£50k less pay if you do same degree at a lesser university

A DEGREE from an elite university can earn a graduate £50,000 more than a student who did the same subject at a less prestigious college.

They are financially rewarded for attending Oxford, Cambridge and the 22 other Russell Group universities.

Analysis of 148 institutions and salaries based on tax data reveals which ones produce the highest earning graduates, after they have been in the labour market for five years.

The choice of university is important for graduates, as tuition fees rise to £9,250 this autumn.

Oxford and Cambridge repeatedly topped the lists although salaries vary much more according to the university a student attended in disciplines such as law, economics and business studies than they do in humanities such as English.

The median salary for a law graduate from Oxford who left in 2008-9 is £61,400 – the highest in the sector, reveal figures published by the Department for Education.

That compares to a £17,300 median salary for a law graduate from Bradford University – a wage difference of £44,100. In the top earning bracket, an Oxford law graduate takes home £78,000 five years after graduation.

A University of Bolton law graduate in the upper range earns £20,900 – a difference of £57,100. However, analysis of the data by Times Higher Education, shows English has a much smaller spread in terms of wages.

The highest median salary was earned by a Cambridge graduate, at £31,000. The lowest, £13,300, was for an English graduate from the University of St Mark and St John (also called Plymouth Marjon University).

Similarly it makes little difference where nursing graduates studied.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, acting director of the Russell Group, said university is about more than future earnings, however ‘this will be a factor for many young people who are considering their options’. He said: ‘We know employers value our graduates. These figures suggest that they are willing to pay a premium for them too.

Nicola Dandridge, of Universities UK, insisted that ‘graduate salaries are not the only measure of success in higher education’.

She said: ‘Many students seek rewarding careers where high salaries are not their only motivation.

‘There are also other factors that may impact on earnings, including higher and lower average earnings in some parts of the country.’