Graduates of the typical engineering course in the UK earn £38,500 five years after graduating, the 5th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. The best-paying, Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, earns £60,500.
Engineering graduates mostly become engineers, in manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, energy, construction and defence, while many others move into finance, consulting and software.
Graduates of the typical engineering course earn £38,500 five years after graduating (£31,500 after 15 months), above the £31,500 median across all subjects and the 5th highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. Behind that median, its 1,662 courses range from £22,500 to £65,500: the best-paying earns 1.7 times the typical course.
Accredited courses lead towards chartered status, and the best-paying courses are mostly chemical, aerospace and general engineering at the most selective universities.
Data last updated · HESA Discover Uni
| Course | After 5 years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemical Engineering | £60,500 |
| 2 | Engineering Science | £60,500 |
| 3 | Digital and Technology Solutions | £56,000 |
| 4 | Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology | £55,500 |
| 5 | Astronautics and Space Engineering BEng (Hons) | £55,000 |
| 6 | Cyber Security | £53,500 |
| 7 | Biochemical Engineering | £51,500 |
| 8 | Aeronautics and Astronautics / Spacecraft Engineering | £50,000 |
| 9 | BEng (Hons) Motorsport and Automotive Engineering | £49,500 |
| 10 | Mechanical Engineering with Manufacturing and Management | £49,500 |
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.
Engineering courses pay the most, at £39,000 for the typical course five years after graduating, and materials & technology the least, at £35,750.
| Specialism | After 5 years |
|---|---|
| Engineering | £39,000 |
| Materials & technology | £35,750 |
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.
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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 |
|---|
← See the highest paying degrees across every subject
Not counting joint courses, Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, whose graduates earn a median £60,500 five years after graduating. Next are Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (£60,500) and Digital and Technology Solutions at the University of Greenwich (£56,000).
Graduates of the typical engineering course earn £31,500 15 months after graduating and £38,500 five years after graduating, 22% more than at 15 months. Across all its courses, joint ones included, salaries range from £22,500 to £65,500.
9 of the top 10 courses above ask for between CDD and A*A*A at A level. Many also require particular subjects, so check each course's entry requirements.
Yes, on average: it ranks 5th of the 21 subject areas we compare, with the typical course paying £38,500 five years after graduating against £31,500 across all subjects. Where you study matters too: the best-paying course earns 1.7 times the typical course.