News

Graduates of Scottish institutions continue to outperform peers in rest of UK

New statistics published today (29 June 2017) continues the trend that graduates from Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions have better prospects within six months of graduation than their peers in the rest of the UK.

Statistics released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on Destination of Leavers from Higher Education in the United Kingdom (DLHE) for Academic Year 2015/16 showed:

  • Graduates from Scottish universities had an average mean salary of £22,500, the highest in the UK, with the UK average being £21,500.
  • 91 per cent of graduates from Scottish universities were in positive destinations, a percentage point higher than the national average.
  • The proportion of graduates from Scottish universities in graduate jobs remained steady at 72 per cent, the joint highest in the UK.
  • The rate of unemployment for graduates from Scottish universities remained the same as last year at five per cent.

Commenting on the data, the Director of Universities Scotland, Alastair Sim said:

“Today’s HESA statistics demonstrate that graduates from Scottish higher education institutions continue to be highly valued in the jobs market and the importance of these institutions to Scotland’s economy. At a time when thousands of graduates are being awarded for their hard work and talent all over the country we should recognise that our universities have also worked hard at developing and embedding employability skills into graduates and these statistics reflect that effort.”

ENDS

NOTES:

  1. The full set of graduation destinations data can be found on the HESA website: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/29-06-2017/sfr245-destinations-of-leavers
  2. Universities Scotland has been running a series of six blogs by soon to be graduates where they discuss how employability was embedded into their degrees: http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/blog/

For further information please contact:

Duncan McKay, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Universities Scotland

T: 0131 225 0714 M: 07445 747 222 duncan@universities-scotland.ac.uk