How to recession-proof your degree

Which degree choices will guarantee you a job after you have graduated? Catherine Murray investigates

Whether you’ve got your place all sewn up or are still deciding on your degree course, how do you ensure you are maximising your chances of employment when you graduate? What’s more, with university fees costing up to £9,250 per year, should you even be taking the risk?

“Absolutely,” says Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. “Student numbers are up this year, because students are rational. They know that the alternatives – getting a job or going on a gap year – are worse. Any degree is better than sitting at home doing nothing.”

All well and good. But in a time of economic uncertainty, which subjects should you be studying?

According to the Government’s Longitudinal Educational Outcomes data, vet science, health sciences and medicine consistently top the tables for long-term graduate employment, and medicine and dentistry are reliably the highest-earning degrees. And, following the 2008 recession, along with education and law, these courses remained the best bets for employability, according to the Higher Education Statistics

Agency. “I’m not claiming it’s going to make you rich, but we have a shortage of teachers and nurses,” agrees Hillman. “Teaching is countercyclical – we always need teachers.”

Interestingly, a recent study from the Education Policy

Institute showed that, after the 2008 recession, teacher salaries continued to rise while others fell, exceeding average graduate salaries for four years.

“Applications to professional courses such as teaching do rise in times of economic uncertainty as students seek that ‘recession-proof ’ degree,” says Mark Heaton, recruitment lead for Teacher Education at Sheffield Hallam University. “No degree precludes you from becoming a teacher.”

If you want to become a doctor, of course, you will need a medical degree. But there are routes into other health careers, with degree apprenticeships – which pay you to train – now a rival to university.

“Unlike some industries that have been depressed by the pandemic, the demand for NHS apprentices remains high,” says Lucy Hunte, national programme manager for apprenticeships at Health Education England. “The NHS is the largest employer in England and there are 24 health-specific degree apprenticeships now. As well as registered nurse, we have occupational therapy, physiotherapy and paramedic degree apprenticeships, and non-clinical roles such as chartered manager.”

Another type of degree with good employment prospects is a sandwich degree, says Hillman. “Sandwich courses are brilliant for two reasons. At the end of your course, your CV not only says you have a degree but that you spent a year working in industry. And sometimes, the company will offer you a job,” he points out.

But all the experts agree that employability should not be the sole reason determining your choice: you should select a subject that you love. “There is no point jumping into civil engineering if you’re terrible at maths and there’s no point doing English if you don’t care about books,” observes Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute. “You should probably think more about where you are going to be your best, then adapt that to the jobs market that will exist in the future. The more adaptive you are, the better.

“A lot of what university is about is signalling. It can be a lot less about the precise skills that you are going to use, than that you’ve shown that you can do a degree.”

To that end, where you go and the class of degree you graduate with are both important factors, says Hillman. “I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing but employers continue to be impressed by having a Russell Group degree on your CV,” he says.

“Also, getting a 2:1. This might not necessarily be fair, but lots of employers simply will not interview people who have a 2:2 or a third.”

In addition to studying hard, networking and work experience are equally important, especially for subjects that don’t lead directly to a job, says Graeme Atherton, director of the National Education Opportunities Network, which supports universities in widening access to higher education.

“Take creative degrees. It’s great being a good performer but you also need entrepreneurial skills – it’s not got the same career stability as teaching or medicine,” he says.

“When arts students come out the other side, they are not always prepared for what the labour market is like. You need to start exploring that at uni. That might mean building links with other performers. And taking the opportunity to perform or produce your work and put it out there.” If opportunities for work experience and student jobs are lacking this year, you can still enhance your CV through volunteering, says Atherton. “It’s important to see what opportunities universities may have for you to work as ambassadors, talking to schools about higher education and delivering tutoring and mentoring to their pupils. These roles can provide you with real skills. University careers staff can give advice in these areas,” he adds.

Atherton also thinks students should look to the future when choosing a degree. “It’s about considering why you’re doing that particular course. Look at what the graduates from those universities and those courses have gone on to do.” You can find this on Discover Uni, which is the Government’s official website, or independent sites such as The Uni Guide.

Forecasting which parts of the economy will boom or bust in the future is no science, warns Lesh. “We’re pretty rubbish at predicting trends,” he says. The trend has been in the knowledge economy way, meaning the future of jobs will be things that can’t be easily automated because they have some level of human interaction. Social care and public services don’t tend to go.

Overall, students entering university right now shouldn’t worry, says Lesh. “You would expect them to be entering the job market during a recovery rather than a recession,” he reasons.

But where does that leave those who have just graduated and may be struggling to find employment? Further study is always a good bet, says Hillman. “If you can’t find a good job, stay in education,” he advises. “You can get a student loan to do a taught masters course and a lot of universities are discounting courses for students to stay on. The thing employers hate most of all on CVS are blank spaces. More education is more than 100 times better than a blank space.”

‘If you can’t find a good job, stay in education. A lot of universities will give discounts for you to stay on’