Graduates 'satisfied with career'

Graduates are still likely to feel they made the right choice

A large majority of graduates find suitable employment within a few years of leaving university, new research suggests.

But the study, which compares the fortunes of graduates from 1999 with those who left university in 1995, says graduate earnings may be declining.

The research said female graduates from 1999 reported earnings of approximately 15% less than their male peers.

Women were more likely to have non-graduate jobs, the research said.

Almost 85% of graduates from 1999 indicated they were in graduate-level employment four years after graduation.

Most said they thought their education would improve their employment prospects - and just 3.5% said with hindsight they would not have entered higher education.

Excess demand?

The study was conducted by Professor Peter Elias at the University of Warwick Institute of Employment Research and Professor Kate Purcell at the Employment Studies Research Unit at Bristol Business School, on behalf of the government.

It focused on the paths of 8,600 students who left UK higher education institutions in 1999, questioning them four years after graduation.

Parts of the study compared their prospects with graduates from 1995.

The earnings of the 1999 graduates "do not appear to have kept pace with earnings increases more generally in the economy", the report said.

But "particular economic factors in 2003" may have influenced this finding.

But it continues: "or it may be an indication that the graduate earnings premium... is beginning to reflect a decline in the excess demand of graduate skills and knowledge that has characterised the situation prevailing throughout the 1990s".

Four years after graduation, the average salary reported was £23,800.

Gender gap

Three to four years after graduating, women reported earnings which were approximately 15% lower than their male counterparts.

The report says that men are more likely to be working in the private rather than not-for-profit sector, may favour high-earning occupations, or work longer hours.

But taking these factors in account there still exists a considerable unexplained disparity between male and female salary expectations, the report continues.

Over three quarters - 77% - of the 1999 cohort had student debt.

A quarter of those said it had influenced their career choices.

The report said 47% of respondents worked during term time to finance their studies, and these were around a third less likely to gain an upper second class or first class degree.

But the research suggests the majority of graduates feel they are in employment they feel suits their aspirations - 70% of men and 66% of women.

When asked what they valued most about attending university, graduates cited benefits such as "labour market advantage", "academic and intellectual achievement" and "personal and social development".

Professor Kate Purcell said: "This research should give prospective students encouragement.

"However, our analysis also shows that there remains a significant gender gap in pay - 5% of the average difference between male and female earnings remains unaccounted for by any other factor than gender.

"More than a quarter of a century after the introduction of equal opportunities legislation, we find graduate women's skills and knowledge are still more likely to be undervalued and under-utilised."

Drummond Bone, president of Universities UK, said the report contained much good news.

"The evidence is clear that graduates are going on to build good careers that reflect their skills and achievements - and that employers continue to value graduates and are prepared to pay a premium that reflects this."

And he said he was encouraged that graduates appeared not to value their degree purely in economic terms.