I just found this post.
I'm an Audiology graduate from UCL and I got a first.
If your ambitious and just want enough money to survive, don't do Audiology. I don't think degree even exists anymore. Private companies send people on two year non degree courses and they become hearing aid dispensers (HAD's), Because of this the need to pay outside the nhs according to band has gone down the drain. Because of these horrible private companies that want to bonus you for hearing aid sales that wont happen. I'm talking basics of 16k, 18k, and 23k,
All the NHS audiologists are worried about their jobs, because most of them are indeed just band 5 and if Audiology departments close down (as private companies start taking over NHS contracts, (should never have, they want profit not good healthcare) they will lose their jobs. The Audiology departments everywhere are small. It is literally like waiting for your head of department to die or retire and then everyone moves up a band. The waiting lists are also long not because of a shortage of Audiologists but because of a shortage of money in NHS departments to hire enough audiologists.
i wish I'd done something else to be honest. Optometrists have a soulless commercialized job but at least their basic is over 25k.