Graduates Student From Worst Universities Left Jobless

A fifth of students are unemployed after leaving britain’s worst-performing universities amid a continuing shortage of graduate jobs, new figures show.

Graduates’ chances of securing work differ significantly depending on their choice of university and degree course, it emerged.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed that students at some institutions were around 10 times more likely to be left unemployed than those at other mainstream universities.

Top 12 degree subjects for getting a job

It was also revealed that students from Derby and Northampton universities were more likely to be in work than Oxbridge graduates. The disclosure comes amid intense competition for good jobs as a result of the economic downturn and a surge in the size of Britain’s university population over the last decade. According to today’s figures, a total of 9.2 per cent of graduates – almost 26,000 – were not in work or further study six months after leaving university last summer.

But the data showed stark differences between institutions, with numbers escalating as high as a fifth at some universities. Figures show that 22.6 per cent of students were without work after leaving London South Bank University and numbers were as high as 20.6 per cent at East London University and 18.9 per cent at Bolton. Unemployment rates were above 15 per cent at 11 other institutions –Middlesex, London Metropolitan, London’s University of the Arts,Goldsmiths College, Teesside, Greenwich, Buckinghamshire New, Staffordshire, Westminster, West of Scotland and Kingston.

Top 10 universities for getting a job

But the data showed near full employment at a handful of specialist institutions. All 25 graduates from the Royal Academy of Music were employed or studying after finishing their course last year, along with 98.9 per cent at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and 98.2 per cent at the School of Pharmacy.

The best-performing mainstream university was Robert Gordon in Aberdeen where just 2.3 per cent of students were out of work – around 10 times fewer than the worst institution.

The figures also show that more students who went to the universities of Derby and Northampton were in work or studying than those who went toOxford and Cambridge.

In total, 96.1 per cent of Derby graduates and 95.7 per cent of those from Northampton were working or studying six months after finishing their degree.

This compared with 94.9 per cent of last year's Cambridge graduates and 92 per cent of those who were at Oxford. Among Britain’s leading the Russell Group universities, all but one –Queen Mary – had an employment and study rate of over 90 per cent.

The figures come a week after separate data showed that many students were being forced to take elementary jobs such as window cleaners, office juniors and road sweepers to make ends meet after leaving university.

Figures also showed that students’ chances of securing work differed depending on their choice of course. Some 99.3 per cent of medicine, dentistry and veterinary science graduates were in work compared with just 87 per cent of those taking courses such as media studies, journalism, film studies and information management.