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A Quarter of UK grads are low earners

...Ten years after graduating university

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/13/quarter-of-graduates-are-low-earners

Thoughts?

I know the usual suspects will say "trololololo should have picked STEM then!!?!" but I think a lot of factors are involved here such as the huge growth in the hospitality/retail service industries which often don't guarantee hours or pay well, lower growth in high skilled industries, the recent economic crisis, amount of people going to university, lack of concrete attractive options post-school.
(edited 7 years ago)

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Hence why I refuse to work here ✈️
Also when you graduate and find a job, you often have to start at the bottom and work you way to the top which happens in like your 30s
It also doesn't help that a lot of the current generation were mollycoddled in their childhood and thus unable to cope with adulthood. Yep, even graduates. They grow up in this bubble where only their grades matter, then get rudely awakened in the real world where those with stable incomes didn't necessarily do well in school.
My cousin went to Oxford and several of her friends said that they couldn't get any work.... having said that she did classics which doesn't directly lead to any specific careers. :s-smilie:
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Avatar for Rakas21
Rakas21
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It sounds worse than it is..

"The LEO survey, which is not adjusted for inflation, reveals that the median earnings for a graduate were £16,500 one year on from when they left university in 2004, increasing to £22,000 after three years and rising to £31,000 in 2014. The lowest quartile of graduate earners fared significantly worse. A year after they graduated in 2004 their median earnings were just £11,500, rising to £16,500 after three years and £20,000 after 10. The average wage in Britain is currently £26,500."

The median graduate from 2004 is actually earning a good wage. The lower quartile should not have bothered going to university but this is what happens when you have free tuition fees.

Personally i'd tie tuition fee entitlement to either average full time employment after one year for that course or perhaps even average salary.
Original post by Rakas21
It sounds worse than it is..

"The LEO survey, which is not adjusted for inflation, reveals that the median earnings for a graduate were £16,500 one year on from when they left university in 2004, increasing to £22,000 after three years and rising to £31,000 in 2014. The lowest quartile of graduate earners fared significantly worse. A year after they graduated in 2004 their median earnings were just £11,500, rising to £16,500 after three years and £20,000 after 10. The average wage in Britain is currently £26,500."

The median graduate from 2004 is actually earning a good wage. The lower quartile should not have bothered going to university but this is what happens when you have free tuition fees.

Personally i'd tie tuition fee entitlement to either average full time employment after one year for that course or perhaps even average salary.


Probably one quarter of UK graduates in 2004 were up to their armpits in nappies in 2014.

Hourly rates rather than annual salaries might have been more representative.
Education filters people by aptitude, it does not increase aptitude.
Original post by Observatory
Education filters people by aptitude, it does not increase aptitude.


Except the point that is being made, not necessarily correctly, is that it is not doing that; in that the lowest quartile graduate salary is below the all-round median salary and the median graduate salary is only £4.5K ahead of the median all-round salary.
Original post by nulli tertius
Except the point that is being made, not necessarily correctly, is that it is not doing that; in that the lowest quartile graduate salary is below the all-round median salary and the median graduate salary is only £4.5K ahead of the median all-round salary.

Not sure that is what it says. The median it's comparing to is a whole-population median not same-age median, as I read the article.

However those numbers aren't necessarily inconsistent with what I've said.
Original post by DystopiaisReal
My cousin went to Oxford and several of her friends said that they couldn't get any work.... having said that she did classics which doesn't directly lead to any specific careers. :s-smilie:


They were setting their sights too high then. Lots of degrees don't lead to specific careers and often people try and move into a career that doesn't relate to their degree


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Original post by Rakas21
It sounds worse than it is..

"The LEO survey, which is not adjusted for inflation, reveals that the median earnings for a graduate were £16,500 one year on from when they left university in 2004, increasing to £22,000 after three years and rising to £31,000 in 2014. The lowest quartile of graduate earners fared significantly worse. A year after they graduated in 2004 their median earnings were just £11,500, rising to £16,500 after three years and £20,000 after 10. The average wage in Britain is currently £26,500."

The median graduate from 2004 is actually earning a good wage. The lower quartile should not have bothered going to university but this is what happens when you have free tuition fees.

Personally i'd tie tuition fee entitlement to either average full time employment after one year for that course or perhaps even average salary.


You think £31k ten years after graduation is a good wage?


Posted from TSR Mobile
[QUOTE="Underscore__;66923716"]You think £31k ten years after graduation is a good wage?


Posted from TSR Mobile[/QUOTE

Well it is above the UK average
Original post by Underscore__
You think £31k ten years after graduation is a good wage?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Yes. Graduate wages are heavily amplified in perception by IB, the big 4, law. It's not the norm for the majority.
Maybe it's because when you try and warn students against doing non-traditional degrees at non-academic institutions you get a backlash from the TSR Clearing Team.
[QUOTE="ScienceFantatic;66923776"]
Original post by Underscore__
You think £31k ten years after graduation is a good wage?


Posted from TSR Mobile[/QUOTE

Well it is above the UK average


Most of the working population aren't degree level educated.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Rakas21
Yes. Graduate wages are heavily amplified in perception by IB, the big 4, law. It's not the norm for the majority.


There's a difference between a graduate salary and your salary ten years later


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Underscore__
There's a difference between a graduate salary and your salary ten years later

Posted from TSR Mobile


Sure but when you consider the number of graduate careers to careers in which graduates simply end up occupying (but didn't really need a degree) it's not a shock for most graduates to be on an above average but unexceptional wage.

I hope to achieve more than £30k myself but if that's where i am in ten years then i'll still be pretty pleased given that i'm not in the aforementioned careers.
Original post by jake4198
Maybe it's because when you try and warn students against doing non-traditional degrees at non-academic institutions you get a backlash from the TSR Clearing Team.


That's too simple an explination. Golf management for example has a high employment rate and given the demographics and membership fees, probably a high salary for employees.

Instead of adopting a broad brush approach of x uni or x course is not good enough, we should let the market decide. Those courses which do not produce a full time employment rate of x after 12 months should not be eligible for tuition fees, equally we could tie entitlement to starting salaries.
I can see why if they can't correctly spell 'quarter'.

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