One in four graduates will lose financially from going to university, IFS estimates

A quarter of UK graduates can expect to be financially worse off after going to university, especially those who take creative or performing arts degrees, according to new estimates by the Institute for Fiscal Studies . The research is based on the pay of students who graduated in the teeth of the global financial crisis in 2008. While the IFS projects that the majority will be £100,000 better off in lifetime pay thanks to their degree, about 25% might have done better without entering higher education once their likely pay, student loans and taxes are added up. Controversy has risen around university funding and student loans in England after the government increased the amount that future students will repay. Natan Ornadel, a research economist at the IFS and an author of the report, said that a degree remained a major financial boost for most graduates, compared with their potential pay with no degree but similar school results. “But this does not mean that everyone who goes to university will be financially better off as a result: we estimate around a quarter of graduates – and 40% of men with low prior attainment – end up worse off than they otherwise would have been,” Ornadel said. Much of the variation came from the careers that students choose after graduation, with those studying economics or medicine more likely to go on to highly paid jobs. …