Graduate salaries in this area among the lowest in the UK

New data from the Department for Education reveals that workers graduating from English universities in 2010-11 earned £20,400 five years after finishing their degrees – among the lowest graduate salaries in the UK.

That is 17% more than people graduated in 2015-16 earned, when the median salary was £17,500.

The median salary is the middle point within a list of graduate salaries, and is a measure used to exclude extreme values.

The Department for Education only has data for institutions in England. This shows that across Yorkshire and the Humber, people who graduated from universities in the East of England earned the most, with earnings of £28,800 five years after finishing their degrees.

At the other end of the spectrum were graduates from universities in Yorkshire and the Humber, earning £22,600 as a median salary.

Chris Skidmore, the universities minister, said he was delighted that earnings had continued to increase for recent graduates.

He said: “We want students and their parents to have the best possible information about higher education.

“This data is an invaluable tool to help prospective students make the right choice and know what to expect from the course they choose”.

In Scarborough, 14% of graduates from universities in England had no sustained employment and were not studying five years after finishing university.

The HMRC defines sustained employment as being employed for at least one day in at least 10 of the 12 months of a year.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said: “It is good to see that, in general, graduate earnings continue to rise – although gaps remain between more and less disadvantaged groups.

“Financial outcomes are just one of the considerations for students when choosing a degree subject, as students will make career choices not solely based on a likely graduate salary.”

Article by data reporter Miguel Rodriguez