Southampton University produces some of UK's highest-earning graduates

Using data supplied by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, Raisin UK set out to find the universities that boast the highest-earning graduates.

Southampton is ranked tenth, with graduates earning an average salary of £29,044.

According to Raisin, which serves 220,000 savings customers across Europe, the university produces 5.2% of the UK's highest-earning graduates.

A Raisin spokesman said: "With the average student in England totting up a whopping £40,800 worth of debt from their university degree, how much you could take home in your pay packet once you graduate is a big deciding factor when choosing what and where you're going to study.

"It's no surprise that two of the oldest, most famous and wealthiest universities in the UK, Oxford and Cambridge, sit at the top of our list.

"Graduates of Oxford can expect to be earning an average salary of £34, 802 within five years of graduating. Cambridge doesn't trail too far behind, with graduates expected to earn an average of £34,720 annually after graduating."

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The spokesman said medicine and dentistry were the two courses that produced graduates with the highest earnings.

"Both fields require many years of self investment incurring university fees alongside intense study and job pressure, but in return yield higher salaries and career progression."

People studying creative arts and design, mass communications and agriculture are the ones least likely to earn more than £39,000.

"That's not to say the average earnings of these graduates hasn't improved over time," said the spokesman.

"In 2020, the average salary of an art graduate is around £9,609 higher than it was in 2000, but if this had grown in line with inflation it should be £9,633."

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Two months ago it was revealed that Southampton University had risen five places to 15th overall in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.

Southampton leapt ahead of Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and York in this year’s table of 131 UK higher education institutions.

In the Guide’s subject rankings, the university is number one for physiotherapy and number two for civil engineering and subjects allied to medicine.

Its new position in the Guide was welcomed by the university's president and vice-chancellor, Prof Mark Smith.

He said: "I would like to thank colleagues for all of the hard work, dedication and excellence in our research, enterprise and education endeavours across the university which this result reflects."