Social scientists top of the graduate pile

Findings from the Campaign for Social Science has suggested that social science graduates are more likely to be in paid employment than arts or science graduates, according to their analysis of official data.

The report also noted that they are more likely to be in managerial or senior roles in comparison to their peers in other professions.

The University of Warwick’s social science graduates appear to have mixed fortunes in the job market with contrasting levels of success in the employment world for graduates from social science disciplines.

According to Unistats, 93 percent of Economics graduates are in a professional or managerial form of employment after the completion of their degree.

Warwick Economics graduates earn the highest starting salary of all other Warwick students, at £29,000.

76 percent of Politics graduates are in employment six months after the course, whilst 55 percent of Sociology graduates are in employment six months after the course.

It comes in the midst of growing concerns in academia that the impending three year funding freeze could have negative implications for sociology, history, economics and others.

The study which analysed official figures, found that 84 percent of social science graduates were in a job three and half years after university compared with 77 percent of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) graduates.

Professor James Wilsdon, who chairs the Campaign for Social Science, said: ‘’they had commissioned the research to investigate what is a fairly common stereotype that a social science degree is less useful in the labour market than a science degree.’’

“We ourselves were pleasantly surprised by the figures,” he said. “It’s not a huge difference, but it is a noticeable one.”

The study found that of social science graduates in employment, seven out of 10 were are in “professional” or “associate professional and technical” occupations.

A smaller proportion of social science graduates remained as students: 10 percent compared with 17 percent STEM students and 11 percent with arts and humanities degrees.

Dr Sarah Main, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering said:  “I’m a bit surprised. I don’t really understand the reasons for that turnaround,” she said.

Dr Main suggested the difference between the figures could be due to more scientists choosing to carry on their studies before taking a job.