School leavers with two A-levels earn more than arts graduates

Graduates of arts courses would be better off if they had quit full-time education after A-levels rather than studied for a degree, research published yesterday indicates.

Graduates of arts courses would be better off if they had quit full-time education after A-levels rather than studied for a degree, research published yesterday indicates.

A study by researchers at Warwick and York universities shows students taking arts degree courses – which include history and English – could be anything between 2 and 10 per cent worse off financially than those who went into work with just two A-levels.

The findings, by Professor Ian Walker from the University of Warwick and Dr Yu Zhu from the University of Kent, will fuel opposition to government plans to allow universities to charge top-up fees on the ground that graduates can expect to earn £400,000 more than non-graduates, on average, during their lifetime.

"Feeling warm about literature doesn't pay the rent," Professor Walker said. "Maybe an average arts student knows he or she is not going to do very well. Maybe they do not. Education is a risk individuals take. We need to make sure people have the correct perceptions."

However, the survey did find that, on average, a graduate will earn £220,000 more than someone leaving education with just A-levels at the age of 18.

In addition, it found the extra return in earnings for graduates today was roughly the same as it was in the 1960s before the massive expansion of higher education.

Then, less than 10 per cent of the age cohort went to university compared with 43 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds today.

Law graduates benefit the most from a degree course with increased salaries of up to 30 per cent on average. Those with maths, economics or health degrees can also earn nearly 30 per cent more during their lifetime, the study shows.

However, language graduates are also near the bottom of the earnings league – with salaries of about just 5 per cent more than non-graduates.

Men who take education degrees – such as those training to become teachers – earn 6 per cent less than non-graduates. Women with education degrees end up earning slightly more (about 4 per cent on average) than non-graduate women.

The researchers say their findings show that the increased salaries most graduates can expect are not enough to provide a conclusive answer to the question of whether university education should or should not be subsidised.

"There is a significant variance in returns to individuals," it adds. This is largely as a result of the degree they choose.

Teachers' leaders argued that the findings added weight to their claims that a significant rise in salaries was necessary to offset shortages in key subject areas.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "It is a problem that the NUT has pointed to time and time again. However, no government in recent memory has been willing to address this problem in a way that will manage to solve the shortages we have in several key subject areas."

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "On average, we know that – across the board – graduates earn 50 per cent more than non-graduates over their lifetime careers. This survey shows that – even when compared to those who have got two A-levels – they are substantially better off."

In its recent White Paper on higher education, the Government recommended that universities should be allowed to charge up to £3,000 a year in fees for students from 2006.

The research, published in yesterday's Labour Market Trends by the Government's statistical service, is based on a study of 10,000 men and a similar number of women.

¿ Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, committed his party yesterday to abolishing a planned access regulator who would rule on whether universities had done enough to recruit working-class students to allow them to charge top-up fees.

He also said the Tories would also abolish quotas for the number of students from less well-off homes. "If our universities are not able to choose students on purely academic grounds, their academic integrity will be compromised," he said: