Higher Education: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of funding undergraduate courses that do not lead to sustained graduate-level employment.
Answered by Josh MacAlister
All first-degree subjects typically lead to high rates of sustained employment, with Longitudinal Education Outcomes data showing that the proportion of graduates in “sustained employment with or without further study” five years after graduation ranges from 77.4% to 92.2% across subjects (in the latest available data, i.e. the 2022/23 tax year). This compares to a 68.0% employment rate among working-age non-graduates (in the latest Graduate Labour Market Statistics release, i.e. for 2024).
Current administrative data does not provide a breakdown of outcomes by whether employment is at graduate-level. Similarly, evidence is not available on the breakdown of government costs of student finance at course or subject level.
Courses with specific quality concerns related to graduate outcomes are addressed through the Office for Students quality regime.
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