Graduates of the typical computer science course in the UK earn £35,000 five years after graduating, the 7th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. The best-paying, Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, earns £88,500.
Computer science graduates go into software engineering, data science and AI, cyber security, IT consultancy and quantitative finance.
Graduates of the typical computer science course earn £35,000 five years after graduating (£29,000 after 15 months), above the £31,500 median across all subjects and the 7th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. Behind that median, its 1,339 courses range from £20,000 to £88,500: the best-paying earns 2.5 times the typical course.
Graduates of a few highly selective courses are hired by big tech firms and trading houses on salaries far above the subject's median, so where you study matters a great deal.
Data last updated · HESA Discover Uni
| Course | After 5 years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Computer Science | £88,500 |
| 2 | Computing (Software Engineering) | £84,500 |
| 3 | BEng Artificial Intelligence | £72,000 |
| 4 | Computer Science | £71,000 |
| 5 | Computer Science | £65,500 |
| 6 | Computer Science | £63,500 |
| 7 | Computer Science | £63,500 |
| 8 | Computer Science BSc | £60,000 |
| 9 | BSc Computer Science | £59,000 |
| 10 | Computer Science | £58,500 |
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, Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, whose graduates earn a median £88,500 five years after graduating. Next are Computing (Software Engineering) at Imperial College London (£84,500) and BEng Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bristol (£72,000).
Graduates of the typical computer science course earn £29,000 15 months after graduating and £35,000 five years after graduating, 21% more than at 15 months. Across all its courses, joint ones included, salaries range from £20,000 to £88,500.
The top 10 courses above ask for between AAA and A*A*A at A level. Many also require particular subjects, so check each course's entry requirements.
Yes, on average: it ranks 7th of the 21 subject areas we compare, with the typical course paying £35,000 five years after graduating against £31,500 across all subjects. Where you study matters too: the best-paying course earns 2.5 times the typical course.