employment only, 1 year after graduation – these groups also had the highest percentages of people whose destinations were unknown
  • people from the Arab (34.1%) and Pakistani (28.4%) ethnic groups were most likely to be in further study 1 year after graduation – Caribbean people (20.3%) were the least likely
  • the percentage of people in ‘sustained employment only’ went up from 64.2% for those who graduated 1 year ago, to 79.2% for those who graduated 10 years ago
  • the percentage of people in further study went down from 24.6% for those who graduated 1 year ago, to 5.7% for those who graduated 10 years ago

5. Average earnings of graduates by ethnicity

Location:
England
Time period:
6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019
Source:
Graduate outcomes (LEO): 2018 to 2019
Average (median) earnings of graduates in sustained employment only, 1, 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation, by ethnicity
Ethnicity 1 Year After Graduation 3 Years After Graduation 5 Years After Graduation 10 Years After Graduation
Average (median) earnings (£) Average (median) earnings (£) Average (median) earnings (£) Average (median) earnings (£)
All 20,800 24,500 27,400 31,100
Bangladeshi 19,000 23,700 25,900 28,800
Chinese 23,000 27,000 29,900 34,700
Indian 22,600 27,400 31,000 34,700
Pakistani 19,300 22,600 23,700 25,200
Any Other Asian Background 21,900 26,300 29,200 34,300
Black African 20,800 24,500 26,300 29,200
Black Caribbean 19,300 23,000 25,200 28,100
Any Other Black Background 19,300 23,000 25,600 29,600
Mixed White And Asian 21,500 26,300 29,200 35,800
Mixed White And Black African 20,100 24,500 27,400 29,600
Mixed White And Black Caribbean 19,000 23,000 25,600 29,200
Any Other Mixed Ethnic Background 20,400 24,800 28,100 32,100
White 20,800 24,500 27,400 31,400
Arab 20,800 24,500 30,300 withheld to protect confidentiality
Other 20,400 24,800 27,700 31,000
Unknown 21,900 24,100 27,000 29,200

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data for ‘Average earnings of graduates by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Average earnings of graduates by ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Destinations and earnings of graduates after higher education Average earnings of graduates by ethnicity Summary

The data shows that for the 2018 to 2019 tax year:

  • the average (median) salary of someone who graduated 1 year ago was £20,800
  • the average salary was £24,500 for people who graduated 3 years ago, £27,400 for people who graduated 5 years ago, and £31,100 for people who graduated 10 years ago
  • people from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest average earnings 1 year after graduating (£23,000)
  • people from the mixed white and black Caribbean and Bangladeshi, ethnic groups (£19,000) had the lowest average earnings 1 year after graduating
  • people from the Indian ethnic group had the highest average earnings 5 years after graduating ( £31,000)
  • people from the Pakistani (£23,700) and black Caribbean (£25,200) ethnic groups had the lowest average earnings 5 years after graduating

6. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

This data helps monitor the progress of higher education leavers into the labour market.

7. Download the data

Earnings of Graduates After Higher Education - Spreadsheet (csv) 55 KB

measure, time, time_type, academic year, years after graduation, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, earnings_quartile, value, value_type, denominator

Destinations of Graduates After Higher Education - Spreadsheet (csv) 130 KB

measure, time, time_type, academic year, years after graduation, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, destinations, value, value type, denominator

Publication release date: 30 August 2022

full page history
  1. Updated with data for 2018/2019 tax year

From: Department for Education

Previous editions:
  1. Edition published on 11 June 2019
  2. Edition published on 28 June 2018
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