Graduates Average £20,000

Graduates leaving full-time degree courses are earning an average salary of £20,000 and 64% are finding jobs when they leave university, according to newly released statistics.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency researchers found that graduates from foundation degrees were slightly less likely to be unemployed than their counterparts leaving full-time first degrees.Just 6% of students who completed their first full-time degree in the 2006/7 academic year were unemployed after leaving their course, the same number as the previous academic year's leavers.

Combining work and further study was a slightly more popular choice among university leavers in 2006/7 with 9% choosing this compared to 8% in the previous academic year.

Those who were working were earning between £15,000 and £23,000 with the mean salary of £20,000, slightly up on the mean of £19,500 enjoyed by graduates in 2005/6.

Just 2% were neither working or studying, 34% were in employment, 32% were working and studying and 28% decided to stay in education.

For those leaving with undergraduate diplomas and certificates the level of unemployment, 4%, remained steady.

Male students were slightly more likely to be unemployed, 6% of males were not in work compared to 4% of females, the same split as researchers found last year.

Former postgraduate students were most likely to be working with 77% in employment, the same figure as in the previous year's survey.