British graduates earn £10k a year less than foreign students
Baku, August 29, AZERTAC
British graduates are earning substantially less than international students who remain in the UK after finishing university, new analysis has found, according to The Telegraph.
UK-domiciled graduates who had completed their bachelor’s degrees five years earlier earned an average of £31,400 in the 2022-23 tax year, according to data from the Department for Education.
This is £9,800 a year – or 24pc – less than the £41,200 earned by their non-EU foreign counterparts who remained in the UK after graduating.
A salary of £31,400 a year put British graduates barely above the £29,500 median wage across the country in that year. Meanwhile, the foreign graduates who had studied alongside them were comfortably among the top 30pc of all workers.
Tom Allingham, from the student money website Save the Student, said: “This is an interesting set of figures, and indirectly highlights some of the disparities in graduate earning potential.
“As a starting point, it’s worth emphasising that overseas graduates who have studied here face additional challenges, including the pressure to secure a new visa after their student one expires. And yet, in the medium term, they’re still earning significantly more than their UK peers.”
The earnings disparity is most likely down to the choice of what is studied and where.
The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that during the 2023-24 academic year, business and management courses were by far the most popular for those pursuing their first degree – but especially so for those coming to study in the UK from abroad.
The field attracted 17pc of all British graduates, rising to 20pc for students from the EU and 28pc for those from elsewhere.
For non-EU foreign students, engineering and technology degrees were the second-most attractive option (11pc). Engineering graduates were among the best-paid across all sectors, with wages after five years of £41,600 in the 2022-23 tax year.
For students from the UK, the runner-up spot was taken by “subjects allied to medicine” (including pharmacology, nutrition and occupational therapy) – where prospective earnings fell to £32,100.
International students have also proven more selective about their future alma mater.
The impact of this is equally, if not even more, significant. For the same subject area, annual earnings just five years into a career can diverge by as much as £70,000 a year depending on what university you go to.
Many of the grandest brands in British academia have the most multicultural student bodies. UCL had 51pc of first-degree enrolments from outside the UK in 2023-24, with LSE at 47pc, Imperial at 44pc and King’s College London at 37pc.
Oxford (20pc) and Cambridge (21pc) are both also well above the national average of 15pc.
Across the coveted Russell Group of 24 elite universities, the international (non-EU) proportion rises to 24pc – for the rest this halves to 12pc.
“The disproportionate numbers of international students at Russell Group universities compared to others, and these students’ subject choices, are both likely to have contributed to this disparity,” Allingham added.
“It underlines that, if graduate earnings are a priority for you, you should look into the specific stats for individual courses and universities.”
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