Impact of higher education

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has released research and analysis reports on The Impact of University Degrees on the Lifecycle of Earnings in the UK and The Relationship Between Graduates and Economic Growth Across Countries.

Key findings from the reports include:

• The likely impact on lifecycle net earnings of having a degree as compared to not having a degree is 28 percent for men (approx. £168,000) and 53 percent for women (approx. £252,000) on average;
• Having a good degree (first or upper second) indicates significantly larger lifecycle net earnings as compared with lower degree classes;
• Male higher education dropouts earn approximately the same as individuals who never attended higher education, while female dropouts earn slightly less than those who never attended higher education;
• There is not a wide variation in difference of returns across broad types of higher education institute;
• The net present value of the additional tax paid by graduates relative to non-graduate is much larger than earlier research suggested, meaning that higher education is an important investment for the government as well as for students; and
• Graduate skills accumulation contributed to roughly 20 percent of GDP growth in the UK from 1982 to 2005.

To download The Impact of University Degrees on the Lifecycle of Earnings visit www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229498/bis-13-899-the-impact-of-university-degrees-on-the-lifecycle-of-earnings-further-analysis.pdf.

To download The Relationship Between Graduates and Economic Growth Across Countries visit www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229492/bis-13-858-relationship-between-graduates-and-economic-growth-across-countries.pdf.