What is the average graduate starting salary?
Information on graduate salaries is available in various surveys and reports but figures tend to be different, as they are arrived at in different ways.
1. Figures derived from Prospects, the UK's offical graduate careers website, the 2007/08 issue of Prospects Directory, revealed that the average starting salary offered to 2008 graduates is £24,048 and the median salary* is £23,500. Prospects Directory is an annual graduate recruiters' directory published by Graduate Prospects and features thousands of jobs and hundreds of employers. The latest 2007/08 issue is aimed at 2008 graduates. The salaries offered ranged from £14,732 to £39,000.
2. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) produced their most recent Graduate Recruitment survey in summer 2008, based on responses from 242 employers, which looks at the salaries recruiters are paying their new graduate employees. The median salary for graduates in 2008 is £24,500. The findings are summarised below.
Graduate starting salaries at AGR employers in 2008
|
Salary range |
% of employers |
|---|---|
|
£16,000-£19,000 |
4.7% |
|
£19,001-£22,000 |
14.9% |
|
£22,001-£24,000 |
29.8% |
|
£24,001 - £27,000 |
20.5% |
|
£27,001-£31,000 |
8.8% |
|
£31,001-£36,000 |
13.5% |
|
More than £36,001 |
7.9% |
Source: The AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2008: Summer Review
3. According to latest figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the average salary for full-time first degree graduates from 2007 whose destinations were known and who were in full-time employment in the UK six months after graduating was £19,300. This figure comes from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, which explores graduates’ destinations six months after graduation.
It is important to note that the salary figures for the first two sources are from mainly large companies and organisations and the vacancies are aimed specifically at graduates. A substantial number of graduates, however, obtain posts which are not specifically targeted at degree holders. As a result, the average salary figures from these sources are likely to be higher than the average graduate starting salaries sourced from student surveys (e.g. the figure reported by HESA), as there is a bias towards larger firms and specific graduate jobs. In addition, many of the vacancies are in London where salaries offered tend to be higher than in other UK regions.
* The median is the middle of a set of values.
