Time period
The earliest time period for which employment and earnings data is reported is one year after graduation. This refers to the first full tax year after graduation (YAG). Hence, for the 2019/20 graduation cohort, the figures one year after graduation refer to employment and earnings outcomes in the 2021/22 tax year. This time period was used because the previous tax year overlaps with the graduation date, and so graduates are unlikely to have been engaged in economic activity for the whole tax year.
Academic year 2018/19 |------------------|
Tax year 2019/20 |------------------|
Tax year 2020/21 |------------------|
In this publication, we include outcomes one, three and five years after graduation, focussing on the 2021/22 tax year but with some comparisons with tax years between 2015/16 and 2020/21. Thus, we look at employment and earnings outcomes during the 2021/22 tax year for graduates from the 2015/16, 2017/18 and 2019/20 academic years. For earlier tax years, we calculate years after graduation in the same way. For example, for outcomes during the 2015/16 tax year, we include graduates from the 2009/10, 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 academic years. We do not include outcomes ten years after graduation because prior attainment data is unavailable for cohorts who graduated in the 2009/10 academic year (ten years before the 2021/22 tax year), or before.
The table below shows this for all tax years and academic years. The cells represent years after graduation (YAG). Bold indicates it is a cohort available in this publication:
| | Tax Year | | |
| | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| Academic year of graduation | 2009/10 | 5 YAG | 6 YAG | 7 YAG | 8 YAG | 9 YAG | 10 YAG | 11 YAG |
| 2010/11 | 4 YAG | 5 YAG | 6 YAG | 7 YAG | 8 YAG | 9 YAG | 10 YAG |
| 2011/12 | 3 YAG | 4 YAG | 5 YAG | 6 YAG | 7 YAG | 8 YAG | 9 YAG |
| 2012/13 | 2 YAG | 3 YAG | 4 YAG | 5 YAG | 6 YAG | 7 YAG | 8 YAG |
| 2013/14 | 1 YAG | 2 YAG | 3 YAG | 4 YAG | 5 YAG | 6 YAG | 7 YAG |
| 2014/15 | | 1 YAG | 2 YAG | 3 YAG | 4 YAG | 5 YAG | 6 YAG |
| 2015/16 | | | 1 YAG | 2 YAG | 3 YAG | 4 YAG | 5YAG |
| 2016/17 | | | | 1 YAG | 2 YAG | 3 YAG | 4 YAG |
| 2017/18 | | | | | 1 YAG | 2 YAG | 3 YAG |
| 2018/19 | | | | | | 1 YAG | 2 YAG |
| 2019/20 | | | | | | | 1 YAG |
Employment outcomes
We refer to a graduate as matched if they have been successfully matched to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Customer Information System (CIS) or if they have been matched to a further study instance on the HESA Student Record. Graduates who have not been matched to CIS or a further study record are referred to as unmatched. These graduates were not found on DWP’s Customer Information System (CIS), either because they had never been issued with a National Insurance number or because the personal details provided from the HESA data did not fulfil the matching criteria. These graduates are excluded from calculations performed for UK domiciled populations.
UK domiciled graduates who have been matched are then placed in one of five outcomes categories. These are:
- Activity not captured
- No sustained destination
- Sustained employment only
- Sustained employment with or without further study
- Sustained employment, further study or both.
Unmatched graduates are included in the denominator when calculating employment outcomes for non-UK domiciled graduates and are placed in a separate ‘unmatched’ outcome category. For these populations the match rates are much lower and non-UK graduates are much more likely to leave the UK after graduation. Including these graduates in the calculations means we get a better indication of the proportion of graduates who have stayed in the UK to work or study after graduation, making it easier to compare countries with very different match rates.
More information on match rates is given in the Data matching and match rates section. If a graduate is unmatched on the CIS but has a further study record for the tax year in question, then they are counted as being in further study, and hence are not in the unmatched category.
Activity not captured
Graduates in this category have been successfully matched to CIS but do not have any employment, out-of-work benefits or further study records in the tax year of interest. Reasons for appearing in this category include moving out of the UK after graduation for either work or study, voluntarily leaving the labour force or death.
No sustained destination
Graduates who have an employment or out-of-work benefits record in the tax year in question but were not classified as being in ‘sustained employment’ and do not have a further study record.
Sustained employment defined by P45 data
The ‘sustained employment’ measure aims to count the proportion of graduates in sustained employment in the UK following the completion of their course. The definition of sustained employment is consistent with the definition used for 16-19 accountability and the outcome based success measures published for adult further education https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/adult-further-education-outcome-based-success-measures (opens in a new tab). This definition looks mainly at employment activity in the six month October to March period of each tax year. A graduate needs to be in paid employment for at least one day in five out of six months between October and March of a given tax year to be classified as being in ‘sustained employment’ in the given tax year. If they are not employed in March, they must additionally have at least one day in employment in the April of the same calendar year to be counted as being in sustained employment.
For instance, a graduate employed from 1st October 2021 to 5th January 2022 and then again from 30th March 2022 onwards would be classed as being in sustained employment in 2021/22 as although they are not employed in February 2022 they are employed in the other five months in the period from October 2021 to March 2022. However, a graduate employed from 1st October 2021 to 28th February 2022 but not employed in March 2022, would not be considered as being in sustained employment unless they had a day in employment April 2022.
Sustained employment defined by self-assessment data
This publication incorporates self-assessment data into measures of sustained employment. Self-assessment data captures the activity of individuals with income that is not taxed through PAYE, such as income from self-employment, savings and investments, property rental, and shares. A full list of income sources that must be declared through a self-assessment return can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/who-must-send-a-tax-return (opens in a new tab).
For the purposes of this publication, individuals are classed as being in sustained employment in the tax year if they meet our definition of sustained employment based on PAYE or have returned a self-assessment form stating that they have received income from self-employment and their earnings from a Partnership or Sole-Trader enterprise of more than £0 (profit from self-employment). These individuals may or may not have an additional PAYE record. Individuals who have received income through self-assessed means other than self-employment, such as through rental of property, and do not have a PAYE record, are not classed as being in employment (either sustained or unsustained). Those who have made a loss from self-employment are currently excluded from sustained employment as we are unable to distinguish between those who made a loss and those who submitted self-assessment returns for other reasons at this moment in time.
Further study
A graduate is defined as being in further study if they have a valid higher education study record at any UK HEI on the HESA Student Record or designated English Alternative Provider (AP) on the AP HESA Student Record that overlaps with the relevant tax year. Further study undertaken at further education colleges is not currently reflected in these figures but we will review this in future publications. The further study does not have to be at postgraduate level to be counted. The purpose of this category is to identify how students spent their time in the relevant tax year and as such cannot be used to calculate the proportion of graduates who go on to postgraduate study. We have not counted instances lasting 14 days or less, which is a change from publications up to the 2019/20 tax year. Additionally, students enrolled on further education courses, on some initial teacher training enhancement, booster and extension courses, whose study status is dormant or who were on sabbatical are excluded from this indicator in line with our previous methodology.
Designated alternative providers were not required to return student level data to HESA prior to the 2014/15 academic year. From the 2014/15 academic year all alternative providers covered by HESA did submit student level data, and these are included in this publication where applicable. The University of Buckingham has historically returned HESA data every year and so is included in all cohorts.
As a tax year overlaps with two academic years, some students would be coming to the end of their further study in the tax year in question and some would be starting their further study. For example, those who graduated in the 2015/16 academic year and went straight on to a one-year masters course would be counted as being in further study in the 2017/18 tax year (one year after graduation) as their course would finish in July 2017. If a graduate from 2015/16 waited a year before starting their one-year masters course then they would typically be counted as being in further study in the 2017/18 tax year (one year after graduation) if their course started in September 2017 for instance.
Sustained employment only
Graduates are considered to be in sustained employment only if they have a record of sustained employment (as defined either via the P45 or self assessment data) but no record of further study (as defined above).
Sustained employment with or without further study
Sustained employment with or without further study includes all graduates with a record of sustained employment (defined either via the P45 or self assessment data), regardless of whether they also have a record of further study (as defined above).
Sustained employment, further study or both
Sustained employment, further study or both includes all graduates with a record of sustained employment or further study. This category includes all graduates in the ‘sustained employment with or without further study’ category as well as those with a further study record only.
It is important to note that our definition of sustained employment does not distinguish between the different types of work that graduates are engaged in and so cannot provide an indication of the proportion of graduates who are employed in graduate occupations. Furthermore, we cannot distinguish between full-time and part-time employment.
The below table summarises the type of activity people may have to be unmatched or to fall into one of the five outcomes categories.
| LEO category | Further study | Sustained employment | Any employment | Out-of-work Benefits |
| Unmatched | - | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS |
| Activity not captured | - | - | - | - |
| No sustained destination | - | - | Y | - |
| - | - | - | Y |
| - | - | Y | Y |
| Sustained employment only | - | Y | Y | - |
| - | Y | Y | Y |
| Sustained employment (with or without further study) | Y | Y | Y | - |
| Y | Y | Y | Y |
| - | Y | Y | - |
| - | Y | Y | Y |
| Sustained employment, further study or both | - | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS |
| Y | - | - | - |
| Y | - | Y | - |
| Y | - | - | Y |
| Y | - | Y | Y |
| Y | Y | Y | - |
| Y | Y | Y | Y |
| - | Y | Y | - |
| - | Y | Y | Y |
| Further study, with or without sustained employment | Y | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS | Unmatched to CIS |
| Y | - | - | - |
| Y | - | Y | - |
| Y | - | - | Y |
| Y | - | Y | Y |
| Y | Y | - | - |
| Y | Y | Y | - |
| Y | Y | - | Y |
| Y | Y | Y | Y |
Annualised earnings
Earnings figures are only reported for those classified as being in sustained employment via PAYE and where we have a valid earnings record from the P14 or where they are self-employed and have reported income of over £0 for that tax year. Those in further study are excluded, as their earnings would be more likely to relate to part-time jobs. Note that our publications prior to December 2017 did not include earnings from self-assessment. Under the new methodology, some graduates will have increased earnings if they have PAYE earnings as well as self-employment earnings. However, there are also more graduates included in the earnings calculations – those who have self-employment earnings but do not have qualifying PAYE earnings. This group typically has lower earnings than graduates with PAYE earnings. Thus, the reported median earnings under the new methodology is not necessarily higher under the new methodology compared to the old methodology. See our December 2017 publication for more details on the effect of this methodology change.
Under our new methodology, PAYE and earnings from self-employment are treated differently.
For each graduate who has been paid through the PAYE system, the earnings reported for them for a given tax year are divided by the number of days recorded in the employment spell in that same tax year. This provides an average daily wage, which is then multiplied by the number of days in the tax year to create their annualised earnings.
This calculation has been used to maintain consistency with figures reported for further education learners after study (Further education outcomes, Academic year 2020/21 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)). It provides students with an indication of the earnings they might receive once in stable and sustained employment.
For earnings from self-employment, raw earnings are used. Due to the nature of the Self-Assessment tax return, dates of self-employment are not required and therefore are not available to annualise the self-employment earnings in the same way that PAYE earnings are annualised. We are therefore assuming that earnings reported in the Self-Assessment tax return relate to a spell of (self-)employment covering at least the whole tax year.
Where a graduate has income from both sustained employment paid through PAYE and though self-employment, the earnings used for this graduate is the sum of their annualised PAYE earnings and their raw earnings from self-employment. It should be noted that a graduate with a PAYE records (that does not reach the ‘sustained’ criteria) and a self-employment earnings record will be counted as being in ‘sustained employment’ but we do not include their earnings in the earnings calculation. This is to avoid the risk of annualising PAYE data that could be based on a very short earnings spell.
The annualised earnings calculated are slightly higher than the raw earnings reported in the tax year. This is because the earnings of those who did not work for the entire tax year will be higher when annualised. The difference between the annualised and raw figures decreases as time elapses after graduation. That is, the difference between median annualised earnings and median raw earnings is greater one year after graduation than five years after graduation. The trend follows for both graduates who are in PAYE employment only and graduates who earnt income from both PAYE employment and self-employment.
Information provided on the Self-Assessment tax return includes a field on earnings through PAYE employment, which we have used only where P14 earnings is not present.
All earnings presented are nominal. They represent the cash amount an individual was paid and are not adjusted for inflation (the general increase in the price of goods and services). The exception to this is the figure and table showing the nominal earnings compared to real-term earnings using Consumer Prices Index Including Owner Occupiers’ Housing Costs (CPIH) to account for inflation.
It should be noted that LEO does not currently include data on the average number of hours worked per week. Therefore, we can not distinguish between part-time and full-time employment/earnings. We appreciate that this is likely to impact some demographics more than others and are working towards having this data in future iterations of LEO so that it can be accounted for.
Median earnings adjusted for region
The adjusted median is calculated by weighting each university’s graduates so that the distribution of graduates from that HE institution is the same as that nationally. For example, if university A has 3% of its graduates living in the East Midlands compared to 12% nationally then graduates in the East Midlands at that university will be given a weighting of 4.0. This adjusted median can then be compared to the actual median of the institution to give an indication of how the regional distribution of their graduates influences their institution level figures.
For this calculation to produce meaningful results, each HE institution should have a reasonable number of graduates in each of the regions. Some HE institutions do not have sufficient graduates in each region, and so for these institutions, the adjusted medians have been suppressed. Consequently, we have only been able to produce adjusted medians for HE institutions as the majority of Further Education Colleges have graduates distributed across a small number of regions. We also include data for subject and sex where possible to further aid comparisons.
To maximise the number of institutions for which we are able to publish data we combined the regions into 6 larger groups based on the similarity of their overall earnings figures. This resulted in the following groups that formed the basis of our weighting calculations:
| Government Office Region | Group |
| London | 1 |
| South East | 2 |
| East of England | 3 |
| Scotland | 3 |
| West Midlands | 4 |
| South West | 4 |
| East Midlands | 4 |
| North West | 5 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 5 |
| North East | 6 |
| Wales | 6 |
| Northern Ireland | 6 |
It should be noted that whilst this method can produce adjusted median earnings that are either higher or lower than the actual raw median earnings for each institution, this methodology is likely to result in more institutions having higher adjusted median earnings than raw median earnings. This is because the national distribution of graduates is concentrated in London and the South-East and when applying this weighting to all institutions, graduates in these areas (who on average will be higher earners) are likely to account for a higher proportion of the institutions adjusted earnings data.
In this release, the weighted earnings have been calculated by provider, subject and sex where possible and are available in Table 4 of the ‘Excel table – Provider tables’ file in ‘All supporting files’ under the ‘Explore data and files’ section.