Graduates of the typical agriculture and food course in the UK earn £31,500 five years after graduating, the 11th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. The best-paying, BSc Agriculture at the University of Reading, earns £37,500.
Graduates go into farm and estate management, agronomy, food manufacturing and technology, animal science and land-based businesses, as well as rural surveying and government agencies.
Graduates of the typical agriculture and food course earn £31,500 five years after graduating (£28,000 after 15 months), above the £31,500 median across all subjects and the 11th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. Behind that median, its 183 courses range from £19,500 to £47,500: the best-paying earns 1.5 times the typical course.
Many courses include an industry placement year, and agriculture and food science courses lead the table.
Data last updated · HESA Discover Uni
| Course | After 5 years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BSc Agriculture | £37,500 |
| 2 | Agri-Business Management | £34,500 |
| 3 | Food Science | £34,000 |
| 4 | Fitness, Nutrition and Health | £32,500 |
| 5 | Agricultural Engineering (with placement) | £32,000 |
| 6 | BSc (Hons) Agriculture | £31,000 |
| 7 | BSc (Hons) Agriculture | £30,000 |
| 8 | Animal Science | £29,500 |
| 9 | Forestry | £28,500 |
| 10 | Agriculture | £28,000 |
The best-paying course at each university, ranked by salary five years after graduating. Each figure is the median of each course's own median graduate salary (HESA Discover Uni). Salaries 15 months after graduating come from the Graduate Outcomes survey; three and five years on, from LEO tax data. Joint courses that HESA also files under another subject are left out of this list but appear in the chart below.
A median salary is one number standing in for hundreds of courses. This chart plots every course individually, so you can see the spread behind it: how tightly courses in a subject cluster together, or how far apart the best- and worst-paying ones sit.
Each dot is one course's own median graduate salary (not individual graduates' pay), from the HESA Discover Uni dataset. Courses with a cohort too small to report are excluded, and postgrad/top-up/alternate-entry courses are excluded site-wide. Figures compare courses, not people.
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Each dot is one course, positioned by its salary along the horizontal axis (never shifted by more than one dot-width). Vertical position means nothing. It only spreads dots apart so they don't overlap. Hover a dot for details, or click it to open that course's page.
| Course | Institution | Subject | Salary |
|---|
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Not counting joint courses, BSc Agriculture at the University of Reading, whose graduates earn a median £37,500 five years after graduating. Next are Agri-Business Management at Newcastle University (£34,500) and Food Science at the University of Leeds (£34,000).
Graduates of the typical agriculture and food course earn £28,000 15 months after graduating and £31,500 five years after graduating, 13% more than at 15 months. Across all its courses, joint ones included, salaries range from £19,500 to £47,500.
5 of the top 10 courses above ask for between BCC and AAB at A level. Many also require particular subjects, so check each course's entry requirements.
Yes, on average: it ranks 11th of the 21 subject areas we compare, with the typical course paying £31,500 five years after graduating against £31,500 across all subjects. Where you study matters too: the best-paying course earns 1.5 times the typical course.