Confirming the value of higher education in the United Kingdom, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) recently released data showing an over 90 percent employment rate for graduates of the country’s higher education institutions.

Almost 40 percent of domiciled first degree graduates found work or were furthering their studies six months after graduation, according to the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DHLE) survey. The survey was based on responses from those who graduated in 2014/2015.

The lowest employment (including further study) rate was 83.4% and the highest was a full 100%. Twenty-eight institutions recorded a rate of over 96%.

The results were particularly heartening because it continues a long-term trend showing an increasing employment and further study rate since the 2011/2012 survey. That survey recorded a rate of 90.8 percent, which saw consecutive growth over the last few years.

Times Higher Education (THE) listed top performers in the DLHE survey, excluding institutions that had less than 500 survey respondents. The top three institutions were Keele University (97.5 percent), the University of Cumbria (96.9 percent), and the University of Stirling (96.8 percent). According to the publication, the University of Strathclyde recorded the biggest year-on-year improvement among the larger institutions, increasing its rate by 4.9 percentage points compared to 2013-2014 and hitting 96.2 percent.

In separate but related news, the DHLE survey also showed a significant and growing gap between male and female graduates. According to Times Higher Education‘s report on the survey, the mean salary for men was £24,000 while that figure was £21,000 for women. This £3,000 difference is an increase from the 2013-2014 survey, which recorded a gender salary gap of £2,000.

Computer science graduates had the highest employment rate – one in 10. Medicine and dentistry graduates, in comparison, had an employment rate of less than one percent.

Image via Pixabay.

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