Students from lower-ranked university have just a 1 in 5 chance of securing a top job after they graduate – with just 20% achieving ‘highly skilled’ full-time post within 15 months

• Students completing courses at a cost of nearly £28,000 struggle to find jobs 

Students from some of Britain’s lowest-ranked universities stand just a one-in-five chance of finding a good job after graduating, figures have revealed.

As few as 20 per cent of students in England completing undergraduate courses at a cost of nearly £28,000 achieved a ‘highly skilled’ full-time post within 15 months, according to data.

The information has been published by the Government’s Discover Uni site, where people can search for details such as student satisfaction and graduate outcomes.

The lack of prospects offered by courses at universities ranked among the UK’s worst comes despite high wages for their Vice Chancellors, some of whom earn almost double the Prime Minister’s salary.

Students from some of Britain’s lowest-ranked universities stand just a one-in-five chance of finding a good job after graduating, figures have revealed

I studied media, now I’m at Sainsbury’s 

Toby Schleich had ‘high ambitions’ when he started the University of East Anglia’s Society, Culture and Media degree.

A year after graduating from the £27,750 course, the 23-year-old (pictured) works for Sainsbury’s on its management traineeship scheme. His first year ‘brought out my creative side, with plenty of critical analysis of films and TV, along with learning about the functionality of the industry’.

But Covid cancelled practical projects such as computer lab sessions, leaving him ‘struggling to follow someone’s instructions through a laptop’. He said: ‘I just have a nagging wonder of what would have been different about my career if some of those courses had happened.’

Iain Mansfield, research director at the Policy Exchange think-tank, said: ‘Universities receive over £10billion a year of public funding and many vice-chancellors are paid handsomely. There is no reason why taxpayers should be forced to fund low-value courses which leave students with nothing but a lifetime of debt.’

At some Scottish institutions figures were even lower. The Mail’s research comes days after the Government criticised ‘rip-off’ degrees. One of the worst performers was Bolton University’s BA (hons) in Creative Writing, with 40 per cent of students working 15 months after graduation and only half of those in highly-skilled jobs – equivalent to 20 per cent of all course graduates.

Bolton is placed 120th of 130 by The Complete University Guide. Its vice-chancellor, George Holmes, was paid £322,000 in 2022. By comparison, Rishi Sunak earned £167,000.

Just over a quarter of graduates from 100th-placed Derby University’s BSc (hons) in Performance Analysis and Coaching Science (PACS) were in highly-skilled work after 15 months.

At bottom-placed Wrexham Glyndwr University, students in its Design Studies faculty had a 55 per cent satisfaction score. Although 36 per cent were in skilled jobs after 15 months, average salaries were just £17,000 after five years.

Courses at some better-scored institutions fared badly including 23rd-ranked University of East Anglia (UEA). Sociology, Social Policy and Anthropology course types saw 27.5 per cent in skilled work after 15 months and satisfaction of 55 per cent.In contrast, leading Russell Group institution Nottingham University’s Economics degree had 73 per cent satisfaction, and 57.6 per cent in highly skilled work after 15 months.

Discover Uni data is from a national survey carried out from 2018 to 2020.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: ‘The real issue here is surely the cost to taxpayers because courses with poor outcomes lead to student loans having to be written off.’ A Universities UK spokesman said: ‘It is too simplistic to measure every graduate and their success by job title and earnings after 15 months.

‘Some graduates, for example in creative courses, might go on to work freelance, set up a new business or work in a sector where it might take a bit longer to establish a career.’

A UEA spokesman said it ‘has just achieved its best ever performance in the (most recent) Graduate Outcomes metric, with 84 per cent of graduates in professional work or study, 15 months after graduation’.

The University of Derby said performance of its PACS course has increased, with the proportion of working graduates in highly-skilled roles increasing by two thirds since the Discover Uni data was compiled.

Wrexham Glyndwr University said it recently ‘revalidated’ courses to ensure ‘all students are equipped with a wide range of crucial and transferable skills to look to employment in studios and freelance in a range of highly skilled positions’.

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