Graduates: Employment

(asked on 27th February 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what employment and earnings data they hold for graduates in (1) fine art, (2) craft, (3) design, and (4) other creative industries, at (a) 15 months, (b) three years, (c) five years, and (d) 10 years, after graduation; and how that data are used in assessing the long-term economic contribution and student loan repayment profiles of those graduates.


Answered by
Baroness Smith of Malvern Portrait
Baroness Smith of Malvern
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 30th March 2026

The department holds employment and earnings data for graduates across all industries in various datasets and at multiple points after graduation. This includes the Graduate Outcomes survey at 15 months after graduation, and the higher education (HE) Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) publication data at up to 10 years after graduation.

The LEO data will be used alongside Labour Force Survey data to estimate the longer-term economic contribution of graduates in this year’s upcoming update of the Institute for Fiscal Studies report on the impact of undergraduate degrees on lifetime earnings. LEO data is also used alongside the Student Loans Company and HMRC data to inform the department’s forecasts of student loan repayments, as detailed in the methodology accompanying to the department’s published student loan forecasts. The forecasts and methodology are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2024-25.

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