Ranked: The Russell Group unis with the fastest rising grad salaries right now

Despite all the waffle uni brochures and careers advisors will feed you about broadening your intellectual horizons or whatever, the whole point of going to uni is clearly so you can make more money afterwards (and get extremely drunk off VKs at least twice a week). Fancy Russell Group unis tend to land you a much better grad job afterwards – presumably because employers think you must be cleverer if you got into one. Here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by how much the grad salaries are rising, so you know which ones are worth going to if you plan on being a millionaire. (Or, so you can despair at your own job prospects.)

The grad salaries at Oxbridge haven’t actually risen that much over the last seven years? Salaries at the University of Cambridge have actually gone up by the least amount out of all the Russell Group unis – only an average of £4,000. University of Oxford grads aren’t drastically better off. Grad salaries there have only gone up by £4,400.

Grad salaries have gone up loads at London unis. Queen Mary University of London has the highest average grad salary of all. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and King’s College London weren’t far behind. I guess the price of rent and cost of living has risen such a harrowing amount over the last few years, that the salaries of Londoners have also increased more than the rest of the country’s?

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This data all comes from comparing the most recent data available about grad salaries on the government website, to the average grad salaries in 2016/2017. Bare in mind that these average grad salaries are boosted by all the high-paying corporate soul-sucking economics and law jobs. The average grad salaried for bog-standard humanities degrees by themselves are way lower. I didn’t forget about the existence of Queen’s University Belfast – there just wasn’t past data for their grad salaries available.

So, without further rambling, here are the Russell Group unis with the fastest-rising grad salaries over the last seven years.

23. University of Cambridge – £4,000

£32,100 to £36,100

22. University of Warwick – £4,400

£29,800 to £34,200

21. University of Oxford – £4,500

£30,700 to £35,200

At least Oxford looks nice

20. Cardiff University – £4,800

£24,400 to £29,200

19. Imperial College London – £4,900

£32,900 to £37,800

18. University of Southampton – £5,400

£25,400 to £30,800

17. University of Bristol – £5,500

£26,200 to £31,700

16. University of Nottingham – £5,600

£25,400 to £31,000

15. Durham University – £6,000

£26,400 to £32,400

14. University of Exeter – £6,500

£24,600 to £31,100

Graduation at Exetaaaaaah

13. University of York – £6,600

£23,100 to £29,700

12. University College London (UCL) – £6,800

£27,800 to £34,600

11. University of Birmingham – £6,900

£24,000 to £30,900

10. University of Leeds – £7,200

£23,100 to £30,300

9. University of Manchester – £7,400

£22,700 to £30,100

8. University of Liverpool – £7,700

£21,000 to £28,700

=6. University of Glasgow – £8,000

£22,600 to £30,600

Glasgow students looking cheerful

=6. University of Sheffield – £8,000

£22,700 to £30,700

5. Newcastle University – £8,700

£21,400 to £30,100

4. King’s College London – £9,000

£24,200 to £33,200

3. University of Edinburgh – £9,800

£22,100 to £31,900

2. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – £10,300

£29,600 to £39,900

1. Queen Mary University of London – £10,600

£21,400 to £32,000