Pathways to employment: Subject choice, job requirements, and early employment outcomes for UK undergraduates

Abstract

Higher education in the United Kingdom has dramatically expanded in recent decades, along with questions about its effectiveness in preparing graduates for the labour market. With rising tuition fees and increasing competition for graduate jobs, many students opt to study ‘professional’ subjects—fields closely tied to specific professions. This paper examines the characteristics of students who study professional subjects at the undergraduate level, assesses their early economic outcomes, and explores whether they perceive their degree as necessary for their job. Using data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency (including administrative records) and from the Graduate Outcomes survey, this study examines graduates from the 2018/19 to 2020/21 cohorts. A survey-weighted ordinary least squares regression model is used to analyse subject choice, employment status, and perceptions of degree necessity, and a generalised ordered logit is used to estimate employed salary band outcomes. Findings indicate that students from lower socio-economic status backgrounds, women, older students, and UK nationals are more likely to pursue professional subjects, conditional on other factors. Graduates from professional fields have higher employment rates and salary bands 15 months after graduation than those from non-professional subjects. Moreover, professional graduates are more likely to report that their degree was required for their job. In contrast, many non-professional graduates find themselves in roles where their qualification is neither ‘required’ nor ‘advantageous’. These findings highlight the increasing role of professional subjects in higher education in securing employment and economic mobility, while raising important questions about higher education's responsiveness to evolving labour market demands.