Graduates of the typical medicine and dentistry course in the UK earn £52,500 five years after graduating, the highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. The best-paying, Dentistry at the University of Dundee, earns £56,500.
Almost every graduate goes straight into a training post as a junior doctor or dentist, mostly in the NHS, and on from there into specialty training, general practice or dental practice.
Graduates of the typical medicine and dentistry course earn £52,500 five years after graduating (£37,000 after 15 months), above the £31,500 median across all subjects and the 1st highest of the 21 subject areas we compare. Behind that median, its 81 courses range from £32,000 to £56,500: the best-paying earns 1.1 times the typical course.
Pay follows national NHS pay scales that rise with each year of training, which is why salaries climb so steeply between 15 months and five years after graduating.
Data last updated · HESA Discover Uni
| Course | After 5 years | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dentistry | £56,500 |
| 2 | Medicine | £55,000 |
| 3 | Medicine | £55,000 |
| 4 | Medicine | £54,500 |
| 5 | Dentistry | £54,000 |
| 6 | Cardiac Physiology (Healthcare Science) | £53,500 |
| 7 | Medicine MBBS | £53,500 |
| 8 | Clinical Sciences BSc | £53,500 |
| 9 | Extended Medical Degree Programme | £53,500 |
| 10 | Medicine and Surgery | £53,000 |
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 |
|---|
← See the highest paying degrees across every subject
Not counting joint courses, Dentistry at the University of Dundee, whose graduates earn a median £56,500 five years after graduating. Next are Medicine at the University of Glasgow (£55,000) and Medicine at the University of Aberdeen (£55,000).
Graduates of the typical medicine and dentistry course earn £37,000 15 months after graduating and £52,500 five years after graduating, 42% more than at 15 months. Across all its courses, joint ones included, salaries range from £32,000 to £56,500.
9 of the top 10 courses above ask for between ABB and A*A*A at A level. Many also require particular subjects, so check each course's entry requirements.
Yes, on average: it ranks 1st of the 21 subject areas we compare, with the typical course paying £52,500 five years after graduating against £31,500 across all subjects. Where you study matters too: the best-paying course earns 1.1 times the typical course.