Graduates of the typical art, design, music and drama course in the UK earn £25,000 five years after graduating, the 21st highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. The best-paying, Music at the University of Oxford, earns £35,500.
Graduates work in design, the creative industries, performing and teaching, and many work freelance or in portfolio careers.
Graduates of the typical art, design, music and drama course earn £25,000 five years after graduating (£24,000 after 15 months), below the £31,500 median across all subjects and the 21st highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. Behind that median, its 1,620 courses range from £18,000 to £36,000: the best-paying earns 1.4 times the typical course.
Design courses, graphic design especially, feature strongly among the best-paying, alongside music at the most selective universities.
Data last updated · HESA Discover Uni
| Course | After 5 years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Music | £35,500 |
| 2 | BA (Hons) Film | £35,000 |
| 3 | Graphic Design | £34,000 |
| 4 | BA (Hons) Design | £33,500 |
| 5 | Design for Sustainable Innovation BASc | £33,000 |
| 6 | BA Graphic Communication | £32,500 |
| 7 | Music | £31,000 |
| 8 | Art and Design | £31,000 |
| 9 | Music | £30,500 |
| 10 | Fashion BA (Hons) | £30,500 |
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.
Creative arts & design and performing arts courses pay the same, at £25,000 for the typical course five years after graduating.
| Specialism | After 5 years |
|---|---|
| Creative arts & design | £25,000 |
| Performing arts | £25,000 |
HESA's own subject groups. A joint course can count towards more than one.
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.
Loading course data…
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 |
|---|
← See the highest paying degrees across every subject
Not counting joint courses, Music at the University of Oxford, whose graduates earn a median £35,500 five years after graduating. Next are BA (Hons) Film at Bournemouth University (£35,000) and Graphic Design at Loughborough University (£34,000).
Graduates of the typical art, design, music and drama course earn £24,000 15 months after graduating and £25,000 five years after graduating, 4% more than at 15 months. Across all its courses, joint ones included, salaries range from £18,000 to £36,000.
9 of the top 10 courses above ask for between CCC and AAA at A level. Many also require particular subjects, so check each course's entry requirements.
Below average, though the best courses pay well: it ranks 21st of the 21 subject areas we compare, with the typical course paying £25,000 five years after graduating against £31,500 across all subjects. Where you study matters too: the best-paying course earns 1.4 times the typical course.