GRADUATES from Scottish universities end up in better paid jobs than their counterparts across the UK, new figures have shown.
A new report by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), which tracks the destinations of graduates three and a half years after leaving university, has revealed that leavers from Scottish Higher Education Institutions take home an average salary of £27,500.
This is the highest median earning in the UK, with graduates in England earning £27,000 and graduates in Wales and Northern Ireland earning £25,000 at the same point of their career.
The report also found that almost 94 per cent of all leavers from Scottish HEIs were in either employment, had gone on to further studies or were undertaking some combination of the two three and a half years after graduating.
The Scottish Government and University chiefs have welcomed the findings, which come just days after a record number of students from Scotland’s most deprived areas secured a place at university according to admissions service UCAS.
Higher Education Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “I very much welcome these figures, which show the value of a Scottish education and our world-class universities. More of our graduates, three and a half years after graduating, are in positive destinations and earning a higher median salary than graduates in the UK as a whole.
“I want everyone with the talent and ability to have the chance to go to university and get the same opportunity in life, no matter their background. Our efforts to widen access to university are undoubtedly going in the right direction and I look forward to seeing further progress.”
A spokesman for umbrella body Universities Scotland added: “Today’s figures represent good news, not just for graduates of Scottish universities but the institutions themselves.
"Our universities have worked to ensure that employability skills are embedded throughout student’s time at university. We know that graduates from Scottish institutions are highly valued by employers and these figures reflect that fact.”
However, student leaders say they have mixed feelings over the findings, which mask the fact that Scottish students are often worse off financially as the threshold requiring them to repay loans is much lower than their counterparts in other UK areas.
NUS Scotland President Luke Humberstone said: “This is really positive news for Scottish students, reflecting the great talent that Scotland’s graduates have and the valuable contribution they make to the country.
"However, these figures also reiterate the need for our universities to be doing all they can to widen access to higher education and ensure more people from Scotland’s poorest areas get the opportunity to go to university.
“In addition to this, Scottish graduates are still forced to start repaying their student loans when their income reaches £17,335 – a figure much lower than the repayment threshold in England and Wales.
"The Scottish Government must address this by upping the repayment threshold to ensure that graduates only start to repay their loans once their salary is in line with the average graduate starting salary of £22,500. Failure to act means graduates earning less than this will continue to be out of pocket compared to other parts of the UK.”
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here