What Do Students Do Post-taking Graduate Route? How Much Do They Earn?

The Graduate Route is a crucial time for students to look for and secure any full-time or part-time work opportunity in the UK. While there are several work-related activities that the graduates can carry on a post-graduate work visa in UK, a generic pattern and data on the same can help aspiring graduate visa holders to follow the right steps. 

Introduced in July 2021, the Graduate Route (or post-study work) allows international students to look for and work on a job after completing their bachelor’s or master’s degree in the UK for a period of 2 years, or 3 years in case of doctoral courses. The Graduate visa holders can switch to any other immigration visa route at any point in their graduate visa journey.

Reports have it that the percentage of total students granted a leave in the UK, after the completion of their studies in the UK has tripled from what it was in 2019 to what it is in 2023, i.e. from 18% to 56%. This means that the total number of students applying for an extended stay in the UK to look for work and work on certain jobs significantly increased in 2023. 

This article contains complete information on the behaviours of graduate visa holders in the UK; this involves the type of work that they do and the average amount of money that they make. This article helps students getting their higher education in the UK plan their journey after the completion of their studies and draw a roadmap for their future choices and aspirations. 

Number of Students Taking the Graduate Route in the UK

Since its launch, a total of 213,250 main applicants and 45,836 dependants have been allowed leave on a Graduate visa in the UK between 2021 and 2023 (leave in a migrant’s journey lasts 12 months and is granted only upon the successful completion of the previous leave. A migrant’s journey in the UK consists of several such leaves). The data on the number of main applicants and dependents taking the Graduate Route is shown in the graph below.

Graduate Route Visas Granted According to Year and Applicant Type

Source: Immigration System Statistics

The number of students taking leave through the Graduate Route after the completion of their studies has been increasing year by year since 2020. The same is shown in the graph below. 

Source: https://www.gov.uk/ | Home Office

The above graph shows that the number of students receiving permission for extended stays in the UK has been increasing since 2021 (the year of implementation of the Graduate Scheme) and over half of those who graduated in the UK in 2023 received permission to stay after their studies.

The following reasons are suspected to be the cause of an increased number of both the total students leaving the student route (student visa) and the total students taking other leaves (including other leaves, work visa and graduate visa). 

• The COVID-19 pandemic,
• The introduction of the Graduate Route Visa (Post-study Work Visa in UK), and
• The restriction on the movement of EU Nationals.

Indian Nationals Taking the Graduate Route

Out of all the 213,250 graduate visas granted since 2021, 42% are Indian nationals. This accounts for the largest share of the post-study work visa being held by the Indian graduates in the UK. The top 5 contenders for the graduate visa are given below. 

Graduate Visa Holders Demographics

According to data, more than half of the total contenders entering the Graduate route are estimated to be in their mid to late 20s with most of them being between 24 to 29 years old. 

Other than that, 52% of the total graduate visa holders in 2023 were male and 48% female. 

Types of Courses Completed by Students Taking the Graduate Route

According to the Migrant Journey underlying datasets from the Home Office, 1,13,105 students in the UK entered the Graduate Route in 2023. Out of this number, 69% of students had studied courses lasting 1 year or less in the UK. The same data for 2021, 2022 and 2023 is shown in the graph below.

Number of Graduate Route Entrants by the Length of their Study Leave between 2021 to 2023

How Many Graduate Visa Holders Earn During 2023? |Work Trends

The information on employability and the earnings statistics of each Graduate Route migrant is analysed by linking the HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data to Home Office visa records. 

To chart out some conclusions on the working trends of the Graduate visa holders, both the aforementioned data have been analysed since the year of implementation of the Graduate Route, 2021. However, below is the conclusive work pattern of the Graduate route holders for the whole financial year starting from April 2022 to March 2023. 

Number of Months that the Graduate Visa Holders in the UK Worked During the Financial Year Ending in 2023

The above graph shows the number of months worked against the percentage of working graduate visa holders. The data shows that 73% of the Graduate visa holders have worked at some point (and 27% worked consistently through all 12 months) during the whole financial year ending in March 2023. However, the remaining 27% did not work at all.

Out of these 73% of these Graduate Route participants, 63% were not employed for the whole of the year. 

The following data shows that among Graduate visa holders who were employed during the financial year ending 2023, 62% started earning in the first month after receiving their visa. However, the proportion of graduates who started earning continued to decrease in the subsequent months.

Month in which the Graduate Visa Holders Started earning After Receiving their Graduate Visas

Other data shows that only up to 30% of the total graduates from each of the top 5 nationalities who have been granted the most post-study work visa worked for the whole year. 

So, the data in the table describes that most of the Indian Graduate Visa holders remained employed for at least a month or throughout the year.

How Much Do the Graduate Route Participants Earn? 

According to the HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data, the average monthly salary of the Graduate route participants rose from £1,227 in August 2021 to £1,937 in March 2023. While the average monthly cost of living in the UK comes to around £1,000, this growth in the average monthly salary shows that a decent life can be pursued by international student migrants in the UK. 

However, the average monthly income of the migrants is lesser than the general population in the UK, who may earn up to £300 more, monthly.

The report also concluded that the average total income of 73% of the total graduate visa holders who remain employed for at least 1 month for the financial year ending in 2023 was £17,815. However, of the top 5 nationalities granted a Graduate visa, the USA remained on top in earning the highest median salary for working at least one month in a year.

Types of Work Taken Up By the Graduates in 2023

Out of the total working graduates, the maximum percentage was found to be engaged in administrative and support roles (26%). The rest of them were found to be engaged in the following job sectors (in decreasing order) in the UK:

• Health and Social Work 
• Professional Scientific and Technical Work 
• Education
• Accommodation and Food Services 
• Wholesale and Retail: Repair of Motor Vehicles 
• Communication and Information 
• Finance and Insurance 
• Arts, Entertainment and Recreation 
• Other Service-based Activities 
• Other Sectors 
• Manufacturing
• Transportation and Storage 
• Real Estate 

Sector-wise Proportion of Graduate Visa Holders in Employment During the Financial Year Ending in 2023

The salary data for each of the above-taken jobs is given below.

Sector-wise Average Annual Earnings of the Graduate Visa Holders for Financial Year Ending in 2023

The earnings data has been taken from a range of Home Office case working systems and is matched with the HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data. 

Note: All data and figures in this article are sourced from Gov.UK.

This was all about the Graduate student journey in the UK and we read all about what students do after taking the graduate route and how much they earn. If you have any doubts, feel free to leave your query in the comments below.