Russell Group universities ranked by grad salaries for 2026 – Oxbridge are surprisingly mid

Those of you who long to be minted after uni might be scouring UCAS for places at Russell Group unis. On average, grads from Russell Group universities do earn higher salaries than students who went to the rest of the unis in the UK. The Daily Mail dropped its 2026 league tables on A-Level Results Day, so we can have a nose at how much money grads from different Russell Group universities are raking in.

You might expect Oxbridge to be the best Russell Group universities for grad salaries… but in 2026, they’re really not. The Russell Group uni with the highest median grad salary is Imperial College London, followed by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Grads from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford are getting an average of £35,000… but so are people who studied at King’s College London (KCL), University College London (UCL) and the University of Warwick.

Now, keep in mind that the location of a university may affect the median grad salary. Many students do live at home during their degrees, or stick around in the same city afterwards. For example, the Russell Group university with the lowest grad salaries in 2026 is Queen’s University Belfast. That’s the only Russell Group university in Northern Ireland, and wages are on average lower there than in England. The five Russell Group unis in London all rank really highly for grad salaries.

The Daily Mail calculated these grad salaries based on the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s figures from June 2026. So, the numbers are the median salary of students who left uni in 2024, then were in full-time jobs within the UK 15 months later. You with me still?

So here are the Russell Group universities ranked by grad salaries, based on the Daily Mail’s 2026 league tables:

24. Queen’s University Belfast – £29,000

=19. Cardiff University – £30,000

A Cardiff University Graduation

=19. University of Leeds – £30,000

=19. University of Liverpool – £30,000

=19. Newcastle University – £30,000

=19. University of York – £30,000

18. University of Manchester – £30,200

17. University of Sheffield – £31,000

16. University of Birmingham – £31,400

15. University of Exeter – £31,500

=9. University of Bristol – £32,000

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Students who made it through Bristol Uni

=9. Durham University- £32,000

=9. University of Edinburgh – £32,000

=9. University of Glasgow – £32,000

=9. University of Nottingham- £32,000

=9. University of Southampton – £32,000

8. Queen Mary University of London – £33,000

=3. University of Cambridge – £35,000

Cambridge looking cute

=3. King’s College London (KCL) – £35,000

=3. University of Oxford – £35,000

=3. University College London (UCL) – £35,000

=3. University of Warwick – £35,000

2. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – £36,000

1. Imperial College London – £39,000

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